A few remarks about bread

The preparation of flour, cereals and other products from whole grains has been widely used since ancient times and retains its importance to the present day. Whole grain bread has long been one of the most commonly consumed foods in various countries, particularly in Ukraine. Whole grain flour has a number of advantages that can be increased by using modern technology. However, today bread made from refined grade flour dominates. The latter differs significantly from flour obtained from whole grains. Thus, the composition of grade flour excludes the outer shells of the grain, the germ and shield, as well as the surface layer of the endosperm - the aleurone layer. As can be seen from the table, when obtaining high-grade flour, about 20-30% of the grain mass is lost. It should be noted that a large number of valuable food products go into the bran, including vitamins and lipids, containing mainly unsaturated fatty acids necessary for nutrition, as well as mineral salts and dietary fiber. It is especially significant that about 30% of the most complete proteins go into the bran. The bran itself, both wheat and rye, contains a number of valuable food components, including dietary fiber, proteins, fats, etc.

Chemical composition of wheat and rye bran (according to: Dudkin et al., 1988, with changes)

Composition of bran	Amount of the corresponding substance in bran (% of absolutely dry matter)
	Wheat bran	Rye bran
Hemicellulose	26.60	35.31
Cellulose	8.80	4.60
Lignin	9.90	9.82
Sum of dietary fiber polysaccharides + lignin	45.30	49.73
Protein (N 6x25)	14.80	17.02
Fats	3.22	3.26
Ash	5.95	5.64
Starch	23.01	21,20

Further improvement of bread properties and nutritional quality (especially in terms of complete proteins) can be achieved in several additional ways. In particular, in Great Britain and a number of other countries this is achieved by adding 2-6% skim milk powder to the flour of the main commercial grades. This dairy product consists of approximately 60% easily digestible complete proteins of animal origin, which, together with the gluten proteins of bread, mutually enrich each other. The quality of bread can also be improved by adding some other generally available agricultural products, released as separate food additives.

A new type of bread with 3% dietary fiber has recently been developed. The total amount of dietary fiber in this bread is almost 1.6 times higher than in regular bread, and the caloric content is 6% lower. At the same time, the new type of bread contains 1.5% pectin, which is absent in regular bread.

It is important that the use of dietary fiber has an economic effect, since the consumption of wheat flour is reduced. Even more importantly, the consumption of ballast-rich bread increases the daily intake of dietary fiber with food and more fully satisfies the human need for it.

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Conclusions and comments

It should be noted that food consumption is not only a way of introducing necessary building and energy materials into our body. It is also a way of receiving various foreign substances, sometimes harmful or even very harmful, which accumulate in food products during the long path of their production. In some cases, attempts to increase the yield by any means lead to the entry of excessive amounts of fertilizers into the soil, for example nitrogen fertilizers, and to the accumulation of toxins and industrial pollutants in food products. Meanwhile, at the end of the trophic chain is a person, for whom an increase in the concentration of nitrates in food is fraught with the risk of developing a number of diseases, including malignant tumors. At the same time, great achievements in obtaining high yields based on highly cultural agriculture are well known. It has long-standing and remarkable production and scientific traditions in our country.

Finally, nutrition is also an essential element of relaxation, a kind of time-out in a person's busy life, overflowing with various stresses. Favorable, calm conditions of nutrition are necessary both for normal assimilation of food and for maintaining a normal rhythm of life. This should be kept in mind when organizing not only all forms of public, but also home nutrition.

The latter is significant not only at the present time, but will be even more significant in the future as man's technological power and his art of constructing food products, which until now was considered the property of nature, increase. In addition, the concept of adequate nutrition has a general philosophical meaning, since the problem of ideal food and ideal nutrition, which is discussed in the next chapter, should be analyzed precisely from this position.

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