Is bread nutritious?

[Subtle_badger]

In the attached picture, column 1 is whole Wheat Bread, 2 is Chicken Liver and 3 is Avocado; it shows the vitamins you get from 200kcal of each

Someone tried to provoke me by telling me I should eat nutritious whole grain bread. It did provoke me. I'm sorry 😳

But then I wondered, can bread - any bread - really be called nutritious, as in full of nutrients?

A food can only be nutritious by having more nutrients than other foods. After following the link I was given (verywellfit.com/whole-wheat... and doing further research, it seems clear to me that wholegrain bread might be healthier than white bread, but that's about it. If you exclude other grains, sugars and manufactured foods, any whole foods (including potatoes) will knock it out of the park.

I found an amazing site that let's you enter foods and compare them. After a bit of playing, I decided comparing isocalorific amounts of whole wheat bread and two foods I often eat and see how the nutrients stacked up. Those foods were liver and avocado and I selected 200kcal of all three.

Isoclarific means the same calories. This is the nutrition from 200kcal of wheat bread, chicken liver and avocado.

tools.myfooddata.com/nutrit...

I have to admit, I was actually surprised by the difference. Until today I had thought wholegrain bread was nutritious, just not worth the carbs. But after seeing this, it's not worth the calories. There are a couple of minerals that the bread beats the other two (most notably sodium/salt) but almost every other metric, the bread adds nothing to your diet. I've attached the vitamins. Click the link to see the other nutrients.

If I was chowing down on a liver/avocado meal (🤮 this is a gedanken experiment, not something I would eat), would you advise me to replace some of it with a slice of bread, or add a slice of bread on top? I wouldn't. The bread wouldn't improve the nutrient profile or the satiety.

[Cooper27 Administrator]

I think you're breaking down my sandwich question from last week into constituent parts 🤔

I used to think of bread as fairly neutral. I used to eat bread as a "healthy" breakfast and a panini for a "healthy" lunch, whereas now I wonder what I was thinking.

I don't think we always have to consider bread as unhealthy (it's always the first thing I crave if I'm sick, which I think is about the easy energy) but I think challenging yourself to give it up, leaves a lot of room for more nutrient dense options on your plate.

[happytulip in reply to Cooper27]

You're so right. I haven't had bread for two months but have not felt good today so two pieces of sourdough toast with butter and marmalade was very welcome.

[Subtle_badger in reply to happytulip]

Interesting. I just realised that I haven't felt poorly since I gave up bread 🤔

[Shield-Maiden]

Interesting Post Subtle_badger....thank you.

I agree, Whole Wheat bread, is better in nutrients, than white bread....but really, bread is bread (and not healthy, for me at least).

Bread is processed, whereas your other two foods are natural, and, they are not processed....I wouldn't advise you to eat the bread lol

Take care,

Shield

[Isinatra in reply to Shield-Maiden]

The chart was informative, but what to do when one has a craving for a good old BLT? Something has to hold that goodness together. 😁😉

[Subtle_badger in reply to Isinatra]

You could just have the bacon, lettuce and tomato.

The bread isn't essential. It makes an excellent lettuce wrap.

Lettuce wrap © https://www.laurafuentes.com/blt-lettuce-wrap/

[Isinatra in reply to Subtle_badger]

Looks good enough to eat! 👍🏼

[AnnieW55 in reply to Subtle_badger]

Here we must agree to disagree. I rarely eat bread, it’s something that has virtually disappeared along the way, much like many things as my diet has changed over the years with a lower carb, higher good fat way being my normal. I have no need to avoid bread due to a health condition or digestive reason I just don’t think about eating it. But very occasionally I have, and thoroughly enjoy, a bacon and egg roll aka a bap (no butter, my choice) when visiting a certain area. Great as they are a lettuce wrap just wouldn’t work for me then.

[Shield-Maiden in reply to Isinatra]

You're so right lol

I used to live on Sandwhiches for meals, but I can't do that these days.

If I craved bread, I would opt for a very grainy seedy bread, using thin slices.

If you enjoy bread, and can eat it, then enjoy...

.....a little bit of what we fancy, is okay, I'm sure 😊

[Isinatra in reply to Shield-Maiden]

My thinking exactly, SM. Whatever floats your boat at that moment, but doesn’t sink it. 🙃😋😁

[MTCee]

I haven’t eaten proper bread for many years. When I did eat it, I always regarded it as a healthy choice especially the whole meal or sourdough varieties. But my body never dealt well with it. Even before I realised I was gluten intolerant, it would really spike my blood sugar levels and I’d crave more of it. It seemed like an addictive food. For the first few years after cutting it out of my life, I still wanted it and looked enviously at others who could eat it 😂 but now I don’t miss it and I wonder what I liked about it. It just seems like empty calories. Not much better than a sugary drink or some cake. It’s a food of convenience really and should be seen for what it is rather than being sold as healthy.