Eat Your Crusts!

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When I was a child, my mother always pushed me to eat the crusts on bread.  She claimed they would make my hair curl!

It turns out that scientific studies are now showing that the healthiest thing about bread may indeed be the crust.  German scientists found that bread crusts contain a novel cancer fighting antioxidant, called pronyl-lysine.  This substance is not present in uncooked flour, but is formed during the baking process.  Pronyl-lysine was found to be eight times more abundant in the crust than in the soft part of the bread.

The reaction that produces it only occurs on the surface of the bread where the temperature is higher.  During baking, the temperature in the middle of the bread cannot rise more than one hundred degrees Celsius because of the water in the dough.  The surface however is often at oven temperature of at least two hundred and fifty degrees Celsius.

The time spent at higher temperatures also explains why dark breads contain higher concentrations of antioxidant than white bread.  Some pumpernickel bread, for example, is cooked for nearly twenty hours, compared with one or two hours for ordinary wheat based breads.

Work in Germany measured the level of certain enzymes in crusts, thought to help prevent cancer.  The results using human intestinal cells were encouraging.  Crusts boosted enzyme levels nearly fifty per cent. Animal studies gave similar results.

So next time, remember, eat your crusts!