If you’re the person who only ever orders or buys whole-grain bread — because white bread has been rebranded as The Enemy — you might want to listen closely: Modernist Bread author-slash-kooky-food-genius Nathan Myhrvold is asking us to reconsider our relationship to whole-grain bread.
In fact, his bold claim is this:
“If you made a list of what everybody knows to be true about nutrition, one of those things would be that whole-grain breads are both more nutritious and better for you, health-wise… And, unfortunately, there’s no evidence of either one, and kind of evidence to the contrary.”
Are you wondering, “Wait a minute — who is this guy?!” If you are, you’re not alone. We’re offended at the thought of giving up whole-grain ourselves, but here’s what you should know: Myhrvold’s got an interesting background, since he formerly worked at Microsoft as their chief technology officer.
Over the past 15 years, though, he’s been making big scientific moves in the culinary world.
He and his team published Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, which is a 2,438-page history of cuisine — explored over six volumes. They also published Modernist Bread, another five-volume tome all about bread. The description says,
“Created by a team of scientists, chefs, editors, and writers, these volumes explore research spanning the field of culinary science, with careful attention to practicality and applicability in the kitchen.”
If nearly 2,500 pages of geeky, obsessive food research fails to prove his passion, we’re not sure what will. The Modernist Cuisine team, put together by Myhrvold himself, studies food and performs experiments in science-based cooking. In short, these folks know what they’re talking about and have the research to back up their craft.
Back to the whole-grain bread issue: Myhrvold’s team made a sad discovery, which is that whole-grain wheat bread really isn’t the best thing since sliced bread (har-har).
“If you look on a nutrient-by-nutrient basis, there’s a couple things that [wheat bread] would be slightly better on… but they’re generally not important in the sense that they’re not things most people run a deficit of.”
What he’s referencing are a few vitamins and minerals which, by the sounds of it, most of us are generally not lacking.
Other than that, a darker slice of bread doesn’t promise the wonders we’ve been taught it does.
To make things more complicated, it seems as though our bodies aren’t really absorbing the grain’s vitamins and minerals, anyway:
“Human digestion doesn’t break down [whole wheat] in the same way that a chemical analysis does,” Myhrvold explained.
More so, the bran in whole grain only has a small effect on blood glucose (for those wondering about blood sugar spikes).
In a sense, you may think you’re eating “better bread,” but you’re not getting much from it.
So, what’s to be done?
You can start by buying fresh bread with minimal ingredients — and only those that you can pronounce. Anything else is an additive or a chemical you don’t want. You can also bake your own bread, which may prove difficult but will be healthier than anything stocked on shelves.
In fact, the Modern Bread Instagram account is one that celebrates and indulges in bread, and bread recipes of all kinds. You can start there:
Before making bread, you might also want to check out Modern Bread’s podcast, Modern Breadcrumbs:
Maybe you’ll want to try this “no-nonsense rye loaf,” a Germany bread called vollkornbrot. Yum.
This Sablee Brioche recipe, out of Modernist Bread, is apparently pretty easy to make. Plus, it looks extremely delish.
We know the entire point is to learn about bread, but this account only serves to make us hungry. Look at this challah bread:
Did you know ciabatta bread is one of the most hydrated breads? We didn’t either.
And do you know what the three types of yeast are? Now you do:
Besides bread, the account’s got a big focus on foodie culture in general.
Here’s Myhrvold with Anthony Bourdain:
It’s also got some satisfyingly interesting bits about food photography.
Here’s a tomato caught exploding in slow motion — because, why not?
And here’s a bread statue (bread sculpture?) they’ve nicknamed Bread Pitt: “Our tribute to the 16th-century Italian painter, Giuseppe Arcimboldo.”
Whatever your interest in baking or food, if you’ve got even the slightest interest in getting deep about yeast or deionized water or osmosis or any bread ever, Modern Bread is your friend.
Yum.
