Daily Lifestyle : Bread: top best healthiest bread in India

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Bread is very much a part of diet of an average Indian, but which bread do you eat? Bonn, Britannia, harvest gold, English oven or mother dairy, but which is the healthiest bread in the Indian market?

To find out the best bread in the Indian market I bought almost every bread available online and offline. After thoroughly going through every ingredient on them, I have categorised all breads into four major categories.

Category 1-

This category includes the white breads by Bonn, English oven, harvest gold, mother dairy etc. Now, these brands have not even a single ingredient in them which can be called healthy. From 100% maida to refined vegetable oils to preservatives, emulsifiers, flour improvers, acidity regulators and what not. Unfortunately all these breads are also the most popular among the Indians. However, if you care little about your health; these white breads should strictly not be a part of your diet.

Category 2-

This category includes brown bread by English oven, mother dairy, Britannia, Atta bread by English oven, multigrain bread by English oven and Bonn herbs and seeds bread. All these brands wish to sell their breads to people who are seeking healthy breads but simply do not want to make an effort to make them. well they have labelled their breads as brown, wheat and atta bread but the real story get revealed when you turn the packet; yes all these so-called wheat breads have maida as their major ingredient and not to forget the preservatives, food colours and unwanted additives added in them. In my opinion these brands deserve a award and recognition for confusing their customer for creating three different variants of bread with exactly the same ingredients, they surely not worth your money and health.

Category 3-

This category includes 100% whole wheat bread by Bonn, Britannia, English oven, La Americana; all wheat breads by harvest gold and also the multi grain breads by Bonn, Britannia and harvest gold are absolutely free from maida. These commercial breads are surely better than the ones mentioned in the previous 2 categories. However, most of them do have preservatives, improvers, emulsifiers and refined oils added in them. If you have no option but to go with these commercial breads, I would suggest La Americana as it has no preservatives. Harvest gold would be my second choice as comparatively it has less number of additives. Bonn would be placed third, Britannia and English oven would be least preferred.

Category 4-

This category includes the breads by Bakers dozen, Whole wheat bread by the Coco company and whole wheat breads by paushtaa. Undoubtedly, these are way better than the breads in all previous categories but are still not 100% up to the mark. For example - the Bakers doesn't uses whole wheat butter and yeast to make bread but it does have flour strengthener, sugar and salt. The coco companies whole wheat bread has bread improver, vegetable oil, sugar and salt. Paushtaa definitely stands out as it is made from organic whole wheat, cold pressed sunflower oil, yeast and wheat bran; Had they added rock salt instead of table salt, it would have been 100% perfect.

However, paushtaa has definitely taken the effort to make something really worth your health. Surely these breads are best in the Indian market but are still far from the everyday roti that you eat at your home. Moreover, their supply is also limited to certain cities; then there are also brands like the bread company and the American bagel that charge you a fortune which claims to make Healthiest of breads but backstab you when you look at their ingredients. Well if you are looking for a bread without any compromise and just like roti, you have to even make a bread at home.

Homemade bread recipe-

Take about 300 grams of whole wheat flour in any big bowl and make a space in the centre. Now in the centre add rock salt mishri powder and instant dry yeast and also add lukewarm water and mix the ingredients properly. Now add about 2 tablespoons of cold pressed sesame oil and with the help of lukewarm water neet a soft dough. Grease your hand with some oil and keep neeting until the dough gets soft, it will take about 6 to 7 minutes. Now take a bread mould, not the aluminium one. Of course you are aware that aluminium is thyrotoxic, even avoid the so called stainless steel bread moulds coated with non stick Teflon, Instead use a 100% safe glass mould.

Grease the glass mould with some oil or butter, place the dough in the mould and spread it evenly. Now, apply some oil over the dough then cover the container and keep aside in a warm place. you can actually keep it in your cupboard for faster fermentation, within 2 to 3 hours the dough will get double in its size. Now the dough is ready to be baked, you can sprinkle some sesame seeds if you wish. For baking we will take a kadhai on high flame, put about half kg of salt into it. This salt will help our kadhai mimic and oven and it can be used many times, keep a small bowl or a stand inside. Now, cover the kadhai and let it heat for about 10 minutes then carefully place the mould inside.

Now, cover the kadhai and let it bake until it gets golden brown. To check, insert a knife inside the bread if it comes out clean then the bread is ready. After you take out the bread allow it to cool about 10 to 15 minutes then run a knife along all sides to separate the bread from the mould and place it on a board or plate. Now spread ghee over bread then cut the bread slices and enjoy the bread; Without any unwanted additives, the homemade bread is actually more filling.

Why are so many additives added in commercial breads? Is it not possible to bake bread without them?

Of course it's possible but these brands choose not to. if you go through the ingredients of any commercial bread; you would find emulsifiers, preservatives improvers, regulators, colours and various agents added in the form of numbers. All these have little yet specific functions to perform which reduces the baking time and enhances the texture, colours, softness and shelf life of the bread baked. Basically, these numbered ingredients do not have a healthy value but a commercial value; Actually, they cost your health. example - the improver 923 and 1104 added in English oven and Britannia respectively have already been banned by European Union for their adverse side effects. even other such additives are known to have a bad name, What worse is that the source of these chemical additives is completely hidden from the consumers.