Bread is not as bad as everyone thinks. It is actually an ally when it comes to diets. I know this must sound strange, a dietician saying that bread’s good for your diet, but the fact is that if we choose it carefully it will not be harmful for our health. Bread shouldn’t be put away for good, as any other source of carbohydrates. Remember, the secret is to lose weight in a definite way. If you take all the carbohydrates off your diet, the minute you re-incorporate them, you gain the lost weight back again. Hyper protein diets exclude all carbohydrates resulting in a fast weight loss that is nothing but an illusion. If you are making an effort, make it worth it.
Bread is a great source of energy; it gives you plenty of carbohydrates, fibre, B complex vitamins and minerals. It is prepared by mixing several flours plus yeast, salt and water. Its caloric content can vary tremendously depending on its flour composition: wheat, oat, rye, barley or corn, and even more if you add raisins, seeds, fruit, milk or fat. Choosing the right bread can actually be a way of sticking to your diet and eating a fast meal without the extra fat or sugar commonly associated with fast meals. Bread’s unique composition has a great capacity to keep you satisfied for a longer period of time while helping you regulate bowel movements. This way, substituting bread for crackers, which is very frequent on a diet, leaves you less satisfied and doesn’t necessarily translate into a lower calories intake. Crackers are usually more caloric than bread and you have to eat twice as much.
And what about whole bread or white bread? Whole bread is richer, it has more protein, vitamins and minerals and definitely more insoluble fibres, but it is usually more caloric as well. On the other hand, bagels or baguettes have no interesting nutrients but are also caloric options. Rye bread has a lower glycemic index so it is probably one of the best choices you can make. When in doubt, read the label and the nutrition facts and choose the one with less fat. Do not be fooled with health ads – packages that say “low cholesterol”, “low sodium” or “no added sugar” are not forcibly better than others. Bread is not supposed to have fat, so don’t forget to always read the label.
Now imagine your lunch break, a fast one, where you enjoy a natural strawberry juice and a great rye bread sandwich with some roasted meat, tomato and lettuce…
Doesn’t it sound tasty and healthy?
Mariana Costenla
Nutritionist/ Dietician
