The slice is right

Bread has long endured a bad rap among the carb-conscious crowd: After all, white bread has a glycemic index of a hundred--the highest that any food can have. But health buffs need not cut back on their favorite sandwiches, as the so-called ‘functional breads’ promise to drop dress sizes while filling dietary gaps.

Save for German and French markets, fortified baked goods had been largely ignored up until the global health-conscious craze hit. But as their popularity grew, so has the boldness of food chemists in finding more ingredients to throw into the nutritional bread mix.

Whole wheat

A slice of whole wheat bread may make all the difference to one’s ticker. Tufts University researchers, in a study published last year in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that adults who replaced the refined grains in their diet with whole grains lowered their Visceral Adipose Tissue (VAT) fat--the kind linked to heart disease risk and type-2 diabetes--by 10%. Scientists at the University of Aberdeen agree, noting that the benefits derived from whole grain foods can mimic some of the intended effect of blood pressure-lowering drugs.

Lupin-based

Giving the same cardiovascular lift is lupin, one of the main areas of study at Western Australia’s Centre for Food and Genomic Medicine (CFGM), whose staff is trying to find solutions for the diabetes and obesity crises, or ‘diabesity’. Its principal research fellow, Dr. Jonathan Hodgson, in an article released by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that lupin kernel flour is a rich source of both protein and dietary fiber.Widely cultivated in Australia, lupin grain, when used as a substitute for wheat flour, reduces carbohydrate content in baked goods. Older research has found that lupin bread is also more filling than white bread, thus helping lower one’s food intake.

Soy-Almond

Food scientist Dr. Yael Vodovotz once helped concoct a soy-laden sandwich bread that keeps cholesterol in check. The loaf has since earned enough recognition for commercial bakeries to consider producing it in large quantities, but these days, Dr. Vodovotz is looking to tweak the same recipe into one which can help prevent prostate cancer, one of the most prevalent cancers in the world.Also looking to make an alteration are medical and food science researchers at Ohio State University, who are currently experimenting with soy-almond as a potential bread ingredient. Isoflavone-rich soy helps manage cholesterol and inhibit certain hormone-dependent cancers, but almonds contain an enzyme that could make the soybean compound four times more absorbable, aside from improving the loaf’s taste and smell.

Ginger-Enriched

The spice that treats chronic inflammatory conditions is also jumping into the bread mix these days. As Dr. Federica Balestra of the University of Bologna in Italy discovered, bread formulations with 3% ginger powder have twice the antioxidants of typical loaves. But before it can be released as a proper recipe, closer investigation is being done on the ginger-fortified bread’s effects on the digestive system.

Seaweed

In a three-year project backed by the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), a team from the University of Newcastle found that bread made with alginate, a natural fibre found in sea kelp and commonly used as a food thickener and stabilizer, has effects that could trump traditional weight-loss tactics.Initial findings report that the kelp-derived fiber’s capacity for weight management surpasses that of similar over-the-counter solutions: if added to bread and other food products, it could reduce fat digestion in the body by as much as 75%. Blind taste tests revealed that alginate-enriched bread ranked ahead of the everyday white loaf when it came to richness and texture.

http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?title=The slice is right&id=25603

http://www.depsyl.com/

http://back2basicnutrition.com/

http://bionutritionalresearch.olhblogspace.com/