Just how bad is British (Chorleywood) bread for you?

At the weekend we returned from two weeks in Italy, so had not eaten any UK bread for that period but had eaten the local Italian bread. I had two slices of Hovis (Granary!) for my breakfast on Monday and felt distinctly bloated and weirdly hungry a while after. Kind of thought Granary was ok but turns out it’s all crap.

Just how bad is our bread?

This guy sums up British bread….

https://zoe.com/learn/podcast-can-bread-be-healthy

From memory, bread like Hovis is full of sugar and various levels of crap that aren’t particularly good for you.

Pretty Bad?

Anything that claims to be bread, and yet lasts as ‘fresh’ as it does, can’t be great for your gut.

Edit was going to make the comment about its sugar content. Didn’t the Irish courts want to re-label Subways bread as cake? Or is that an urban legend

Just mass produced cake without the flavour, innit.

Someone said to me recently, you should judge a country based on its attitude to bread.

If that’s the case Germany wins hands down.

Bäckerei Pfister in and around Munich FTW.

Just how bad is our bread?

British bread is great! But you need to get it from an actual baker, not just buy supermarket shite. Costs about £4 a loaf here (but that means you eat less of it which is probably a good thing!)

Or just make it yourself once a week, it’s not rocket science.

Yes I visit the baker on my daily visit to the greengrocer, butcher and blacksmith…. Look, surely the reason we eat bread that comes in a packet that lasts for ages is that most of us are too busy for all this, especially with two parents working, commuting, getting the kids to school etc.

Obviously on holiday, you’re not at work so you’ve got time for that.

Some of the bread I make is halfway to being cake, and the family love it.  Wholemeal rye  spelt and wheat with molasses and malt extract, mmmmm.

Yes I visit the baker on my daily visit to the greengrocer, butcher and blacksmith…. Look, surely the reason we eat bread that comes in a packet that lasts for ages is that most of us are too busy for all this

depends how much you value you put on eating bread that tastes nice though doesn’t it? Sounds like you’ve given up on life tbh and just content to trudge your way towards the grave 🙂

Is it normal to rip the inside out of British batton type bread and only eat the crusts.

I even do it with cobs now.

Sliced bread is ok with chips or crisps

Proper French bread however is completely different story. Yom yom

Ah but if you get fancy pants bread it’ll ruin a bacon sarnie or chip butty which demand the fluffy nothingness of cheap white supermarket bread. A sourdough bacon sarnie can get in the sea.

Obviously on holiday, you’re not at work so you’ve got time for that.

On holiday, bought some of the bread at the supermarket as part of a normal food shop similar to being at home. The bread doesn’t last as long though, so regular purchases are needed.

Also what about locals with the commitments you mention? The small local shops in Italy open when you need them, i.e. first thing in the morning, then from around 4pm to 7pm.

Had the same thought myself. Need to find out what they make that wholemeal that looks like rye bread with. Tasted great.

Walking round a Tesco in Prague was depressing. No cereal aisles filled with shite breakfast bars, no plastic packaging on every single bit of fruit and veg, loads of fresh bread, hardly any ready meals, tinned section near non-existent barring straight veg and such.

Yes I visit the baker on my daily visit to the greengrocer, butcher and blacksmith…. Look, surely the reason we eat bread that comes in a packet that lasts for ages is that most of us are too busy for all this, especially with two parents working, commuting, getting the kids to school etc.

You’re right, those continental types just sit on their arse all day doing nothing so they have time to buy proper food.

Yes I visit the baker on my daily visit to the greengrocer, butcher

We have a baker, butcher and greengrocer within 100m on our Main Street.

Back in the 2000s my GF was Belarusian and was deeply suspicious of British bread, and the fact that it took weeks to go mouldy.

She called it ‘magic bread’ and refused to eat it.

These days, I am happy to be in a financial position where I can refuse to eat it too. But I spent many years chomping down on magic bread

Sourdough local bakery bread all the way, the ingredients list alone is enough to warrant why. I lost 15kg still eating bread daily, just decent stuff not mass-produced garbage. ‘Sliced’ packet loaves just taste weird and synthetic to me these days.

Walking round a Tesco in Prague was depressing. No cereal aisles filled with shite breakfast bars, no plastic packaging on every single bit of fruit and veg, loads of fresh bread, hardly any ready meals, tinned section near non-existent barring straight veg and such.

Supermarkets just sell what people want to buy.

Even in the UK you get regional variations in what they offer.

No-knead bread ftw. None of the faff of kneading it for 20+ minutes. It literally takes about three minutes in total and you get an amazing warm-from-the-oven loaf that only has the four ingredients. No preservatives so it won’t last long but that’s not an issue ‘cos it won’t sit around for long anyway. Especially the focaccia version.

Kitty Tait’s book Bread Song is what you need. It’ll change the way you perceive bread and is an inspirational read anyway.

I was told by someone that in food trials even starving rats wouldn’t eat Chorleywood bread as they knew there was no nutrition in it.

Takes 5-10 mins prep for the breadmaker including a quick clean from the previous bake.  put it on the timer before you go to bed and, hey presto, wake up to lovely fresh bread wafting round the house.

they’re a game changer, I too found the faff of waiting for it to rise and so on meant i rarely bothered.  though this no-knead process sounds interesting.

Supermarkets just sell what people want to buy.

Lol. Supermarkets sell what either they or the manufacturers want you to buy. Which leads to the nonsensical argument of “nobody has time to cook/buy decent stuff”.

People only “want” these things because they’ve been convinced by marketing.

Even in the UK you get regional variations in what they offer.

Not really, maybe specific items but if you can point to one Tesco/Asda/whatever that isn’t full of overly processed shite then I’ll concede that.

Seriously, shopping abroad is a real eye opener.

Lol. Supermarkets sell what either they or the manufacturers want you to buy.

If that were the case Tesco would sell the same shite in Prague as they do to us then. But they won’t buy it, so they don’t sell it. We’ve only ourselves to blame.

This is reminding me I need to get the bread maker out when we get home.

Now, has anyone got any corn bread recipes?

Supermarkets just sell what people want to buy.

Sort of. They also (collectively) have a captive market due to the time and money constraints in people’s lives. It can be difficult to vote with your feet because all supermarkets sell the same crap bread, plastic wrapped, out of season fruit and veg, and water filled meat. I don’t think this is what people want to buy, but the opportunity to deviate is minimal for most.

It’s difficult to vote with your feet

No it’s not… But people, particularly in the UK, are lazy.

Have talked about returning to the UK with my German GF, but she says she can’t imagine having to deal with shit bread and crap pastries. Which is fair enough, really….

Iced bun, anyone?

I refuse to eat Chorleywood bread anymore as it’s nasty. I try to avoid the fake sourdough that the supermarkets pump out as well (though that is preferable to the tasteless mush). Lucky enough to work at home so making proper sourdough several times a week is not a problem.

Also relevant, anyone got a recommendation for a bread slicer? I’m the only one in the house who can slice bread with a bread knife successfully, if there was something others could use it would help switching from pre-sliced supermarket stuff

Also, thanks OP, today I learned about the Chorleywood bread process (new to me), I grew up in Watford and didn’t think there was much in Chorleywood aside from rich people and an M25 junction!

Lidl low GI loaf is **** awsome!

If that were the case Tesco would sell the same shite in Prague as they do to us then

A quick Google says that UK buys 80% of its bread from industrial sources whereas Germany it’s only 40%, but Germans eat on average 57kgs of bread to the UK average of 37kg. Taking the percentage of those, the average UK resident eats 29kg of Industrial bread to the German’s 23kg. So not so very different.

I’d imagine if you went a Lidl in the countries that have them, there’s be the same stuff mostly.

But people, particularly in the UK, are lazy.

I can say yes, I am probably guilty of that. We have butchers, bakers, grocers etc. at most 2.5 miles away. Yet we still go to or get deliveries from the supermarket. I live in a city. However for some people the only option within any reasonable distance is a supermarket. I don’t think you can call them lazy

If that were the case Tesco would sell the same shite in Prague as they do to us then. But they won’t buy it, so they don’t sell it. We’ve only ourselves to blame.

Fair. I don’t disagree with that but why are people here so willing to eat shite?

I had a think about this the other day, could it be something to do with rationing, post war scarcity and then a sudden explosion in living standards? Add in the recent (last 25 years) increase in the cost of living (housing) in the UK and you have a perfect recipe for convenience over nutritional value. The rest of Europe clearly went through a different journey to us, is that because nobody “forgot” what decent food was supposed to taste like never mind how to make it?

I’d imagine if you went a Lidl in the countries that have them, there’s be the same stuff mostly.

Kinda, the one I went to in Prague had absolutely minimal (like maybe a choice of 6) ready meals. Cereals were “decent” (muesli or granola) and everything else was the basics that you would use to make a meal from scratch.

The big question though is can you freeze ‘proper’ bread and still separate the slices when frozen?

Pretty much all our bread and cobs go straight in the freezer.

Only the proper loaf we buy on a Friday night gets eaten quickly (smothered with butter!) – the rest can take weeks to eat.

but why are people here so willing to eat shite?

a lot of people either eat shite food so often they’ve ruined their palate or maybe have never actually eaten nice food in the first place? Confuse all the hormones released when the body receives a hit of salt/sugar/fat with taste as they have no actual tastebuds? Have you not read one of Binner’s Greggs threads? 😉

The big question though is can you freeze ‘proper’ bread and still separate the slices when frozen?

Yes, this is what I do. MrsDoris refuses to eat good bread (sigh) so I buy a loaf, slice the lot, and put most of it straight into the freezer.

could it be something to do with rationing, post war scarcity and then a sudden explosion in living standards?

Quite possibly. My mum would never dream of buying a £4 loaf. These days she’s perfectly able to afford it. But she grew up in the 1950s, in genuine poverty (family of 10 in a small cottage) and her entire worldview is still seen through that lens.

But people, particularly in the UK, are lazy.

Have talked about returning to the UK with my German GF, but she says she can’t imagine having to deal with shit bread and crap pastries. Which is fair enough, really

Maybe tell her there are plenty of good bakeries for those who aren’t too lazy to vote with their feet? 😉

I’d imagine if you went a Lidl in the countries that have them, there’s be the same stuff mostly.

Yeah and no…. Last two years been to Lidl in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Specific things vary according to country.

You can get really good focaccia in Italy, but not elsewhere.

More baguettes in France than elsewhere.

There’s a baker round the corner from me, lovely fresh baked bread every morning.  Which is just as well because by the end of the day you could use it as roofing material.  If supermarkets sold it, well, they wouldn’t because they’d be risking either running out or throwing half of it out unsold.

I use a bread maker too. 5 minutes and it’s done 5 hours later with zero effort.

I’m always surprised by how few ready meals and other junk food is for sale in European supermarkets. We’ve been trained by decades of hypercapitalism to accept poor quality, cheap to produce, maximum profit food substitutes. The big food manufacturers won’t be happy until we go full Soylent Green.

I wonder if that woman is still Belarusian or not? Machanka otherwise pork stew, draniki otherwise thick potato pancakes or cold sorrel soup the main delicacies of their diet

The Hovis 7 seeded stuff isn’t too bad and the Warburton toasted with lurpak and a couple of sausages sounds better than machanka

They are pals with the Russians

Nice bread is, well, nice. An awful lot of people simply cannot afford such luxuries.

(Edit: shouldn’t need to be a luxury)