Posted by Ken | Posted in 7 Hour Bread, Wellness | Posted on 10-01-2011
“Regular bread is dead food, no life, no enzymes, few phytochemicals, disease causing junk food.”
I have been in the nutrition and health field for over 40 years, with a great emphasis on doing everything we can according to the Bible. Several years ago, I found that good whole grain bread can be made the Biblical way (which is health building) or it can be made the most common modern way (which is not health building). Let’s look at the difference so if you decide to make bread you’ll know the correct method for healthy bread.
First, look at the principles involved in bread making. It would be healthiest if we ate a large percentage of our food raw to enable us to get all the natural health building enzymes out of our food. Any kind of heat kills the enzymes in food, starting as low as 118 degrees. As the temperature rises, more enzymes die until we reach 160 degrees when most are dead. For example, fresh raw apples have many enzymes but baked apples are dead food as far as the enzymes go. After eating a baked apple, the body must put back in the blood those enzymes that have been killed by baking; thus, using up stored enzymes that could have been used for any number of other very important jobs (such as keeping the arteries clean to alleviate a future stroke from occurring).
Now, you might be thinking, “How do I get raw bread to make sure I get those health building enzymes?” That is a good question! I have also asked that question in the past. The same heat that is used to bake that bread is used to bake that apple. Heat kills all enzymes in food whether they are whole grains, apples or cabbage. Victor Irons, who was born around the turn of the century and lived to the ripe old age of 98, told me years ago that, “Regular bread is dead food, no life, no enzymes, disease causing junk food.” He went on to say, “If they use organic wheat, stone grind it, use all natural ingredients, it still is harmful if it drains those wonderful enzymes out because it is cooked, dead food.” “It has the same effect on our body, in that manner as white bread,” he went on to say. “Sure, white bread is much worse on us than whole wheat bread, because it is lacking in much more than enzymes. It is lacking in minerals, vitamins, fiber etc.” He went on to say, “It can be made where the enzymes have done their job, before we eat it thus, not robbing the enzymes from our system.”
When we look to God’s Word, we find that bread is used more than 360 times, starting in Genesis 3:19 where it says, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Jesus, after his resurrection, ate fish and bread. Bread was in the ceremony in I Samuel 21:6 for it refers to the shewbread. Ravens even brought bread to Elijah in I Kings 17:6. In Psalms 104:15 it refers to “bread” as good food for it reads in the King James, ” . . . and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.” Now, I ask, was this bread something other than what we know as bread today? If the Bible refers to bread as good, why does it appear to cause so many health problems? When the enzymes are killed, it does not strengthen the heart but weakens it along with other areas of the body at the same time. If the bread is not whole grain, high in fiber, it also will plug the colon causing many other health problems.
In Strong’s Concordance, bread #3899 lechem is “food (for man or beast), espec. bread, or grain (for making it):-({shew-} bread, X eat, food, fruit, loaf, meat, victuals.” This sounds like what we know as bread. Bread is so important for life, health, and strength. God refers to His Word and Himself, through Jesus, as “Bread” in Matt. 6:11 and Luke 11:11 as “our daily bread.” John 6:35 states, “I am the bread of life.” Vs. 32 states, “My father giveth you the true bread.” If we say that bread is the “staff of life” and it is the basis of many meals, then we should look to Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary of what staff means. Staff is defined as, “A stick carried in the hand for support or defense by a person walking; hence, a support; that which props or upholds.” Psalms 23 states, “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.” Bread is proverbially called the “staff of life.”
Since we can see that bread is important, let me now explain how to make good bread the way God intended it to be made. There is a Biblical or correct way to have those enzymes work for us and not against us.
Start with chemical free organic grains, grind the grain and mix in the yeast and warm water along with any other ingredients (wheat germ, sprouts, cracked grains, and other natural items can be added). Mix and knead it appropriately. THEN COMES THE MISSING “SEVEN HOUR STEP.” After everything has been done, the dough will need to rise at least seven hours. During that time it will need to be punched down several times. These natural grain enzymes, found in the wheat or whatever grain, predigest, or works, on the bread, changing the calcium/phosphorus ratio and other items in the bread so that now the bread is good food and not health destroying. Bread must sit, and work (enzymes are working by doing their job of digesting), to be health building, staff of life. The yeast and the enzymes in the grains will have also predigested, meaning most of the work has been done to digest the bread to enable you to get the good nutrition ready to be absorbed.
Remember, I said the calcium/phosphorus ratio has also changed. We need more calcium than phosphorus and we get that only after the grains have soaked or sat overnight, allowing the food enzymes to do their job. If we don’t let this take place, the phosphorus is much higher than the calcium which can cause many health problems.
We need to make the bread like they did in Bible days and at the beginning of our country. Mr. Irons stated that this is the way they did it when he was a child. It has only been in the last few years that people have quit making bread the correct way. If we would make bread the way our great-grandmother made it, then it would be the “staff of life.”
I pray that we all can get good bread made the proper way by letting the enzymes work for several hours and then baking it. Bread that is made this way does not drain the body’s enzymes as it is already partly predigested and the mineral balance is better. Let’s get back to Bible principles and make our bread the way God intended us to. I heard of these principles many years ago, but never fully understood them until now.
NOTE: 7 Hour Bread Recipe and Demonstration video below.
