Oct. 13, 2025

“Bread, Broken: How We Ruined the Staff of Life”

“Bread, Broken: How We Ruined the Staff of Life”

Modern bread isn’t what it used to be. In this episode of Chasing Eden: Natural Health God’s Way, discover how ancient wheat nourished civilizations — and why today’s loaves are leaving us bloated, inflamed, and depleted. Learn how hybridized grains, pesticides, and “enriched” flours changed everything, and why people in Europe can still enjoy bread without the same issues. With insights from Dr. Barbara O’Neill, Dr. Berg, Dr. Axe, and Gary Brecka, we uncover how to reclaim real, living bread — the way God designed it. 🍞✨
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Welcome back to Chasing Eden Natural Health, God's Way, where

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we uncover the ancient wisdom and divine design behind the foods, habits,

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and rhythms that help our bodies thrive the way God intended. Today,

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we're talking about one of the oldest foods on earth

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and one of the most misunderstood. Bread. For thousands of years,

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bread has been called the staff of life. It's mentioned

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over four hundred times in the Bible. It's been a

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symbol of provision, communion, and community, from the humble, flatbreads

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of ancient Israel to the golden loaves of medieval Europe.

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Bread once nourished entire civilizations, but today something has changed.

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The bread on our tables, fluffy, white, shelf stable and

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mass produced, is a far cry from what our ancestors

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made by hand. The wheat itself isn't the same. The

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way it's grown, milled, and processed is completely different, and

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for many people it's no longer a source of nourishment.

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It's a source of inflammation, brain fog, and bloating. So

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what happened? In this episode, we'll explore the fascinating history

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of bread, from ancient grains to modern wheat. We will

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look at how enriched flour became the standard, why gluten

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intolerance exploded in the twentieth century, and what's really inside

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that healthy whole wheat sandwich bread. We'll also uncover the

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difference between freshly ground wheat berries and the pre ground

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flour lining supermarket shelves, and why many people in Europe

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can eat pasta and bread without any issues, while Americans

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often suffer from digestive distress. By the end, you'll see

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why the problem isn't bread itself, it's what we've done

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to it. For most of human history, bread wasn't junk food.

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It was a sacred, nourishing food. Ancient civilizations from Egypt

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to Misopotamia, Mesopotamia I guess to the Holy Land made

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bread from freshly ground wheat, barley, or spelt. These grains

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were grown without pesticides, harvested by hand, and milled right

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before baking. Doctor Barbara O'Neill often reminds her listeners that

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freshness is life. She says, quote when food is a lie,

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it gives life unquote. That was true for bread. When

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wheat berries were freshly ground, the flour retained its natural oils, enzymes,

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and over thirty vitamins and minerals, including vitamin E, magnesium, zinc, selenium,

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and B vitamins. And here's the key. Once ground, those

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nutrients begin to oxidize quickly. Within days, most of the

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vitamin e and enzymes are gone. That's why ancient bakers

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ground their wheat daily. They didn't have storage bins of

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flour sitting for months or years. They milled, mixed, and

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baked all within hours. That bread was dense, hardy, and alive.

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It was naturally fermented with wild yeast in bacteria what

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we now call sourdough, which made it more digestible and nutritious.

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Bread wasn't the enemy then, it was a blessing. So

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what happened to wheat? The real turning point came in

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the twentieth century. After World War II, scientists began to

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breed wheat for yield, not nutrition. Traditional wheat varieties like

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einkorn and emmer had grown tall and graceful for thousands

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of years. They contained simple ancient genomes. Incorn, for example,

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has only fourteen chromosomes. But in the nineteen fifties and sixties,

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a new strain called dwarf wheat was developed through hybridization.

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It was shorter, easier to harvest, and produced much higher yields,

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but it also contained forty two chromosomes that genetic complexity

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created new gluten structures that our bodies weren't designed to recognize.

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Doctor eric Berg explains that modern wheat contains higher amounts

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of gliadin, a component of gluten that can trigger inflammation

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and digestive issues in many people. It also spikes insulin

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more sharply because its starch is more rapidly absorbed. Doctor

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Josh Acts, in his work on ancient grains, points out

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that incorn wheat, the original biblical grain, has a simpler

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structure that's easier on digestion and naturally higher in nutrients

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and antioxidants. In fact, studies have shown that many people

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who react badly to modern wheat can eat roinncorn bread

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with no symptoms at all. So modern wheat isn't evil,

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it's just different. It's been bred for convenience and not compatibility. Now,

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let's talk about one of the most misleading words in history, enriched.

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When industrial milling came along in the late eighteen hundreds,

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large factories began separating the wheat kernels into three parts

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the brand, the germ, and the endosperm. To create the

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bright white flour that consumers wanted, they removed the brand

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and germ, which also removed most of the vitamins, minerals,

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and healthy oils. This left only starchy endosperm, a nutrient

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poor powder that could last on shelves for months. When

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people started getting sick with diseases like polagra and berryberry

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caused by deficiencies in B vitamins, the food industry had

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to fix it. So they started quote enriching the flower,

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which really just means putting a few synthetic vitamins back

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in after removing dozens of natural One doctor Barbara O'Neil says,

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quote they take out the life and try to put

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it back with chemistry. Unquote, it doesn't work. Real nutrition

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comes from whole, living foods and not artificial additives. And

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that's how modern bread, even the whole wheat kind, became

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a shadow of its original form. It's been bleached, bromated,

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and stabilized with chemicals our ancestors never even knew existed.

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So let's talk about what happens when you make bread

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the way our ancestors did with freshly ground wheat. When

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you grind whole wheatberries at home, you unlock a complete food.

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The brand adds fiber and minerals, and the germ provides

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essential fatty acids and vitamin E. The endosperm offers carbohydrates

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and protein. It's balanced, it's nourishing, and it hasn't oxidized.

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Doctor Axe and human biologist Scary Breca both emphasize the

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importance of nutrient density in real foods. Gary Breca calls

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it quote cellular nutrition unquote feeding your body at the

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cellular level with living compounds. Freshly ground wheat provides that

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pre ground flower does not. Fresh flower smells nutty, almost sweet,

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like warm hay or almonds, but by the time commercial

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flour reaches grocery store shelves, it's been stored, stripped, and

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fortified to appear nutritious again. Many home bakers today are

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rediscovering the ancient art of milling their own grain using

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heritage varieties like einkorn, spelt or camet or is it

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commute kam ut contain the full spectrum of natural nutrients

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and a gluten structure that the body recognizes as food

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and not a foreign invader. So here's where it gets

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really interesting. Many Americans who can't eat bread or pasta

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here in America can eat it just fine in Europe.

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So why do you think that might be Well. Part

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of it comes down to the wheat itself. Europe still

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grows more traditional wheat varieties, and many small bakeries use

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long fermentation natural sour dough instead of a quick rising yeast.

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That fermentation breaks down gluten and predigest the starches, making

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bread easier to absorb. Another key difference is the pesticides.

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In the US, most conventional wheat crops are sprayed with glyphosate,

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the active ingredient in roundup, right before harvest to dry

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the plants. This process, called desiccation, leaves chemical residues on

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the grain. Doctor Barbara O'Neill and Gary Breca both worn

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that glyphosate disrupts gut health by killing off beneficial bacteria.

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When the microbiome is compromised, digestion and nutrient absorption decline,

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leading to bloating, fatigue, and even autoimmune reactions. Europe banned

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pre harvest glyphosate use in many regions years ago, So

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when Americans travel abroad and enjoy bread without issues, it's

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not magic, it's microbiology. Our gut recognizes real food, and

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it struggles with chemical impostors like glyphosate. Now, let's look

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at gluten intolerance, which is one of the fastest growing

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dietary issues in modern hit. Fifty years ago, gluten free

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wasn't even a phrase. Bread was daily life. So what changed?

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Three main things? The wheat itself. Modern hybrid wheat has

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new gluten proteins that are harder to digest, the process

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rapid fermentation and commercial yeast skip the natural predigestion sourdough provides.

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And the chemicals gliposate and other pesticides disrupt gut lining

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and mimic gluten sensitivity. Doctor Eric Berg explains that the

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intestinal lining is designed to regenerate every few days, but

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when inflammation is constant from processed foods, stress, and toxins,

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the gut can't repair properly. That's when people start reacting

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to gluten, dairy or other foods that never cause them

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problems before. Interestingly, people with gluten intolerance often can tolerate einecorn, spelt,

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or heritage sour dough breeds breads, not breeds breads. That's

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because the gluten is different it's simpler, it's less inflammatory

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and partially broken down during long fermentation. So for many

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people the problem isn't gluten at all, it's the modern

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processing methods. So throughout scripture, bread symbolizes life and provision.

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Jesus called himself the Bread of Life, a reminder that

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food and faith are deeply connected. Bread wasn't meant to

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sustain the body, and point us to the one whose

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bread was meant to sustain the body, and point us

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to the one who sustains the soul. Bread wasn't meant

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to be something for us to be afraid of, or

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something that we felt guilty about eating. It was actually nourishing.

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It was known as something that was protein rich and

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be vitamin rich and vitel an e rich, and it

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was a good food. We've now come to a point

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in history where we have manipulated something that was so wonderful, nutritious,

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guilt free in the past, and we've taken it into

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the modern world where we were now afraid to eat it.

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We don't want to eat it because we're afraid of

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the consequences. We've turned a sacred food into an industrial product.

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Doctor Barbara O'Neil says, when you go back to the

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old paths, you find life again. That's true, not only

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spiritually but physically. When we slowed down and source real

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ingredients for our food and our diet, and we bake

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the way our ancestors did, we rediscover that bread isn't

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the enemy. Disconnection is. So what can we learn from

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all of this? Well, I said it, Bread isn't bad.

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It's broken, but it can be redeemed just like us.

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If you want to experience bread the way it was

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meant to be, try grinding your own wheat, baking sour dough,

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or sourcing ancient grains like inecorn or spelt. Your body

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and your taste beds will thank you. I've tried incorn

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flour myself. I actually buy it on a regular basis.

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You have to get used to using it because it's

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a little bit more of a delicate flower. It's a

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finer flower and it doesn't take as much water as

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the conventional flower that we're used to using, So you

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do have to make a few adjustments in using it.

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Look up some recipes, but I think you'd be pleasantly

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surprised at the texture and the flavor and the way

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that your gut isn't going to most likely isn't going

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to respond to bread and things made from the eincorn flour. Remember,

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real health isn't about restriction, It's about restoration, and it's

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about returning to God's original design. If you enjoyed this episode,

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be sure to subscribe to Chasing Eden Natural Health God's

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Way wherever you listen to podcasts, and please visit Chasingeden

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dot net for natural health articles. Until next time, I'm

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Carolyn Thompson reminding you stay curious, stay grounded, and keep

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Chasing Eden.