Whole wheat bread is hugely popular today, especially among health-conscious consumers, because it is better for you than the white bread most of us grew up eating.
White Bread vs Whole Wheat Bread
From the outside, white bread and whole wheat bread are easy to tell apart by colour: white bread is creamy white, while whole wheat bread is brown. This difference in colour comes from how the bread is made.
White bread is made from refined wheat, which loses more than half the vitamins and nutrients in the grain, so it offers fewer benefits than whole wheat bread. The starch in white bread is also quickly digested and converted into sugar, so eating a lot of it can easily lead to weight gain.
Whole wheat bread is made from whole grains that are unrefined or minimally refined, so it contains every part of the grain: the bran, the endosperm and the germ. This gives it more fibre, vitamins and minerals than white bread.
Nutritional Value: White Bread vs Whole Wheat Bread
Comparing 100 g of each, the two breads differ in key nutrients as follows:
Whole wheat bread
- Calories: 247 kcal
- Total fat: 3.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 41 g
- Fibre: 7 g
- Sugar: 6 g
- Protein: 13 g
White bread
- Calories: 265 kcal
- Total fat: 3.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 49 g
- Fibre: 2.7 g
- Sugar: 5 g
- Protein: 9 g
Health Benefits of Whole Wheat Bread
The nutrients in whole wheat bread offer the following benefits:
- Improves digestion and bowel movements.
- Helps prevent constipation.
- Helps you feel relaxed and sleep well.
- Helps maintain blood sugar levels by slowing the release of carbohydrates into the bloodstream.
- Helps protect against heart disease, thanks to its high fibre, potassium and phosphorus.
- Low in sodium, which helps reduce high blood pressure.
- Helps fight free radicals, as it is rich in vitamins.
Whole wheat bread is an excellent source of carbohydrates for people who want to lose weight or control fat, because it helps keep blood sugar stable, is high in fibre and contains antioxidants. It is also suitable for people with diabetes and heart disease.
