Saturday, July 7, 2012

Is there any Preservative Free Bread?

Bread, Bread, glorious Bread....


How do you know which one is best ? Which is healthiest? Which tastes the best AND has no additives/ preservatives?
Well, if you are like me and don't have too much time on your hands, you do most of your shopping at a big grocery store like Super Walmart or Target and also get supplies while you're at it. Otherwise any health food store would suffice since most of them are about "healthy" food anyway. Just read the labels carefully!

I wanted to find a packaged bread that I could get with my weekly grocery shopping so I didn't need to drive to find a health food store just for bread. After spending literally an hour at the bread isle and reading label after label, I came across this brand of bread at Walmart. It's called EarthGrains. And this is what it has on the front:

It has this on the front of it "Natural. No Artificial colors, flavors or preservatives" and it's 100% whole wheat.
It also contains NO high fructose corn syrup and No hydrogenated oils, which is a definite plus.
Here's the side label:

Everything looked great except for 1 ingredient: Calcium Sulfate. What? I thought there were no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives in this bread?  Here is the exact definition on Wikipedia: Calcium sulfate (or calcium sulphate) is a common laboratory and industrial chemical. So is the information on this bread a LIE?
Looking at this in further detail, I found that Calcium Sulfate is really just calcium salt and is used as a white powder in form in foods for spoilage, thus a preservative/additive. Digging deeper, I also found that it "could" have trace amounts of crystalline silica in it which in this article (here) gives details that it is classified as a carcinogen which definitely is not healthy for us. As most carcinogens are linked to Cancer in humans.
So, with all this being said, I will not be buying this bread even though I already mistakenly did because I was fooled by the writing on the bag.

I just can't believe the FDA would consider this safe and they can put it on their bread as one of the ingredients and still say that it is "Natural"! Read the ingredients people! Don't be fooled by the writing on the front of ANY food you buy. Sad, but true.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the info! Ever since I read on the side of a tube of tooth paste "If more than what's used for brushing is swallowed, call a poison control center", I started investigating a lot of the things we buy. Then Dr. Oz came out with his report on all the apple juice being sold in this country having, to some degree, arsenic in it and now I almost fear for my 2 year old's future health...my own health! The bread issue is a tough one and the only way around it is probably a health food store for now. But there's always hope....

    ReplyDelete