What?!?! Whole wheat bread is NOT good for you?

So when I started this whole "eating healthier" thing, I ditched white bread for whole wheat bread, thinking of course that I was making a healthier selection to get my bread fix. Here is something that you should probably know before we get too far into this blog thing - I LOVE BREAD. Any bread you can think of, I love it. I thought when I started cutting out unhealthy things, including bread, sweets, etc., I would have the most intense cravings for sweets. Boy was I mistaken. Did I crave pizza, ice cream, cookies, or cheeseburgers? Nope. I craved bread - sweet rolls, warm sourdough bread with cold butter on top, Oscar's breadsticks, even just some regular old toasted bread would do. And you know the most awful part about being a breadaholic? It is EVERYWHERE. I mean, geez. Every time you sit down for a meal, they're putting bread and butter in front of you. And once it's in front of me, forget about it. I sit there and stare at it until before I know it, I am slowly raising a piece to my mouth and savoring one delicious bite of carb heaven. So anyway, that is what I have to deal with on a daily basis - my bread obsession.

So I was thinking, there is no way in hell I can cut off bread. I mean, you need carbs for energy right? Bread has got to have some nutritional value, right? So that's when I made the switch to whole wheat bread. Sure it wasn't as delicious as those Oscar's breadsticks, but it was BREAD. So for months, I ate wheat bread as my bread substitute, thinking I was being oh so healthy. Then reality stepped in and slapped me in the face.

Last week I was reading one of the books I bought called "101 Healthiest Foods: A Quick and Easy Guide to the Fruits, Vegetables, Carbs and Proteins" by Dr. Joanna McMillan Price and Judy Davie. This book is great and has really opened my eyes as far as nutrition goes. It is really informative and essentially tells you the best foods to eat in the various food categories. So I started reading the carbs section when I got totally depressed. When it comes to carbs, apparently you need to look out primarily for the Glycemic Index (GI). Without getting into the nitty-gritty (you need to read the book for that), low GI foods are good for you and high GI foods are not. What determines the GI value is how the grain that makes up the bread is processed. If the bread contains the "whole" grain, it has a low GI value. If the grain is stripped down, it has a high GI value. Things like white flour and white rice are the very center of the grain - that is the part with little or no nutritional value. It is the outer parts of the grain that have the nutritional punch. This goes not only for bread, but for most carbs.

So why do we care about the GI value? Here's why. We eat food -> food is broken down into sugar -> insulin helps transport the sugar through our bloodstream to our cells to be used as fuel or stored. Now think about it, if the food you are eating has a high GI, it is creating a TON of sugar. How can our body keep up with that? The answer is easy. It can't. Our bodies have a really difficult time producing enough insulin to carry off that sugar - but that doesn't mean your body doesn't try. This leads to glucose spiking. Spiking your blood sugar level repeatedly can damage your blood vessels, make you insulin resistant (i.e. diabetes), and excess insulin in your system can put you at risk for heart disease. Now compare THAT with low GI foods. If you eat something with a low GI value, your blood sugar level remains fairly constant and your body works like a well-oiled machine. Have you ever eaten a really carb-loaded meal (the white processed kind of carbs), and felt good until all of a sudden you feel like crap, want to pass out, need food like stat? This is your body telling you that you overdosed on carbs.

So why was I depressed? Because here I was thinking that I was eating a low GI food. Okay, I didn't know about GI and all that crap back then, but the bread is brown - how can brown bread not be healthy?!? In fact, whole wheat bread has a high GI because it is not whole GRAIN bread. Whole wheat breads are usually made with white flour with some added whole wheat. Now whole wheat has a bit more fiber than white bread, but the GI level is the same. Now you want to know something that totally blew my mind? Sourdough bread (the white kind) has better nutritional value than whole wheat bread. How crazy is that? Now, don't go thinking that white sourdough is the healthiest bread you can buy. In reality, it is better, but not the best.

One of the best options is whole-grain bread, so off I went to the grocery store to find some. Now I have to admit, as usual, I was a little tepid about trying whole-grain bread. I mean, it just sounds bland tasting. And I remembered having multi-grain bread a while back, but I don't remember it tasting that great (obviously because I hadn't adopted it into my food arsenal!). Nevertheless, I found myself getting out of my comfort zone and buying a loaf of Alpine Valley Organic Multi Grain with Omega-3 bread. Now, why did I buy this particular brand when there were a ton of other options? Because my book warned me that even multi whole grain breads can be deceptive. You have to find bread that has a ton of grains, because multi-grain can still be made of white flour and not be made with "whole" grains. I know - those bread makers need to be bitch slapped. This bread I picked up had a bunch of grains on top and looked to have quite a few baked within the bread, so I figured it was a safer bet. You can also look for breads that say they have a low GI value (unfortunately, GI value is not on the nutritional label, so you can only know for sure if the maker advertises it).

So with my new loaf of REALLY healthy bread in hand, I came home and made myself a piece of toast. And you know what? This stuff is AWESOME. As a true bread aficionado, I have to say that this is some of the best bread I have ever had the pleasure of eating. It has a rich and hearty, homemade sweet taste. It was just so freaking good. I asked Bo what he thought, and he was also completely shocked at how good it was. I have had two slices with my breakfast every morning, in place of what used to be my whole wheat toast, and I have to admit that I feel fuller for longer and feel this long-lasting upbeat kind of energy that whole time. The lesson I've learned from this experience is that maybe discovering that what you're eating isn't the best for you isn't so bad. After all, if I had never started this nutritious eating kick, I never would have discovered that whole wheat bread was a total poser. I never would have even contemplated whole-grain bread, and I never would have had the knowledge to pick the right TYPE of whole-grain bread. And without all of that, I never would have experienced some of the best bread I have had in a really long time.

Score: ME: 3, FOOD: 0.

Some fun facts about "whole" grain bread:

1. According to the current dietary guidelines, you should be eating at least five servings of grains, and two to three of your daily servings should be from "whole" grains. It is likely that when the 2010 guidelines come out, that number will be upped to three servings a day of "whole" grains. You know how many the average American eats? One. More than 30 percent of Americans eat none.
2. Eating whole grains as opposed to the processed, refined grains has been shown to reduce the risk of chronic illness, including the risk for strokes, diabetes, and heart disease.
3. Whole grains are also a great tool for weight maintenance because that low GI value keeps your blood sugar level constant, which prevents glucose spikes that refined grains cause. If your blood sugar level remains constant, you are constantly getting energy over a more prolonged span of time. This means you are less likely to overeat or snack between meals.
4. Fiber - Whole grain is usually accompanied by fiber, which is always important to a healthy diet for already mentioned reasons.

Sources:

1. 101 Healthiest Foods: A Quick and Easy Guide to the Fruits, Vegetables, Carbs and Proteins by Dr. Joanna McMillan Price and Judy Davie (2008).
2. Whole Grains Council
3. Get on the Grain Train!
4. 2005 Dietary Guidelines - These are the guidelines that are currently in effect. Later this year, the USDA will release the 2010 revised guidelines.