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I don't mean to fear-monger, but at least I can read and mentally visualize all of the ingredients in some supermarket breads. See here: http://www.womenandweight.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/pep... I don't know what any of these are: Ammonium Sulfate, Ammonium Chloride, Dough Conditioners (May Contain One or More of: Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, DATEM, Ascorbic Acid, Azodicarbonamide, Mono and Diglycerides, Ethoxylated Monoglycerides, Monocalcium Phosphate, Enzymes, Guar Gum, Calcium Peroxide), Sorbic Acid (Preservative), Calcium Propionate and/or Sodium Propionate (Preservatives) Please note, I'm not trying to go all "dihydrogen monoxide" here, because I do know and understand that modern food, and as a result modern global health, processes rely on chemicals with names like the above ingredients. Also, maybe more viscerally, I'd wager that the McDonald's bun is one of those food items that has an unrefrigerated shelf life approaching infinity. (/s?). To think that something that even bacteria and molds won't be able to eat and break down is going to enter my body as sustenance...that's a little unsettling. At least with the supermarket bread I've posted, it probably won't last more than a week or two on the kitchen counter. In my uneducated opinion, that probably means that things like that won't linger around in my body too long to cause any lasting impacts, good or bad. |
Now let's see what's in the bread at Panera, or the bun at Five Guys or Shake Shack, or the tortilla at Chipotle. If you're expecting artisan bread baked early that morning by a master chef, you're going to be sorely disappointed.
Here's Chipotle's large tortilla ingredients:
Flour, Water, Organic Whole Wheat Flour, Non-GMO Canola Oil, Salt, Non-GMO Baking Soda (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate), Wheat Bran, Fumaric Acid , Calcium Propionate , Sorbic Acid , Sodium Metabisulfite.
And how about the ciabatta bread that Panera uses in their sandwiches?
Unbleached enriched wheat flour (flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, country base (natural wheat sour, salt, rye flour, wheat gluten, malted barley flour, sunflower lecithin, ascorbic acid, enzymes), olive oil blend (extra virgin olive oil, canola oil), natural base (calcium diphosphate, malted barley flour, dextrose, distilled monoglycerides, rye flour, sunflower lecithin, wheat flour, enzymes, ascorbic acid), yeast (yeast, sorbitan monostearate, ascorbic acid)
Five Guys is, um, pretty open too. I wonder what the "secondary" ingredients are:
Our bread is a proprietary recipe. The primary ingredients are: Water, Salt, Sugar, Vegetable Shorting (Contains: Soy), Milk, Eggs, Bleached Bread Flour, Yeast, Sesame Seeds