People have
been eating bread for ages, but it wasn’t always white. White bread is made
from bleached white flour and is not the best choice for those who want to keep
weight off. Instead, acquire a taste for whole grains and improve your health
while maintaining your weight loss.
What is the
deal with white bread? White bread is made from bleached flour. The flour
didn’t start off white, but a bleaching process was added to increase the
longevity of the product. Who knew?
Anyway, the
bleaching process removes a lot of the vitamins and nutrients found in flour.
It also removes the germ of the wheat and the bran. What is left contains lots
of starch. It is this starch that rapidly converts to sugars in the body and
gets stored as fat if not used.
If you know
anything about the glycemic index of foods, carbohydrates with a high GI value
are known to spike the blood sugar. This leads to problems with insulin
secretion and an increased craving for more sugar which begins the vicious
cycle all over again.
Whole grain
bread is a purer form of wheat. The bread contains the bran, germ and Endosperm
of the wheat which also contains all the nutrients and fiber. If you’ve ever eaten
7-grain or 10-grain breads you’ll notice there are even things that look like
seeds in the loaf. The fiber helps to keep the digestive system clear and also
removes some fat from your system.
Not only is
white bread not the healthiest bread, but everything made from bleached white
flour will cause major changes in your blood sugar over the course of the day.
That includes: white flour tortillas, pancake mixes, biscuit mixes and any
processed or frozen foods made with white flour. If you look on the packages,
one of the ingredients is bleached flour or enriched white flour. When you see
these you’ll know it’s not a good buy if you’re trying to lose weight, maintain
your weight or just watching your fat and calorie intake.
You can buy
wheat flour in the grocery store. Mix your own pancake batter and even pizza
dough for an alternative to the white flour products so readily available on
the store shelves.
They now
make whole wheat pastas too. The taste takes a bit of getting used to but your
pasta will retain more of the essential nutrients your body needs to stay
healthy and strong. For a steadier blood sugar during the day and to stave off
hunger, integrate more whole wheat and grains into your meals.
Losing
weight takes work but so does maintaining a successful weight loss. It is not
as hard as losing the weight if you know where the fat and calories will try to
re-enter your life. One way to stop these things from ruining all your hard
work before you know is to go whole grain!