The most balanced supermarket white
Bertinet Bakery White Yeast, 500g for £1.68 (33.6p per 100g)
This ‘white’ bread contains wholemeal and spelled flour for extra fibre, and is completely additive free. Available from Waitrose.
The ultimate bread basket treatment
Gel dark sourdough, £4.30 for 650g (66.2p per 100g)
Fans of Gail’s Bakery will be delighted that their bread is now available from Waitrose and Ocado, not the cheapest, but genuine ‘UPF-free’ McCoy.
The best bread in the budget
Sainsbury’s Farmhouse Bread White Bread, £1.45 for 800g (18.1 P per 100 g)
Welcome to Sainsbury’s for offering basic, white bread that’s super cheap and free of nasties. This bread contains only flour, water, salt and yeast.
What eating bread does to your body
Our love for bread is waning. According to the government’s Household Food Survey, we ate an average of 1,019g in 1974 – over 1kg! – Bread per person per week in England. In the year In 2014 this figure fell to 555g, and now we are down to 465g. In other words, we’re eating less than half the bread we did 50 years ago, and Mintel predicts that our appetite will continue to decline over the next five years. why? And is this trend good for our health?
Are carb-rich foods like bread ‘bad’?
Many people avoid bread along with other starchy carbohydrates because they think it is unhealthy. The theory is that bread is an easily digestible carbohydrate that the body quickly converts to glucose, causing blood sugar levels to rise and fall – or rise. The ‘highs’ make us happy, but quickly leave us feeling hungry again, making us crave that food even more. This is why some people call carbohydrates like bread ‘addictive’.
There is evidence to suggest that chronically elevated blood sugar levels can cause inflammation and increase our risk of diseases such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. And it’s true that bread is the king of carbs. “Compared to other starchy foods such as pasta, rice or potatoes, bread has a low water content and therefore a high carbohydrate content,” says Bridget Benellam, a nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation. For example, white bread contains 48 grams of carbohydrates per 100 grams, compared to 37 grams for white pasta, 27 grams for white rice and 17 grams for boiled potatoes.
But Dr Saliha Mahmood Ahmed, NHS gastroenterologist, chef and author Kitchen orderHe says it’s normal for blood sugar to spike after a meal, and it’s generally not a problem for healthy diabetics. “Of course, too much spiciness can be detrimental to our health,” she says. But she believes that carbohydrates like bread are essential for our bodies and brains to have enough energy.
She emphasizes that not all carbs — or bread — are created equal. “Whole wheat bread contains more fiber than white bread, which is a way to get a smoother blood sugar response,” she says. “For example, wholemeal bread made from ancient grains is a useful way to incorporate carbohydrates into the diet, while also adding fiber and micronutrients.”
Can eating bread cause weight gain?
Much depends on how the bread is made and the type of grain it contains, says Dr. Kimbell. “Refined and low-fiber breads prolong hunger and raise insulin levels, which contribute to weight gain.”
On the other hand, whole grains, oats and yeast can help with weight management, says Dr. Kimbell. The reasons for this are complex, but simply put, these breads contain more fiber, require more chewing, and have a more complex structure than industrial white bread. They make you feel full so you eat less of them.
Everyone’s physical response to bread is different, Dr. Kimbell emphasizes, so there’s no ‘right’ approach for everyone. The key is finding the right type of bread to suit your dietary needs.
If you think you’re eating too much bread, think about what you’re eating before you go all out. We all know that white toast with honey rarely touches the sides, so we reached for more. But fiber-rich roasted beans on toast are even more satisfying.
Does bread cause health problems and bloating?
Celiac disease (a condition in which your immune system attacks your own tissues when you eat gluten) and non-coeliac gluten sensitivity are both on the rise, says Dr. Mahmoud Ahmed. But she says it’s hard to know what role bread plays in this.
Some people argue that the Chorleywood method of breadmaking and the use of additives produce soft leavened bread faster. The theory is that the fermentation process used in Chorleywood bread is much faster than with natural yeast like sourdough, and this makes the bread harder to digest.
Dr. Mahmoud Ahmed said, “It is very difficult for scientists to identify which small piece of bread is causing the symptoms.” “They can be emulsifiers in one person or preservatives in another. Or it could be other compounds and structures created from bread processing that we cannot properly identify and understand.
Many people believe that bread causes bloating, but there are many other triggers, including artificial sweeteners, caffeinated beverages, or a combination of foods in the diet. Dr. Mahmoud Ahmed said, “Inflammation as a phenomenon does not exist in isolation with bread, it exists in the rest of the diet and the things that are eaten in general.” What’s more, she says, bloating isn’t always negative, it could just be your gut processing the fiber.
Does grain quality matter?
Advocates of the low-carb diet focus on the negative aspects of eating highly processed bread, such as the lack of fiber, additives and effects on blood sugar, Dr. Kimbell said. “It misses the fact that ‘good’ bread made from diverse, sustainably grown grains and long fermentation processes is incredibly beneficial,” she says.
The quality and variety of grains in bread directly affects gut health by providing many inexpensive, high-quality, and accessible types of fiber. “These fibers support a diverse gut microbiome, which is critical for strong health,” Dr. Kimbell said.
Bread is UPF
UPF, which includes many mass-produced supermarket breads, is a hot topic these days, with recent studies suggesting they are the source of most of our poor health. Highly processed breads are often low in fiber because the goodness has been filtered out of the flour. And many contain additives, including preservatives, emulsifiers and stabilizers, which are now linked to conditions like poor gut health.
Dr Mahmoud Ahmed welcomes the publicity around UPFs as it encourages us to look more closely at food labels and better understand what is in the products we buy.