(NaturalNews) A study in Spain determined a direct link between consumption of white bread two or more time a day and obesity. Head researcher Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez, a professor at the University of Navarra in Spain, and his colleagues followed 200 Spanish college graduates for five years.

Many ate whole-wheat breads and some mixed both white breads and whole-wheat breads. Most of them showed no major tendency toward obesity. But those who ate only white bread two or three times a day showed a 40 percent increase in obesity.

Nice to know, but this conclusion should be a no-brainer for most Natural News readers. Processed white breads and pastries are among the most toxic of all foods offered by the processed food industry with free passes to poison us by the FDA. [1]

Science and anecdotal evidence prove sourdough and sprouted grain breads healthy

Many nutritional experts consider sourdough and sprouted-grain bread healthier than bleached white breads and whole-wheat or whole-grain breads offered by even health food stores. The latter mostly share similar procedures that overheat the grains and use bromides as part of their baking processes.

Clarity alert: The sourdough breads that are praiseworthy are not on most store shelves, even health food stores. They are the traditionally baked breads and pastries baked with sourdough cultures that have fermented for a day or so without artificial interventions. [2]

And you may purchase authentic sourdough breads in artisan bakeries that bake small batches often during the week. An important added feature is that most real artisan bakeries don't use bromides with their baking.

Potassium bromate was approved for baking by the USA in 1914. The problem is that bromides are endocrine disruptors that block the thyroid from absorbing its primary nutrient, iodine. After some Japanese studies showed bromides to be highly carcinogenic in lab rats, many nations banned bromides in bread. Not so here in the land of the free to poison the populace. [3]

Look for and avoid baked products that list "potassium bromate," "bromated flour" or "methyl bromide" on the ingredients list. The traditional method of fermenting sourdough cultures for baking provides digestion- and health-supporting probiotics. Just as fermenting soy products makes soy digestible and healthy, so does fermenting dough for breads.

Scientific proof was mentioned. Here's one example taken from other studies proving the merits of sourdough bread: An Italian study, "Sourdough Bread Made from Wheat and Nontoxic Flours and Started with Selected Lactobacilli Is Tolerated in Celiac Sprue Patients," was published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology in February 2004.

The researchers used 17 celiac patients and pure, chemical-free wheat and flour for highly cultured sourdough bread and concluded: "These results showed that a bread biotechnology that uses selected lactobacilli, nontoxic flours, and a long fermentation time is a novel tool for decreasing the level of gluten intolerance in humans." Here's the complete study: (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).

Sprouted grain breads are also considered by many to actually be easier to digest and healthier than commercially produced white and whole-grain breads. Sprouting changes the characteristics of the grain. It's on the way to becoming a plant.

Ezekiel sprouted breads and buns are usually found in the refrigerated sections of health food stores. Though considered the best, they are not the only producer of sprouted breads. [4] Just make sure that you choose organic sources, there are no bromides and only unbleached white flour is used.

The synthetic bleaching process uses chlorides to bleach the crushed wheat. This produces a compound called "alloxan," which you won't see on any ingredient level, because it is a byproduct of the process. Alloxan is used to induce diabetes in lab animals for medical testing (http://www.naturalnews.com).

Alloxan appears in all commercially mass-produced white breads and other baked goods. This is also a probable factor for causing obesity and diabetes among Standard American Diet consumers.

Enough said? Maybe more of us can have our cake and eat it too with the right choices. [5]

Sources for this article include:

[1] http://newsmaine.net

[2] http://www.theguardian.com

[3] http://www.livescience.com

[4] http://authoritynutrition.com

[5] http://www.naturalnews.com