Is it true that hot bread is harmful?

The fear is common that hot pastries are a danger to the gastrointestinal tract. We decided to check if such a fear has scientific justifications.

That you can’t eat hot baking, Report Federal Russian Media, sites About health and medicine, Lifestail-media, information and sports portals Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan And Ukraine, sites shopsselling kitchen utensils. The problem of the potential danger of hot bread Interested users services questions and answers and forums. Among the speakers telling the media about potential harm from fresh pastries, there are as popular Representatives non -traditional medicine, and some nutritionists, and also amateur researchers.

Archaeological excavations carried out in 2018 in Jordan, testify The fact that humanity began to bake bread from cereals more than 14,400 years ago, during the epipaleolith, that is, 4000 years before the appearance of agriculture. Before this discovery, it was believed that at first people moved to a settled lifestyle, mastered the cultivation of cereals and only then learned to cook pastries. However, the discovery of a piece of bread and bread crumbs in the culture of Natufian hunter-gatherers has refuted this theory. It turns out that first people collected wild plants and baked bread from them, and only then to facilitate their work learned to grow them in the household.

Ancient pastries consisted mainly of two ground plants: Triticum Boeoeticum (cultural one -mirror, the type of cereals from a genus of wheat) and Bolboschoenus Glaucus (corms, a genus of perennial herbs of the sedge family), and also contained traces of barley and oats. From such a prototype of flour, ancient people received an elastic dough, which they then baked, putting on the walls of fireplaces - cakes in a tandoor are now being prepared in a similar way. 

Bread is likely Played An important role in ancient cultures. For baking, it was necessary to collect the necessary plants, remove the husk, grind them into flour and then knead the dough. Such a product was most likely served on special occasions and only important guests. Bread from a variety of cereals Distributed In the culture of almost any people and plays a ritual role. His Serve As a greeting, they are included in the marriage ceremony, use in funeral rites.

However, this important product is not worth it to be hot. All warnings about its harm do not have a scientific basis. We’ll deal with everyone in turn.

Firstly, you do not need to be afraid of the "living" yeast that can occupy our digestive tract. Media scarethat the yeast in fresh bread is “so active that, even having got into the stomach, they continue to work actively and completely destroy all the beneficial bacteria that is inside. In other words, they are very quickly destroyed by the useful microflora of the stomach. A leap of acidity immediately occurs, which leads to the rapid formation of gastritis. ” However, this fear is unfounded. Yeast species Saccharmyces cerevisiae (bakery yeast) Dying After only 1 min. at a temperature of 57.5 ° C and after 0.1 minutes. at a temperature of 62 ° C. However, at this temperature, the bread cannot be baked. Although the recipes vary, baking requires much higher temperatures - industrial stoves Work at 260 ° C and higher, and for home baking the oven need to Heat at least to 180 ° C. In such conditions, yeast will die almost instantly, and they do not colonize the digestive tract.

The second danger, as claim Media And Internet users, Consistent The fact that hot baking is the human body To digest Not able to: "In the stomach, the hot flour is not digested, but turns into the so -called food lump." At the same time, the belief that fresh bread is not digested is quite old. Back in the XVIII century, English doctors warned: “Any bread made of grain is never good until it cools completely. Hot bread is extremely dangerous, it swims in the stomach and stimulates the production of phlegm. ” Then a humoral theory dominated in medicine. According to it, the imbalance of four liquids (blood, phlegm, black and yellow bile) in the body causes certain diseases. The mentioned phlegm, or mucus, according to this idea, was responsible for the emergence of influenza, cold and cough. However, today the humoral theory is considered outdated, and in no case should I rely on it. Sylvester Graham, American nutritionist at the beginning of the 19th century, I thoughtthat only the bread that cools at least 12 hours is safe. He believed that all diseases occur due to hypermostation of certain organs. Graham vinyl fresh bread in the occurrence of caries and stomach disorders, as well as the appearance of unclean thoughts and desires to engage in masturbation, which, according to his teaching, led to blindness and premature death. To save people from such temptations, the nutritionist developed an alternative to bread - dry and tasteless crackers. However, his confidence that hot bread increases the desire for self -satisfaction is not confirmed by any scientific data.

In the middle of the 19th century, Dr. William Bomont for eight years Watching Behind the patient with a gastric fistula - a hole on the front wall of the abdomen, which occurred after a bullet wound. During this time, he conducted 238 experiments related to digestion. In particular, his ward Alexis Saint-Martin ate various foods, and the doctor measured the time required to digest it. Hot toast with butter and coffee, according to his observations, Digested Record 4 hours 15 min. And caused the patient discomfort and heaviness in the stomach. From this, Bomont concluded that it is better to consume bread at room temperature. In 1858 he He wrote: “Hot bread is never digested. Keep this in mind, readers, if you are used to eating tea or warm bread that looks so appetizing on your table during breakfast. After prolonged somersaulting in the stomach, he will begin to wander and ultimately leaves the stomach as an undesirable tenant of this delicate organ, but never digested, never turns into a suitable nutrition for the body. This is the right road to indigestion. The above is the complete truth, as it was repeatedly proved by the actual observation. ”

In fresh pastries, particles starched from flour are foured with water (hence his slightly sticky texture). As the water evaporates, it turns into steady starch. The first is more easily absorbed by the body, since sugar is more accessible from it. Such food is faster Raises The level of insulin, which can stimulate appetite and contribute to weight gain. Sustainable starch is digested longer, it is also more difficult for our cells to absorb the sugar contained in it, that is, stale bread causes a smaller surge of insulin. In 2008, British scientists AnalyzedHow the use of white bread of various temperatures affects the production of insulin. Ten healthy volunteers participated in the experiment. They ate a portion (50 g) of different bread, home or store, in one of the four types:

• fresh;
• frozen immediately after cooking, and then defrosted at room temperature;
• fresh, fried in the toaster;
• Frozen immediately after cooking, thawed at room temperature, and then fried in a toaster.

From home bread, the greatest increase in blood glucose caused fresh, the peak was 45 minutes after consumption. Two types were in second place at once: frozen immediately after cooking, and then thawed at room temperature and fresh, fried in the toaster. Finally, frozen immediately after cooking, thawed at room temperature, and then fried in the toaster caused the smallest leap of glucose in the blood. However, the difference was only 1 mmol/l, and the effect lasted a little more than 1.5 hours. In the case of store bread, the fresh was again in the first place, but the peak of glucose in the blood was about the first half hour after consumption. Both fried pieces had a smallest effect on glucose levels. The effect of use was also very short. From the point of view of controlling the blood sugar level, fresh pastries are the least useful, that is, people with diabetes are better to eat fried bread, but there is most likely not a significant difference for healthy people. At the same time, this experiment shows: to fear that hot pastries are not digested, it makes no sense, otherwise there would be no absorption of nutrients and the level of glucose would remain unchanged.

The only category of people to whom the use of both freshly baked and cooled bread can be contraindicated is patients with celiac disease, that is, intolerance to gluten. However, for them there are Exceptions - For example, bread from corn or rice flour. When using gluten, people with celiac disease will experience symptoms of indigestion. Perhaps Dr. Beaumont as a patient got a person with this diagnosis, therefore his observations were distorted.

Thus, there is no danger of enjoying a delicious crust of freshly baked bread, a piece of hot pizza or the pies just removed from the oven, without waiting for these products to cooled to room temperature. The yeast is almost instantly dies at a temperature of just above 60 ° C and do not affect the gastrointestinal tract. And the beliefs of the dangers of hot bread were popular back in the 18th century, but there are no evidence that the human body can digest such food.

Image on the cover: Image by Enow from Pixabay

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