The current researches recognized bread as a factor that contribute to obesity as it is digested too fast. More than that, the regular bread that we usually eat spikes blood sugar levels. To sum it all, for those who are health conscious—breads are enemies. However, a food scientists at the National University of Singapore found an interesting answer against this.
Professor Zhou Weibiao isn’t wrong about bread so he invented a purple bread which is richer in canc3r-fighting antioxidants. More to that, the purple bread is digested 20% slower than regular white bread and made entirely of natural compounds—the first superfood of baked goods.
The bread that we usually get from bakeshop are usually high in glycemic index, meaning the sugar content could easily affect the blood stream eventually causing sugar levels to rise. For obesity, since the regular breads are easily digestible, we tend to eat more and more not minding the starch content that we get which could be more than what we should. It was indeed a challenge for Zhou to change the formula of the bread without compromising the texture—something that people really love.
Zhou decided to extract anthocyanins from black rice and infused it in his bread. This one is responsible in trumpeting the bread with antioxidant qualities. However, he left behind the rice’s starch properties.
Due to chemical reaction of the anthocyanins to the bread which turned it purple, it also slowed down the digestion rate by 20% because of its reaction towards the starch enzymes. While so, 80% of the antioxidant qualities are preserved in the bread crust and crumbs when baked.
Why Purple?
The natural pigment present in grapes, blueberries and sweet potatoes are caused by anthocyanin. This is why eating foods which are color purple are healthy. Though not all purple fruits are superfoods, those which anthocyanins are proven by research to help prevent cardiovascular and neurological diseases and cancer. Moreover, it plays role in controlling obesity and diabetes because of the digestive enzymes which are inhibited as the glucose level is reduced.
Zhou further explained that the purple bread is healthier than white bread even pointing to the calorie count.
“You are eating the same amount of starch and wheat flour, so the nutritional value is the same. The key idea here is slowing down the energy release, so you use those calories over a longer period of time,” says Zhou.
While so, the purple bread is not yet available in commercial stores. Zhou, though, has been receiving positive feedbacks from manufacturers about the ‘superbread.’
What do you think of this?
Source: http://edition.cnn.com/