The danger in your bread!

How do you like this for your breakfast? A dough made of flour, sugar and salt with some chemicals used for making plastic deep fried in a fat that is classified trans fat? Can you ever imagine eating it everyday thinking of the dangers it can pose to your health? Now how about eating the same in a different form- as a humble slice of bread bought from the supermarket near you? I have something to share and I hope it is of some use to you:

Most of the bread that you buy from your supermarkets have 'shortening' and 'bread improver' as ingredients which give you the melt in the mouth taste. Here are some facts about the shortening and the chemical treatment your bread goes through before hitting the shelves of the supermarkets:

• Oils like - cottonseed, sunflower, soybean are passed through a chemical process which results in hydrogenation that results in fats or shortening that are used in food products to give it extra shelf life and that melt in the mouth taste
• This the trans fat or the very, very bad fat, the consumption of which would increase the risk of coronary artery disease and also cancer
• Most of the store bought cookies (especially Oreo), chocolates, cakes, ready made icing, noodles, soups have trans fat and consuming one of these on a daily basis can put you at a great danger.
• 'Bread improver' or flour treatment agents are the additives added to the dough to get the desired end product. 
• Remember that other bleaching agents, chemicals like azodicarbonamide are also used in your bread, which is typically used in the production of foamed plastics. Read the wikipedia articles here and here to know more.  

While bread is almost a staple in most of the households here, it is such a shock to think that I didn't find a single brand of bread that didn't have shortening as one of the ingredients! The worst part was even the healthier looking brown breads and multi grain breads are no exception! Now when I tell my people not to eat bread, they think I am being a little 'too much' on eating, but come on, we cannot let heart disease and cancer creep into our lives just because of our careless attitude.

To prove my point, here are some of the pictures that I took at the bakery section of a very famous hypermarket in Dubai:

Wheat flour, Salt, Yeast, Vegetable Shortening, Bread Improver, Water!

Flour, Water, Sugar, Salt, Instant Yeast, Skimmed milk powder, Sodium propionate, Bread improver, Vegetable Shortening

Flour, Yeast,Sugar, Salt, Veg Shortening, Bread Improver, Milk Powder, Water

It is time to be careful, and it is time we keep away these unhealthy stuffs away from our kitchen! What do you think? Do you really want to eat the same chemical that goes into your plastic everyday for breakfast? Think, reflect and act!

For more information, have a look at these links:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/362698-is-vegetable-shortening-a-trans-fat/

http://www.ehow.com/facts_6937727_hydrogenated-vegetable-shortening_.html

http://www.bantransfats.com/whatnottoeat.html