Healthy types of bread

To many it is fairly familiar that certain varieties of bread are more healthy than others, with the bottom of the list reserved for the white bread. But, unfortunately, a recently conducted research study, which was also made public by means of British Journal of Nutrition, made a discovery that the whole wheat bread theory has some cracks in it. One of the authors of this research study, professor Terry Graham (carb scientist) of University of Guelph, conducted a thorough examination of peoples’ responses when given different varieties of bread for breakfast and lunch. The tested varieties of bread were the following:

White breadWhole wheat breadWhole wheat bread with barleySourdough white bread

One important fact is that all the participants were men, aged 50 to 60, and overweight.

Sourdough bread is the one that proved to be the most beneficial, given the fact that all the men who participated showed the most positive and satisfactory responses. This also means lowered levels of blood sugar. To a great surprise, the bottom of the list was not reserved for white bread, but for whole wheat bread instead. The latter was responsible for causing blood sugar levels to spike up, and this lasted for quite some time after the lunch was over. And another astonishing fact is that the white bread actually ended up in the second spot, being better than even the whole wheat bread with burley.

One of the main reasons why the sourdough bread is the healthiest is that, in making, it goes through a fermentation process that has an altering effect on the starches, thus making them even more healthy. On the other hand, its counterpart, the whole wheat bread, goes through almost the same refining process as the white bread. During this process, the most health beneficial substances and ingredients, such as wheat germ and bran, are removed and then brought back again but in much smaller quantity than started with. This takes its toll on the wheat bread heavily. And this is exactly what the majority of people is unaware of. Aside form the sourdough bread, other extremely health beneficial and also savory bread varieties include such as multi grain bread, flaxseed bread, pumpernickel, oar bran, and rye bread. When it comes to white bread, it also has its qualities, mainly it is enriched with calcium, thiamium, iron and niacin.