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Why do they say white bread is bad for you?

White bread is generally lower in nutrient density, so it is not as beneficial from a nutritional standpoint as whole grain bread.
 
Transcript: "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."
4 Answers
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Bob Seebohar, MS, RD, CSSD

Sport Dietitian / Exercise Physiologist
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.
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Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RD, LD

Dietitian, Bestselling Author, Media Contributor
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.
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Cliff McArthur, MS RDN CSSD

Sport Performance & Medical Dietitian Nutrition
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.
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Vandana Sheth, RDN, CDCES, FAND

Dietitian, Plantbased & Diabetes Expert
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.