Question: I'm getting into nutrition and had a question or two about whole-wheat bread. Is it really a lot better for you than white bread? Can you make your own from wheat you grind, or do you need to buy whole-wheat flour? Can you make whole-wheat bread in a breadmaker? Thanks for your column, I read it every week.
Answer: I'll answer the first question from an article by Nancy Clark about bread from the December 1993 issue of The Physician and Sportsmedicine. The food guide pyramid calls for six to 11 servings of bread and grain products every day. According to a Gallup survey, Americans eat only half that amount.
- Is whole-wheat bread really that much better? Bread made from 100 percent whole-wheat flour has more fiber, magnesium, zinc and several other trace nutrients than does bread made from refined white flour, since the refining process strips away some of the nutrients.
However, bread's strongest nutritional asset is its carbohydrate store, which provides the foundation of a healthy diet. The nutrient-dense fruits, vegetables, lean meats and low-fat dairy foods eaten along with bread are the powerhouse sources of vitamins and minerals.
- Then, is white bread worthless and filled with empty calories? Actually, "enriched" white bread is a good source of iron, thiamine, niacin and riboflavin, as well as carbohydrates. Most whole-wheat breads have at least twice the fiber as white bread, but some white breads contain a vegetable fiber that boosts the fiber value. The goal is to get from 25 to 36 grams of fiber a day, and whole-wheat bread will help you reach that goal.
- Is bread fattening? Plain bread is really not a "fattening" food because most of the calories are from carbohydrates, which can be easily burned by your body. You can make it fattening with butter, margarine or mayonnaise. Pita bread was among the first promoted as being low in fat; but most breads now have less than 1 to 2 grams of fat per slice and from 70 to 80 calories.
- Can you make bread from your own wheat that you grind? I have several hundred pounds of storage wheat in my basement, so I have been trying to make bread from this wheat for the past year. When I made the first loaf, my wife ask me if I baked it or mined it. I have much better luck when I use store-bought whole-wheat flour than when I use my own, even though I had the wheat analyzed and it is high-protein wheat. It may be that my grinder just doesn't grind it fine enough. A neighbor who makes beautiful whole-wheat bread uses Montana white wheat. For some reason this works better than the typical hard red variety.
- Can you use a breadmaker? All of my experimentation has been in a breadmaker. I think that it is great that you can put in the mix and leave the machine to do the work. And, even my short, stubby loaves taste good to me. There is nothing better than a homemade whole-wheat bread sandwich with Adams peanut butter and honey. Eating one of those satisfies the hunger for about a year.