Why do they say white bread is bad for you?

Question

Bob Seebohar, MS, RD, CSSD · Answer

OK. The question, why do they say white bread is bad for you? Well, if you've listened to some of my answers, you know that I'm not really a big proponent of labeling or shaming food good or bad. But white bread in general is usually a little bit lower in what's called nutrient density so there won't be as many nutrients. There's less fiber, less vitamins, less minerals. So normally, it's just a little bit less nutrient dense. You can get a lot more bang for your buck if you do more of a whole grain bread. I hope that helps.

Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RD, LD · Answer

Okay, this question is from Brett and he says, why do they say white bread is bad for you? So let's get into the concept of how white bread is made. The wheat, kernel has three different components to it. The bran The Germ and the endosperm, the brand, and the Burr, and The Germ, have all the B vitamins. They got all the fiber. They got all the magic that helps with disease reversal and helps with our overall longevity. The endosperm is just like the starch, right? So, what happens is when whole-grain bread turns into white bread, they strip the brand in The Germ, they stripped the B vitamins, they strip, the fiber, all of those great things. And what is left, is the endosperm. Now, why is just the endosperm left? Because the starch is what is palatable? And when I use the word palatable, I mean it tastes good, kids like it, it's easier to digest in terms of like, hey, no problems here, not a lot of fiber. But it has no nutrient density. So I don't want to look at white bread as something, that is bad because I don't like using the term good or bad with food, but let's kind of change the semantics. And look at white bread is something that is not going to help contribute to prevention of chronic disease to longevity Etc. The other problem with white bread is that it's going to make your insulin and your blood sugar, just go nuts. And when that occurs and your blood sugar then drops, you Eat more food and typically you want to eat the wrong things. So there's a lot of Concepts to look at with this, but for the most part, let's focus on whole grain bread as much as possible. 100% whole wheat, 100% whole grain. If you're low carb you can maybe, you know, limit how much you're having a vet and more go more towards intact grains when you do have grains, but that's our general answer. Let's get with something that has all three components of the wheat, kernel, if we're going with that version of bread, all right. Great question.

Cliff McArthur, MS RDN CSSD · Answer

Why they say white bread is bad for you? Well, I don't really like to say any one thing too, often is always bad for you, white bread is not bad for you. If you're in the middle of a Backcountry, backpacking trip, and you're burning for 5000 calories every day. They say, white bread is bad for you. Because during the million or refining process that creates the white flour protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals and other really beneficial healthful phytochemicals are real. Both. So they're stripped. So you don't get those in the finished product. The enrichment product, it does add or process, does add some vitamins and minerals back but not everything. So what you're left with is almost exclusively carbohydrate right now, when protein and fiber aren't there to get in the way of or slow down digestion, your blood sugar can Spike pretty significantly. That's a concern for people who are not regularly, physically active and concerned about things like pre-diabetes or diabetes. Diabetes. So that's really the only reason why they say white bread is bad for you.

Vandana Sheth, RDN, CDCES, FAND · Answer

Why do they say white bread is bad for you? The reason there is this perception that white bread is bad for you. It because white bread when it's made from refined flour where it doesn't have a lot of fiber is going to be converted to sugar fairly quickly in our body. And so you will notice a quicker spike in your blood sugar. You're also stripping the white bread because of the fine process of many of the nutrients that would be there in a whole grain product. It's not necessarily the color, but it's the nutrition profile of that bread. Now, there are products in the market now that you can find that are whole grain white bread. So it's more important to pay attention to the ingredients and the nutrition label to see what you're getting.

Dr. Felicia Stoler, DCN, MS, RDN, FACSM, FAND · Answer

Why do they say white bread is bad for you? The reason why the infamous they say that white bread is bad for you is because it tends to lack fiber. And that's pretty much mostly the reason why and whole grains but the truth is, is that most white bread is fortified. So it does have added nutrients put back into it. But let me remind you things like Italian bread and like all kinds of breads from other countries are white bread. In India, they have naan. In the Middle East and in certain countries, they eat pita. In France, they have croissants. Like, are we eating that every single day? I don't know. A focaccia bread, a homemade focaccia bread. It's essentially white bread. It just has a sort of brown crust on it, right? So all white bread is not poisoned. Should that be the only bread that you choose to eat? Absolutely not. But that is the reason why people say white bread is bad for you. And in fact, I do this, I don't have any in my house but I used to go to elementary school and show kids the difference between white bread and wheat bread. And I would take the white bread in the plastic and I'd mush it up in a ball and it would stay in the little ball that I mushed it up in. But then I would take wheat bread and I would try to do it. And then it would spring open to show that the fiber in the bread tends to allow it to pop back into shape. But there are some companies that do make white bread that have added fiber. And at the end of the day, what else are you putting on it? Are you putting on it a natural peanut butter and a fruit spread or maybe peanut butter and some bananas? Cause that's a good way to get nut butters and fruit into your body or strawberries. Or are you toasting it and having an avocado toast? So let's not throw out the baby with the bath water at the end of the day, bread can be a great way to get other great food in our body.

Scott Sehnert · Answer

Why do they say white bread is bad for you? Well, they might say white bread is bad for you because the endos sperm and the fiber of that grain has been removed along with other nutrients. And so that's why you get a softer kind of bread, but it is that has removed almost all of its nutrients. Now, you will find white bread that has been mostly fortified with some of those nutrients that have been taken out of it, but you generally can't replace the fiber that you've taken out. And so whole grain, 100% whole wheat type of bread does provide typically more nutrients and certainly more fiber.

Swimming

Strength

Triathlon

Photography

Track & Field

Nutrition

Physical Therapy

Running

Pets

Cycling

Podcasting

HealthCare

Musculoskeletal

Hockey

First Responders

Integrative Medicine

Chiropractic

Cross Country Skiing

Adaptive Sports

Mental Health

Surfing

Climbing

Tennis

Military

Mind Body

Scholars

Criminal Justice

Liquor

Golf

CrossFit

Soccer

Pickleball

Hunting

Public Speaking

Venture Capital

"Why do they say white bread is bad for you?"