Beware of your addiction to that soft, spongy white bread, since it has barely any nutritious value. Foreverfit guides you on how to choose a healthy loaf.
It’s hard to imagine life without that loaf. Indeed, bread is a staple food item in several countries. Giving it up is considered sacrilegious by some. However, you can’t turn away from all the nutritional evidence mounting against it.
Pick a dense loaf
Most bread, say studies, is unhealthy. That’s why you should know how to pick the healthiest loaf at bakeries. One tip is to avoid the kind that resemble cake, in their texture. The fluffier the loaf, the more likely it is to contain refined flours, baking soda, and preservatives.
Still, this doesn’t mean you should deny yourself some warm focaccia and olive oil while you wait for your main course, or pick up a fresh aromatic loaf, once in a while.
Tips for choosing healthy bread
- Choose the option with “whole grain” or “whole meal” listed as the first ingredient.
- Avoid picking up loaves made from “enriched” or “refined flours”, as these lack important dietary fibre.
- Ditch those prepared with sugars such as high fructose corn syrup and start experimenting with other varieties of breads such as rye, multigrain, seed, sourdough, and oatmeal breads into your diet.
- Authentic brown bread should not list “caramel colour” as an ingredient. The brown colour should come from the baking process of whole grain, instead.
- Look for breads that contain at least 2 g of fibre per slice, less than 200 mg of sodium per slice, no trans fats, and less than 500 mg of saturated fats per slice.
- Gluten-free bread options are often unhealthy, since they tend to be pumped with all sorts of leavening agents to make them appear to be like its fluffy gluten-full counterpart. If you are going for gluten free, look for tapioca, millet, sorghum, brown rice, arrowroot, and buckwheat flours in the ingredient list, as these are healthy.