## 4 Discussion  
Bread is eaten worldwide; thus, it is a useful vehicle to improve the nutritional status of the population, as its enrichment may be achieved through the incorporation of value-added compounds in the recipe as extra ingredients [62; 63; 64]. In this context, the fortification with oilseeds [6] and by-products obtained from the oilseed and olive oil industry [65; 66; 39; 67] is the focus of growing interest for the production of healthier bread, due to their content in proteins, fibers, vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, and bioactive compounds. In particular, the phytochemical composition of flaxseed and its byproducts has recently gained attention due to the interesting results obtained in bakery product fortification, which showed improved intracerebral features [68; 69; 70; 5; 71; 23; 6]. According to this evidence, our results showed a significant improvement of nutraceutical profile of the bread fortified with flaxseed cake in a dose-dependent manner, regardless of the leavening agent utilized. Particularly encouraging was also the significant decrease of the n-6:n-3 ratio observed together with the raise of the fortification level until the values fell in the recommended range from 3:1 to 1:1, as expected considering the scientific evidences available in the literature [69; 70; 5; 30; 6]. In this regard, recent studies have shown that a dietary imbalance of n-6:n-3 PUFA ratio, which is often found in the n-3-deficient Western diet of today, with values between 10 and 25 [72; 73], can promote the pathogenesis of many diseases, as it can lead to an increased production of cytokines and eicosanoids, thus determining a prothrombotic, proonstrictive, and proinflammatory state [74; 75]. However, as any modification of the bread-making process or recipe leads to changes in the quality of the final product and in its shelf life [3], their inclusion determines changes in the rheology of bread dough, which also depend on their relative percentage used combined with the dough characteristics (i.e., the nature of the leavening agent). Figure 5: (**a**) Hedonic profile of cooked breads (for both crumb and crust). Significance level ***\(p<0.001\); ns: not significant (\(p>0.05\)). (**b**) Overall hedonic indices of cooked breads (for both crumb and crust). As reported in the literature [76; 77], the addition to bread of insoluble fibers, lipids, and proteins coming from different sources affects the physicochemical properties of the fortified product to various extents due to the interaction of lipids with proteins and starch, through amylose inclusion complexes and the interference in the gluten network formation. Therefore, a negative effect, in particular at the highest levels of oilseed addition, was highlighted on bread volume, with a resulting increase of crumb hardness and a possible faster staling of the loaves [5; 23]. However, this effect is not clearly defined as, in contrast to these results, a softer texture and a delayed staling of bread supplemented with uncoated flaxseed or coated ground flaxseed at 10% and 15%, respectively, was observed [33]. This result can probably be ascribed to an increase in bread moisture content or the presence of some flaxseed compounds such as flaxseed gum, proteins, and fats, which contributed to the improvement of the dough structure. On the other hand, a general problem is the low stability to lipid oxidation of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids of which oilseeds are an important source [6; 78; 79]. Indeed, breads enriched with 10% roasted ground flaxseed showed a significant increase in the peroxide value starting from only two days of storage [79], confirming the evidence described in previous research studies for similar products [78]. As previously mentioned, the incorporation of antioxidant substances such as phenols, tocopherols, and ascorbic acid that can interrupt lipid autoxidation by interfering either with the chain propagation or the decomposition process could represent a partial solution to this problem [80; 81]. [PERSON] et al.