Researchers have come up with designer bread that is good for the heart.
A team at the University of Otago Wellington studied bread design and how its properties can reduce the risk of heart disease while also keeping ingredients costs down.
Professor Nick Wilson says bread is a staple in the New Zealand diet, making it an important food to research in relation to diet-related disease risks.
"Bread can be a way to increase dietary intake of fibre and healthy seeds such as flaxseed/linseed," he says.
"The problem of most breads being high in salt can also be addressed by reducing the amount of sodium-based salts and increasing the amount of healthier potassium-based salts."
Prof Wilson says potassium is particularly good for heart health.
The study used a computer-based method called linear programming, which allowed the researchers to get the best mix of healthy ingredients for the lowest prices all made in home bread-maker machines.
Comparisons were made with commercial white breads available in 15 OECD countries, including New Zealand. They also looked at high-seed breads in six of these countries.
The research found the optimised loaf costing $1.50 in ingredients was superior to the commercial white loaves in such categories as having lower sodium and high potassium.
The more expensive bread costing $3 in ingredients was also nutritionally superior to the commercial loaves with seeds in terms of lower sodium, higher potassium, higher dietary fibre, and the best polyunsaturated fatty acid to saturated fatty acid ratio.
It was this version of the bread that included a moderate amount of added linseed and also some walnuts.
The researchers have suggested a Government-funded 'heart healthy bread' system (Supplied)
"Dietary risk factors are particularly important for non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer," Prof Wilson says.
"New Zealand could do more to prevent these by making improvements to the food environment and one of them is providing the option of low-cost healthier breads."
The researchers say the designer bread could be promoted by health agencies and provided in workplace cafeterias and public hospitals.
However, Prof Wilson says while the team liked the taste of the bread, it would have to be taste tested by consumers to make sure it ticked all the boxes.
The new study is published in the international journal BMC Nutrition.
Newshub.