The Sourdough School

BREAD COURSES || NUTRITION TRAINING || DIGESTION ANALYSIS || PERSONALISED BREAD

Learn to bake, eat, and share the healthiest bread in the world. Discover how to bake as Lifestyle Medicine from the walled gardens of Dr Vanessa Kimbell’s beautiful Victorian home in rural Northamptonshire in the UK, where we train healthcare professionals, teach bakers, and support individuals to bake personalised bread using nutrigenetics and gut health assessments.

+44(0)7813308301
[email protected]
Follow on Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Student Login

Book a consultation

Navigation
  • courses
    • Book a Call
    • 12 week Bread Delivery Gut Reset Course
    • 1 Day Practitioner BALM Training Day
    • 3 Day Bake for Heath Workshops
    • 6 Day Reset Retreat
    • Annual Tuscan Retreat
    • The Diploma
  • Personalisation
    • Bread & Health Assessments
    • Personalising Bread
    • Personalising Bread Using Nutrigenetics
    • Priority Access: Join the Waiting List
  • About
    • About The Sourdough School
    • Contact Us & FAQ
    • General FAQ’s about The School
    • Request a Callback
    • Where to stay & more
    • Reviews
    • The Team
    • A Social Enterprise
    • Contributors & Guest Tutors
    • What Our Students Say
    • Login
  • Our Approach
    • Baking as Lifestyle Medicine (BALM)
    • Prove it – The Case Studies
    • 12 Week Student Support Pack
    • Bread as Preventative Health
    • Training Bakers & Healthcare Professionals
    • Diversity Bread™
    • BALM & Bread in The Blue Zone
    • Proven: Bread Podcast
  • Admissions
    • Request a callback
  • Shop
    • Our Flour and Ingredients
    • Our Books
    • Equipment
    • Flours From Farmers Directory
    • Add Farmer to the Directory

572 - ‘The breeder’s dilemma—yield or nutrition?’. Nature biotechnology. 24(9), pp.1078-1080

Reference Number: 572

Year: 2006

Authors: Morris, C.E. and Sands, D.C.

Link: Link to original paper

Summary

wheat growing in a field

Abstract

Plant breeders, challenged to create more nutritious crops, face seemingly radical choices that constitute a ‘breeder’s dilemma’. In the search for higher yields and lower farming costs, have breeders inadvertently selected for crops with reduced nutritional quality? To create foods that keep pace with our growing understanding of what constitutes healthy diets, plant breeders may need to make a significant shift away from traditional selection criteria. Subsidizing crop nutritional value rather than yield could be an important and economical driver for this shift in perspective.

 
“Solving the breeder’s dilemma requires a radical shift in perspective.”

Significance to the baker

The breeder’s dilemma is the decision faced by plant breeders to grow crops with a higher yield but which are less nutritious, or to grow crops with greater nutritional value but which may come with higher costs. This paper argues that the push for greater levels of production has significantly reduced the quality of the crops and food produced (inc. animal-derived foods). There is growing evidence linking our diets to type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers and a shift towards the production of nutritious crops may reduce the risk of developing these diseases. 

Bread, in all its forms, plays a significant role in our diets. By learning about how wheat is produced and the true nutritional value of the flour that we use, we can endeavour to introduce more nutritious grains and ingredients into our baking. Not only will your bakes taste good, but they’ll also be nourishing your body. 

Take a look at our courses at The Sourdough School

All reasonable care is taken when advising about health aspects of bread, but the information that we share is not intended to take the place of treatment by a qualified medical practitioner. You must seek professional advice if you are in any doubt about any medical condition. Any application of the ideas and information contained on this website is at the reader's sole discretion and risk.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Email Sign Up

BANT Member
Lifecode GX

Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2025 Vanessa Kimbell
Call +44 (0)7813308301 | Email [email protected]
Registered in England & Wales: 08412236
Website by Callia Web