Italian researchers find that women who eat white bread have two times the risk of heart disease than women who eat wheat.

When we were young and our folks asked us what bread we wanted our peanut butter and jelly on—white or wheat—our answer depended upon our mood at the time.  Did we want the white, which had a more bland taste but soaked up the jelly and peanut buttery goodness, or did we want the wheat, which had a more distinctive taste but didn’t marry with the PB and J quite as well as the white did?

Now that we’re older—and with any luck more health conscious than taste conscious—we hopefully choose wheat over white because it has the complex carbohydrates and fiber that white bread is void of, both of which are great for maintaining healthy weight levels and regularity.

But there’s another why white should always play second fiddle to wheat:  It may double your risk for heart disease.

In a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Italian scientists found that women who tended to eat high glycemic foods like white bread, pastries and ice cream had more than two times the risk of having heart disease later in life compared to women who ate foods low on the glycemic index.

Writing in the journal, Italian scientist Sabina Sieri and her colleagues said, “A high consumption of carbohydrates from high glycemic index foods, rather than the overall quantity of carbohydrates consumed, appears to influence the risk of developing coronary heart disease.”

The study of 32,500+ women also looked into the diets of over 15,100 men to see if their consumption of high glycemic foods affected their heart health.  But interestingly, no such linkage could be made between the kinds of carbohydrates men ate.  Researchers attribute the differentiation to the fact that men and women metabolize foods differently.

So, does this give men the green light to eat white bread and corn flakes whenever they want?  Alternatively, does this mean women should avoid white bread like the plague?

To both, the answer is no.  There’s nothing wrong with an occasional sandwich with white bread, so long as your bread options are more often than not 100 percent whole wheat.

And men, while your choice of bread may not influence your heart disease risk, a 10-year study conducted by Harvard researchers in 1994 found that men who ate high fiber breads like wheat had fewer heart attacks and fewer strokes than men who opted for white.

So when you’re out perusing the bread aisle and deciding what bread’s best, keep the white out of sight and make wheat your new favorite treat.

But buyer beware:  Don’t assume that brown in color means it’s wheat.  Many breads are made with refined flour; they’re just dyed brown with caramel color to make it look like they’re wheat. Read the ingredients label.  If the first listing doesn’t say “100 percent whole wheat,” put the brown down.

Sources:
vegetariantimes.com
msnbc.msn.com

A satisfying alternative to whole wheat is rye, study confirms.

As any sandwich connoisseur will tell you, the bread is the real meat of the meal.  A submarine sandwich with sub-par bread turns a tasty treat into a dining disaster.

For instance, a six-inch hoagie filled with lean meats and organic vegetables sounds healthy, but not if it’s wrapped in a cocoon of refined flour (i.e. white bread).

Yet wrap that same sandwich in a 100 percent whole wheat sub roll, and a nutritional lightweight becomes a nutritional heavyweight, as all three parts of the grain are used (the bran, the germ and the endosperm).  Wheat bread made from 100 percent whole wheat has loads of fiber, a nutrient that’s vital to heart health, digestive health and weight management.

But truth be told, as great as whole wheat is for the body, it can become old hat after awhile.  Pardon the pun, but wheat bread can become, well, white-bread (i.e. bland, lacking in taste).

Of course there are many other types of bread to choose from, but virtually none of them stacks up to whole wheat from a health perspective.  Ciabatta rolls are made from refined flour, so are sourdough rolls, and don’t even get me started on French rolls.

According to recent study, however, whole wheat may have met its match in rye.

Health aside, the appeal to whole wheat bread is that it leaves its noshers feeling full, thanks to richness in fiber (two slices of wheat bread has about five grams of fiber).  But rye bread has that same effect – and then some, according to findings by some Swedish researchers.

These researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences recruited 16 volunteers and assigned them specific breakfast meals.  About one-quarter of the 16 consumed bagels and toasts made from whole wheat flour, and the remaining 12 consumed toasts and bagels made from rye flour.  The only variable in the study was the fiber content among the rye breads (some were made from sifted rye flour, so they had lower fiber concentrations than full rye bran and 100 percent whole wheat flour); the caloric content of all the breads was the same.

Based on the responses from the volunteers, the researchers found that those who had the rye breakfasts felt full the longest.  What’s more, this high degree of satiety was amongst every rye eater, which is to say that all the rye eaters felt fuller longer than the whole wheat eaters (i.e. people with bread from sifted rye flour consumed lesser amounts of fiber than those with 100 percent whole wheat, yet felt fuller longer).  The bread with the highest “fullness factor,” though, was the rye bran.

This study was published in the journal Nutrition Journal.

So there you have it, rye beats whole wheat in the “fullness factor.”

So, if you’re worn out with whole wheat, give rye a try!  Crumb for crumb, it’s every bit as nutritious and delicious!

Sources:
nutraingredients.com
vegetariantimes.com