Eating For Health

Who doesn’t enjoy some sour dough bread?   In California we had some great sour dough bread.   This past June, we were on a Viking cruise and many countries had some delicious sour dough bread.   Healthy bread is usually whole grain.   There are some whole grain sour dough breads but mostly sour dough is made from white flour.   Whether made from white flour or whole wheat flour, are there any health benefits to enjoying some delicious sour dough bread? Why is it called sour dough bread? Instead of relying on baker’s yeast to raise the dough, sour dough bread uses a “ starter ” of a living microbes plus flour and water.     This is called “wild” yeast which contains some lactic acid that gives sourdough its tangy taste.     Sour dough doesn’t use the commercial baker’s yeast used to make regular bread. This is certainly not a new technique for bread making as it dates back to 1500 BC in ancient Egypt .    What nut...

We recently got back from a wonderful trip to Europe.   What food is enjoyed every day, many times a day in Europe?   Bread.   All kinds of bread from delicious croissants in France to many different kinds of breads in Germany and Netherlands.   One morning in France, we talked to a woman walking her dog and later saw her with a bag from a bakery and she held it up and said, “My breakfast”.   We found the bakery she had gone to and went in and the shelves were half empty.   Puzzled the store clerk said they had sold out all those baked goods that morning.   We bought a baked roll and the store clerk gave us a fresh croissant.   It was one of the best croissants I had ever eaten.   Why does the bread in Europe seem so good compared to the bread we eat in the USA?   One reason is that many of the preservatives used in breads made in the US are banned in Europe.   Europeans buy their bread fresh every day because their bread has no pre...

The USA is well known for its safe food supply.   But there are foods and ingredients in the USA that are banned in other countries.   Each country and the European Union have their own food standards so what can be sold in one country may be banned for sale in another country.    Go on a trip to another country and you will see American food everywhere.   In France, you can easily stop at a McDonald’s for their coffee or food.   Our fast food restaurants seem to populate the globe.   But some foods you can easily buy in the USA are not sold in some other countries.   Or, there are some ingredients you can find on food labels in the USA but not in some countries.   What are some of these ingredients and what countries ban them?      1.     Artificial Food Dyes :     Many candies and other foods are colorful because of artificial food dyes.   M&M’s – one of my favorite snacks, esp...