Spanish Bread Has Less Salt, But There Are Problems

Don’t go crazy, dear reader. no one wants to take us Our daily bread. Nor is he trying to deprive the Spaniards of the most epic flour pastry in history. Because yes, we Spaniards love bread. The annual report on food consumption in Spain leaves no room for doubt: in 2020, each citizen ate an average of 32.78 kg of bread. Quite a large amount, which means the overwhelming presence of this food in our daily diet.

The Spanish government intends to legally regulate the amount of salt added to bread. In fact, this regulation has already taken place: last Friday, April 1, the legal deadline for manufacturers to reduce the amount of salt used in baking recipes expired. Here and further the maximum allowable salt content will be 1.31 grams. per 100 g of bread when analyzed for chlorides or 1.66 g of salt per 100 g of bread when analyzed for total sodium. These requirements came as no surprise to the bakery industry as they were announced in 2019 along with the latest bread quality standard.

This measure aims to improve the nutritional profile of everyday foods in order to prevent certain metabolic diseases such as cardiovascular disease. In this sense, we know that excess salt in the diet increases the occurrence of hypertension or high blood pressure in the body, a risk factor for the aforementioned cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction.

Does this measure make sense?

Yes it is. It may seem that reducing the amount of salt in bread by a few milligrams will have little effect on our health. But the truth is that it is. Public health strategies that gradually reduce the consumption of certain ingredients usually have a positive effect on public health, because they do it without us noticing its decline.

Not that this is some kind of malicious ploy, quite the contrary. This is done little by little our taste is not offended before drastically reducing ingredients such as salt, whose strength and taste are more than remarkable. Thus, by reducing the dose by a few milligrams over a long period of time, manufacturers have ample opportunity to adapt their prescriptions to new legislation for the benefit of public health.

It is true that reducing the amount of salt in bread is an interesting point, but neither is a panacea. In other words, bread remains bread, with all its positive and negative sides. And what are these weaknesses? Is bread a health food or a supermarket demon?

Reality Behind Eating Bread

From a nutritional point of view, bread is a product rich in complex carbohydrates. This makes it an important source of energy for the body, just like other foods such as potatoes or rice. Not bad in itself, the problem is that bread has a brutal presence in our daily lives: we have two toast with butter for breakfast, a chorizo ​​sandwich for lunch, a lentil bread and a tuna cheese sandwich for lunch. our bread crushAnd it’s time to admit it.

Eating so much bread means crowding out other healthy foods such as beans or nuts. In addition, there are other more interesting sources of carbohydrates, such as fruits and vegetables, which provide a wide range of vitamins and minerals that are not always found in bread. Similarly, vitamin C is one of the micronutrients that is not found in bread, but which we usually find in healthy vegetables such as peppers or oranges.

The magic of whole grain bread

Most of the bread we eat in Spain is made from refined flour and this is a reality. Of the 32.78 kg of bread per year that we Spaniards put between the chest and back, we mentioned at the beginning of the article, so only 2.18 kilograms are categorized as whole grain bread: real edible nonsense.

What is whole grain bread, you ask? This means that wheat flour, the most widely used cereal, undergoes a process that removes the healthiest layers of the cereal: germ and bran. This last layer, whose name seems to pay homage to the mythical program of Jordi Evola, packed with dietary fiber: A beneficial ingredient that is lost during the refining process.

Thus, the bread that we usually consume in our daily lives is a “beta version” of the real bread that we should include in our diet: wholemeal bread. This variety is produced including all parts of cereal grains: germ, bran and endosperm. By containing whole grains, we get an excellent supply of vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. It is dietary fiber that is characterized by many health benefits associated with the prevention of metabolic diseases and improved digestion. It also helps us feel full faster, so we eat less food. So now you know: put a good whole grain bread chusco in your mouth and run from the gourmet ones.