Choosing Healthy Bread
I’m gonna have to be honest here and say that bread is not really a high quality food. Nonetheless, it is a favourite of many, cause it’s just so tasty! So, the question is, “how do you choose good bread?”
First, “Whole grain” means that whole grains have been used in the product. This means that the grains in use (generally wheat, and/or rye, spelt, corn, etc.) have not been “processed” or stripped of some of their nutritious components. This is the first step to a good bread.
The second thing I want to recommend is the “squeeze test”. Give the bread a light squeeze to see if it is dense or not. If the bread is dense (ie hard throughout the bread… not stale or a “French stick”), it is probably descent bread. If it is soft… probably not so good. These softer breads tend to have a lot of sugar, yeast, and other crapped-out ingredients. The denser breads generally have less ingredients (often no yeast or sugar), and are much higher in fibre and other nutrients. They also have a lower glycemic index value, and thus contribute less to weight gain than conventional breads.
Hope this helps you on your bread shopping excursions!