Already twice this week I found myself favouring a thosai breakfast at the local mamak joint instead of in the comforts of my own home. Seems as though a paradigm has shifted within me, an invisible mental decision, there’s no turning back. I know of people who do not consume bread, fully aware of health risks that comes with its consumption. Recently, a meeting with an ayurvedic consultant proposing that I should do the same, had propelled me to investigate further.
Being a bread lover through and through, was it possible for me to fully give it up? During university days, purchasing a loaf of freshly baked sourdough from Tresherman’s was a cherished and necessary activity. Something about being in a room where the aroma of fresh bread. As you take a deep breath, it almost feels life in that moment could be beautiful.
I’m also one of those who judges a restaurant based on how well their loaves are made. More often than not it correlates positively with their food quality. Also up till a few months ago, my kitchen adventures (and mishaps) all revolved around baking a perfect loaf. And now, I’m told that these have been harmful to my wellbeing all this time?
The bulk of bread’s danger comes from commercially produced bread. In order to preserve its perceived freshness, its perfect colour and ‘ideal’ texture, artificially produced ingredients such as enzymes, additives, colouring and texturizers have to be included. On top of these, the ‘vitamin-enriched’ bleached wheat flour had gone through many processes in order to look so white and pure to us. Herein lies another health hazard. Finally, if you google up some information of wheat farming, you’ll find that a large proportion of the crops have been genetically modified.
So what choices are we left with? In an ideal world, where each and everyone of you would enjoy kneading a loaf, where time is ample and permitting, we’d be baking fresh loafs of sourdough bread made with unbleached wheat flour daily.
Then comes the question of how far can we take precautions to ensure a healthy, disease free life. Up till the point where we sacrifice little pleasures like savouring a fresh slice of buttered baguette? Which path we take now is up to ourselves to decide, an informed decision is always better than an uninformed one.
As I eagerly browse through this month’s British Vogue, expecting to see what’s in store this season, I’m faced with an obituary of its 49-year old health editor, Deborah Hutton. A few months ago, she said this in her article sharing how she discovered her lung cancer at its final stage:
“We need to have the humility to recognise that there are no prizes, certainly no guarantees, for good behaviour … health is not a given, or even, sadly, an earned.”