Heart Healthy Bread journey
Will start with some history.
So here I am a year after a heart attack and having 3 stents put in, plus a pacemaker. I'm active, not overweight, and in pretty good shape. When all the blood tests were complete, the cardiologists were left scratching their heads. Cholesterol was high. but not to far over the desired values, triglycerides were in the normal range, but on the high end of the range, and no inflammatory markers. Did have high blood pressure though. They told me they couldn't figure out why I had so much blockage. I found a functional medicine cardiologist that told me it's genetics (with my family history, that's kind of a "well duh" conclusion). What he did say that was interesting is, because of my genetics, my body does not handle fat like a normal person, so I have to be more aware of what I'm doing. The one thing he figured was the fairly high fat diet I was on was part of the problem. Due to being active and having I high metabolism, I was able to get away with it without putting on weight. So no problem, right? Well, not in my case.
After healing from the surgery, I went through the Pritikin cardio rehab program. Part of that involved a class 3 times a week on diet. The information in there has changed my diet, and that change sent me looking for breads that would better fit into what I needed. (Because I LOVE bread)
So what were the requirements I was looking for?
Low sodium (Pritikin does not want sodium eliminated, but kept to preferably 1500 mg a day, definitely under 2000)
Lower fat, especially saturated fat
Whole grain (I've always preferred whole wheat anyway)
Low cholesterol
Little to no white sugar (inflammatory ingredient)
Little to no white flour
Looking on the store shelves, I couldn't find anything that fit all of these criteria. And I found flatbreads had horrendously high sodium content for the size of the bread. So I pulled out the bread machine and started experimenting with loaves of breads first. Flat breads will come later.
Now this has been an interesting process because I live at 6500 ft, In the past, I'd just add more salt and reduce the yeast to slow the gas production from the yeast down. This is to prevent it from collapsing while rising / baking at altitude. Well, now I had to go the other way.
So less salt meant I needed to adjust the yeast amount. And less salt means it seemed to have less flavor. A month ago, I bought some wheat berries, milled them in our Ninja Pro kitchen blender and made some pancakes. The flavor difference blew me away. So next was a loaf of bread. Again, what a major flavor difference.
So down the rabbit hole I went learning about the different kinds of wheat. Why? I wanted to know what my alternatives were to using white flour. Of course, the first thing I learned was I'd be giving up lighter, airier breads for more dense ones, but that's ok. For me, it's about crust and flavor anyway.
Some of the things I've found:
Ground Flaxseed as both an egg substitute and binder to help with lower gluten breads (plus it has lots of heart benefits)
Monkfruit and stevia as alternatives to white sugar (honey is okay, so I can use it as listed in a recipe)
According to Pritikin, I have to cut back on whole eggs, so I use egg white powder as a substitute. And BTW, some people cannot handle more than 4 egg yolks a week, as it becomes toxic over that level because their genetics. But for me, no yolks means no cholesterol from the eggs.
How different salts affect rising (Himalayan pink, sea salt, table salt, etc)
I now have a grain mill on order.
All of this lead me to looking for a site with lot's of information, and tada, I signed up here.
One of the things I tried and failed on was overnight rising which failed miserably. Five minutes on this site and I now know why. ;)
So now I'm here finding there is much more to learn, but the goal is to still make a heart healthy bread. I didn't see a lot of info on this, so I was wondering. Is there much interest on this topic? Should I start a blog even though I'm relatively new at the process compared to many people here, or should I just make posts?
And thanks to the people that put this site and forum together and for all the people sharing such great information and experiences. You've already helped.
(And yeah, the low sodium / sugar is also leading me to canning my own veggies, sauces)