Is brown bread healthy ?

The flour in white bread is more highly processed than that in whole wheat bread. During processing, the germ and bran of the wheat grain are removed, leaving only the white, starchy endosperm. Although the endosperm is the largest part of the grain, it contains the least nutrients.  Whole wheat flour still has the germ and bran intact and therefore contains more nutrients (including fiber) than white flour. ⏩The germ is rich in fibre and lots of nutrients – Vitamin E, folic acid, thiamin (vitamin B 1), zinc, magnesium and essential fatty acids ⏩The bran – this is also very rich in fibre. ⏩The endosperm is the starchy carbohydrate store in the grain – this is what is ground down to make flour.

When white bread is made, the bran and the germ are removed, so most of the nutrients are too.

Moving on to brown bread, this is not as good as it might first appear – it is not particularly high in fibre (1.1g a slice as below)  as brown bread is usually a 50:50 split between white and wholemeal flour. Some brown breads contain caramelised sugar or molasses to help give it it’s brown colour as we associate brown with a healthier type of bread.  I have a feeling this sugar is added just to ‘sweeten’ bread, so we buy more wholemeal and brown bread.  It’s not necessary in the production of bread as they don’t put this much sugar in white bread.  This is a sneaky manipulation of the product.

So finally if you are in carb based diet the best option is multigrain bread amd gluten free bread.

Is Brown bread healthy ?