236: The Benefits of Eating Daily Bread

Written By Chelsea Blackbird
 
 
 

It seems more and more lately I have been “prescribing” my friends, family and clients to eat a piece of bread every day. Not just any bread, but the bread we’ve been talking a lot about since I did the podcasts with Sue Becker: bread made from freshly milled organic wheat.

Wouldn’t you rather eat a delicious piece of buttery bread rather than take a supplement? 🙋🏼‍♀️ When bread is made with it’s nutrition in tact, it can become food-as-medicine. In this week’s episode, we’re exploring the health benefits of real wheat bread and deepening our understanding of Jesus as the Bread of Life.

 

236: The Benefits of Eating Daily Bread

 

EPISODE BLOG

I was recently making a sandwich to put in my daughter’s lunch and I was thinking about how ironic it is that I used to only make my kids full sandwiches on Fridays. I know that sounds funny but this was when we were eating GF bread and I tried to buy the best quality I could find which also tasted decent.

Balancing Carbs and Health

That usually ended up being Canyon Bakehouse which, thankfully I could find at Costco and so I would stock up every time I would go. Like I had a ridiculous amount of bread in my basket because my closest Costco is 2.5 hours away so I don’t get there very much. Y’all when I go to Costco, I hold my breath as the receipt is printing out. I call it the heart attack receipt because yeah, it's usually pretty high and practically heart attack inducing. I only go about once a quarter so my basket is always ridiculous.


Upgrading to Better Ingredients

I would stock up on either the Canyon Bakehouse bread or the Schar bread - neither has ideal ingredients which is why I limited it and considered it a Heck Yeah. In Feast 2 Fast that’s what we call food that’s not that great for us but we want to be able to include in our diet - so that’s usually things like bread, chips, wine, cookies….not ideal but also not a dealbreaker when incorporated strategically - so that’s a lot of what we learn and do in Feast 2 Fast. We upgrade the food the best we can and incorporate it sparingly. And that applied to this GF bread - not only for me, but also my family. I try to teach them this concept about how we find balance with our food.


Teaching Kids About Food Balance

Kids food is usually heavy on carbs, well adults food is usually heavy on carbs for that matter, and so just like I teach you, I teach my kids, hey we have to balance out these carbs - especially these kinds of carbs that aren’t great for you - with some protein and healthy fat. This worked a lot better before they were teenagers…when I had more control…but this is what we did. So their lunch might look like turkey and cheese rollups - upgraded chips (like Boulder Canyon, now we do Siete potato chips made with avocado oil), carrots and a small handful of Enjoy Life chocolate chips. That was a very common lunch that I would make. But on Fridays, I made them a sandwich, with GF bread, heck yeah, that was a treat. And that’s the way I presented bread in the house - as a treat - something we need to balance with any other processed foods we might be incorporating. Whether it was a hotdog or hamburger bun or anything other bready thing like that that didn’t really have any nutritional value but was ok from time to time.


A Change of Heart About Bread

Fast forward to now that I have been milling organic wheat and making my own bread and now I’m thinking, how can I get MORE bread into my children. Literally, every day it’s like eat some bread. Not that I have to force them and we’ll talk more about that here in a bit. But it’s such a 180 and stark contrast to what I was doing before and it struck me one day while I was making my daughter a sandwich on a Tuesday and not a Friday that I WANT them to eat this bread. I want them to have it every day because it’s so good and nourishing for them. I want them to turn to this or a muffin or something else I make with this freshly milled flour and eat or snack on IT rather than some packaged granola bar or chips. I want them to fill up on THIS so there is not room for the junk.


Bread as a Metaphor for Faith

This brought into full view Jesus as the bread of life and give us this day our daily bread. Me yearning for my kids to be filled and nourished by this bread is how I want them to be filled and nourished by Jesus on a daily basis. Seeking Him first so there’s less room for the junk to go in.


The Impact of Freshly Made Bread

Last October we did a bread workshop Zoom call in The Christian Health Club and it was led by one of our members Kerri and she lives somewhat local to me - about 45 minutes away - so I went over to her house and we did this bread workshop live for our members. But she hosted it and did everything and gave us some great tips which I’ll talk more about but what was so lovely is that afterward we had lunch together there in her kitchen, we prayed and broke bread and ate bread slathered in butter and sprinkled with salt along side the delicious chicken soup that she had made. And we were talking about this very thing, she was saying how she eats a slice of bread 2-3 times a day - on purpose - because of this wonderful nutritional value - and how she hasn’t gained weight at all doing that.


The Bread and Carb Balance

When I was first embarking on this bread journey I was concerned that it might make me gain weight and it’s not. When you are eating real food and you are balancing it properly, it doesn’t. In fact, I think it helps you release the fat you’ve been storing because your body is getting what it needs and is like hey, I’m good - I can release this now. So it’s not a fat storing kind of carb, it’s a fat releasing kind of carb. And it’s delicious too.


Resources and Programs

 

Thanks for listening! Have a healthy and blessed week!

XOXO,

Chelsea

Chelsea Blackbird
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