White Bread: Why Is It Bad For You?
This one item that has long been a constant at every body's breakfast tables, has earned quite a bad reputation over recent years. We keep being told that white bread is bad for us, for your health; why exactly is this? What is it about white bread that is so bad for you?
Here are three of those reasons which will make you think again about the bread you choose to buy.
Refined flour
The process of refining wheat flour strips it of many of the nutrients and health giving properties that wheat naturally has.
The wheat germ and bran, which are the most nutritious part of the wheat grain, includes vitamins and minerals and these are removed when making refined flour. All that remains is starch and small quantity of protein.
This protein is not a good quality protein. The starch is converted into sugar and is stored in the body as fat. Refined flour provides what are sometimes known as empty calories, or calories without the goodness or nutritional value of wholesome food.
Low Fiber
Fiber is an essential for the healthy functioning of the human body and for the efficient working of the digestive system. In milling of refined flour, the fiber of the wheat grain is removed and what is left is not healthy.
Lack of sufficient fiber in the body also makes it difficult for the colon to evacuate the bowels of waste matter effectively, which can lead to irritable bowel syndrome and even cancer of the colon.
Digestive rates and the efficiency with which the food is digested slows down. There are also greater amounts of fat deposits and this increases how negatively eating white bread can impact health.
Bleaching
Have you ever wondered why that loaf of white bread is so white when the grain that it comes from is brown? Well the fact is that the flour that is used to make the bread is routinely bleached using chemicals, which results in the white color.
There are several potentially harmful bleaching agents used for this and among them is chloride oxide, which, when combined with whatever proteins are still left in the flour, produces alloxan. This is a poison and has been used to produce diabetes in laboratory animals. Chlorine oxide destroys the vital wheat germ oil which is another nutritive element destroyed.
For someone who has eaten white bread all their lives, the switch to whole grain bread (as against brown bread, which may simply have some caramel added for the color) may be a bit difficult, however you can soon get used to the change, and can also start to appreciate a healthier and tastier meal option.