Whole/Sprouted Bread vs. White Bread

This one is for all of you white bread lovers! Do you ever wonder what is the big difference in white bread vs whole grain or sprouted bread? There is a big difference, and here it is: White bread is made with highly refined grains, meaning much of the outer coating of the wheat kernel has been removed stripping it of its nutrients and fiber. After they have stripped everything good from the grain, they have to add something “good” for you back in, which is where the term “enriched” comes from that you will see on the majority of labels. This process started during World War II, an effort to make the bread healthy. What they add back in are- 4 B vitamins; Niacin, Riboflavin, Thiamine, Folic Acid and Iron. Funny, they have added back in the vitamins that they took out during the stripping process! Now let’s talk about the bleaching process…What is it and what does it do? It's called Chlorine and it does two things; First, it bleaches, that is, it destroys the yellowish pigments in the flour that makes the pure white flour. This yellowish pigment that is destroyed is actually carotene, which your body converts into vitamin A. Second, it matures the flour by reacting with the gluten. The chlorinated flour makes a more elastic dough, better able to hold the carbon dioxide produced by the yeast. White bread also lacks in fiber, and without fiber, your body digests the bread quickly, causing your blood sugar levels to spike even more so than the whole grains or sprouted grains. These too cause your levels to rise, but on a much slower scale. After eating white bread and having your sugar levels rise quickly, you become hungry sooner and may end up craving more carbohydrates, along with the fact that you are getting absolutely no nutritional value from white bread. Another interesting fact is that many white breads and even whole wheat breads contain added sugars, including high fructose corn syrup, and extra added ingredient used to make it taste great, but is absolutely not needed in your diet! Bread made with 100 percent whole wheat flour has more naturally occurring B vitamins and fiber than highly refined white bread. Sprouted grain varieties, contain greater amounts of muscle-supporting protein, something our "white" counterpart does not provide. Sprouted grains have active enzymes that are beneficial for helping the digestion of the seeds and nuts in the digestive tract, this is why many people that have an intolerance to wheat bread can eat spouted grain breads without a problem. Sprouted breads are found in the frozen/refrigerator section for a reason. The reason is they are referred to as a "live" food because the seed is first sprouted, making it “alive” and active in its growth process. They have live active enzymes and the fats in this whole grain bread make it more likely to become moldy if kept at room temperature. Remember too, that packaging labels can be misleading! Just because it says whole wheat, doesn’t mean its whole wheat. You need to read the label to make sure it does not read “enriched”, this is the process referred to earlier. This type of labeling is very misleading, and should not be allowed. If you do not know what you are looking for, you can be fooled by their whole wheat labeling scams. Your labels should be simple with whole grains, sprouted grains, nuts & seeds. Molasses, honey and cane sugars are great alternatives to sugar and high fructose corn syrup. You can find spouted tortillas, english muffins and bagels too! Another note, if you feel you are Gluten intolerant, get checked! This is a blood test that checks you for Celiac disease. As I mentioned earlier some people think they are intolerant to all wheats, and go to a gluten free diet when they could easily implement sprouted grains into their diet. I just did an essay on gluten intolerance, again the labels say "gluten free" so people assume these products are good for you, and some of them are not! That is another blog!