Baking Fry Bread
The ingredients for fry bread are: 3 c. flour, 1
tbsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1 c. warm water.
To bake fry bread flour is combined with baking powder and salt in a
large mixing bowl. Warm water is added in small amounts and knead dough
until it's soft but not sticky. Sometimes more flour or water is be
needed. The bowl is covered and let to stand for about 15 minutes. The
large egg sized ball of dough is pulled off and rolled out into a round
piece about 1/4" thick. A hole is punched in the center of each round
piercing several times with a fork to allow dough to puff.
The dough is fried in oil or other shortening until bubbles appear on
the dough. It is turn over and fried on other side until it has a golden
color.
Each fry bread has over 700 calories and 27 grams of fat. This has a
negative effect on the body. Indigenous people on Turtle Island as well
as other indigenous people living in harsh climate conditions have the
ability to store fats and sugars in the body and survive the harsh
winter or drought climate. When they eat food with natural fats and
sugars and live with outdoor activities, their body stays healthy
regardless of the harshness of the climate. If they are removed from
that climate and given food with unnatural sugars and fats their body
stores those fats and sugars at a high rate and causes damage to the
body. The first part of the body to be affected are the eyes causing
eyesight difficulties. The next are the internal organs causing obesity
and diabetes. Following that are fatal health problems such as heart
attack and internal organ failure. Fry bread is a Native dish that is
very healthy when prepared with natural ingredients, otherwise it is
very harmful especially for Native people in general.
In the National Post dated 31 August 2005 the article "Should Fry
Bread be Phased out of Native American Cultures?" Steven Edwards wrote:
"Now the U.S. Department of Agriculture says fry bread, which packs at
least 700 calories and 27 grams of fat per serving, is plain unhealthy.
Health experts also warn it could also be a leading cause of diabetes.
Ironically, it was the U.S. government that introduced fry bread to the
country's Native population. As soldiers forced Indians from their
ancestral homes in the 19th century to make way for white settlers,
opportunities to hunt for traditional foods were lost. Instead, Indians
had to make do with government-issued food rations, which included flour
and lard. Even today, the federal government's Food and Nutrition
Service continues to distribute "commodity foods" to low-income Indian
families, including several fry bread ingredients. Anti-fry bread
campaigners are emphasizing the "foreign" origins of fry bread in the
hopes of weaning diners off the dish. "Fry bread was a gift of Western
civilization from the days when Native people were removed from buffalo,
elk, deer, salmon, turkey, corn, beans, squash, acorns, fruit, wild rice
and other real food," writes activist Suzan Shown Harjo in Indian
Country Today, a leading Native American newspaper. "Fry bread is
emblematic of the long trails from home and freedom to confinement and
rations. It's the connecting dot between healthy children and obesity,
hypertension, diabetes, dialysis, blindness, amputations and slow
death." Ms. Shown Harjo, who is Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, also
argues that Indian heritage offers far better breads and other dishes."