Navigating the bread isle can be confusing. There’s so many different types of bread – who knows what’s the best to buy?!
When choosing what buy there are a few things to consider:
- Fibre content
- Wholegrain levels
- Glycemic index
- Sodium content
White bread
You probably know white bread contains very little nutrition. Made from white flour, the grain has been stripped of the endosperm and bran – the most nutritious part of the grain. Therefore white bread provides little fibre, and only very low levels of some vitamins.
White bread is also high GI, meaning it will cause blood sugars to rise rapidly, and then fall rapidly again. You can buy low GI white bread which is a better option than standard white bread, but wholegrain bread will provide you with more nutrients.
Wholegrain breads
Whole grain bread usually describes bread made using wholemeal flour and often some white flour, with some other whole grains added, like kibbled (broken) grains of wheat, barley, oats or rye.
Wholemeal bread describes bread made mostly with wholemeal flour, and often some white flour. It will also sometimes contain added seeds and grains. Wholemeal flour is counted as wholegrain because it is made from the whole grain kernel ground into flour.
It can be hard to know the proportion of wholemeal flour to white flour because in the ingredients list, it’s most often just listed as “wheat flour” – which includes both wholemeal and white flour.
You can get an idea of the amount of wholegrain flour by looking at the nutrition panel. The higher in fibre it is, the more likely it will be to have a high content of wholemeal flour. A light wholemeal bread is likely to still be high GI whereas a bread containing wholemeal flour plus grains/seeds will more likely be low GI.
A bread that contains extra grains and or seeds as well as wholemeal flour will contain the most fibre and nutrients.
Sodium
Sodium (aka salt) in bread is one of the biggest contributors to NZ’ers salt intake. Compare different brands and choose one with a lower salt intake.
Here’s a wee checklist for when you’re shopping for bread:
- More than 5g fibre per 100g
- One containing grains/seeds
- A low GI bread.
- A bread with lower salt content
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