"For the past 10 years, bread has been under attack."
Professor Zhou Weibiao, a food scientist at the National University of Singapore, isn't wrong.
According to current nutritional thinking, white bread is digested too fast, spikes blood sugar levels and is linked to obesity. In short, it's the enemy of healthy eaters.
Zhou's answer to this problem? He's invented a purple bread.
Rich in cancer-fighting antioxidants, digested 20% slower than regular white bread, and made entirely of natural compounds, it could be the first superfood of the baked goods world.
The great bake off
A long-time staple food, bread's big problem is its high glycemic index: its sugar content speedily gets into the blood stream, causing blood sugar levels to peak and crash.
Furthermore, its rapidly digestible starch content means people often eat more of it than they should.
"The challenge was to see if we could change the formula of bread, without changing the smooth texture of white bread that people really love," says Zhou.
He decided to extract anthocyanins from black rice -- which give the grain its much trumpeted antioxidant qualities -- and infuse it in his bread. Zhou left behind the rice's starch properties.
"Despite its antioxidant capacity and associated health benefits, the knowledge of using anthocyanins as an ingredient in food products is very limited."
Adding anthocyanins to the bread not only turns it purple: due to a chemical reaction with the starch enzymes, it slows the digestion rate by 20%.
What is more, 80% of the antioxidant qualities are preserved in the breadcrust and crumbs when baked at 200 degrees Celsius.