Rye?! Did you say bread?  Bread with gluten?!  Yes. Let me fill you in.  I have lived in other countries that eat grains regularly.  I have studied cultures of people that consume bread and are still healthy.  I am not anti-bread.  I am anti-bad preparation of bread.  There are a couple key differences between American food and traditional cultural foods:

1. We cut quality corners to make things quick and cheap, which means we often eat pesticide, GMO versions of grains

2. We don’t prepare many foods in a way that render nutrients available or toxins predigested

We have the luxury of getting our nutrients from any foods we choose; therefore, we do not NEED to consume grain products like bread to survive.  However, let’s say we did…or maybe just wanted to do so in a healthy way.  Grains need to be soaked, sprouted or fermented in order to be safely consumed and have nutrient availability.  Other cultures do this very thing when they prepare their grain products like pasta, bread, or pastries.  These processes can take DAYS for something to be ready to consume.  Americans ain’t got time for that.  We are about instant gratification and if we need to think days ahead of time in order to have food ready, we’d rather just not eat it.  On top of that, women in other cultures cook ALL DANG DAY!  We have many women in our society working all day and having time to prepare grains appropriately usually isn’t on the agenda after a full day at the office.

This brings me to the rye bread that is so graciously acting as the foundation for my grassfed butter, smoked salmon, and fried egg.  I often have patients from other countries that tell me they miss the food from back home.  They will tell you “The bread just isn’t the same.”  Every. Single. Time.  I am working with a woman from Finland who goes out of her way to order this traditional rye bread from the east coast, and she sent me the website and ingredients.  This stuff is legit.  Bread done the right way.  Whole ingredients prepared for human consumption, so we can actually have access to the nutrients grains can provide.  The company makes the bread one time a week because it takes that long to ferment before they can ship it out!  This is what the real deal looks like.  If you want to consume bread products and have them be healthy for you, this is what you are looking for.  Let me tell you: THIS IS HARD TO FIND!

So, she told me exactly how delicious this would be if I ate this combo, and boy was she right.  It was delicious.  I would eat it again on occasion, but I am probably not going to go out of my way to get my nutrients from bread that I have to have shipped from another state!  If this was something I grew up on and missed it that much, then maybe I would reconsider.  However, bread is not typically a healthy food for us because of our lack of quality and knowledge of preparation (not to mention the carbohydrate content is way too high for most).  When you travel to other countries, these things are often prepared just as they should be, so eat up!  When you get back to the states, just remember that not all bread is created equal and if we looked at ingredient lists and nutrient availability only, you wouldn’t even know they were the same product in the comparison.

 http://www.nordicbreads.com/?page_id=819