Modern bakery wholemeal bread. Yay or nay?

frobisher

I mean the kind of stuff that is a slice pan but is made with wholemeal flour (I'm not fooled by packaging and read the ingredients, JM&oB's "wholegrain" bread is made with white flour? B*st*rds). I very rarely buy white bread now but do buy the wholemeal slice pans. I presume they're not as good as the more rustic style loafs but are they still okay?

rubadub

I am not sure. what I do konw is "wheat flour" is definitely bad, and many of the brown breads out there have it as the main or second main ingredient, like I expect your JM&OB is

frobisher

I know, it's quite tricky. There is no doubt that the bakery's are trying to peddle their usual wares but dressing them as being healthier than they are. Yesterday for a change I decided to buy Hovis with wheatgerm. The main ingredient is "Hovis Flour". I mean wtf is that?! It tastes okay but I won't be buying it again.

rubadub

Yeah it is messed up this wheat germ stuff. It is like they get perfectly good wheat, strip the kernels off it processing it to make wheatgerm, then bleach the flour, then add the wheatgerm back to make it "wholegrain"!
stupid really just like most of the "brown sugar" here is crap too, they get good cane sugar, process it separating the treacle/mollases, bleaching the rest to be white sugar. Then they get sugar beet, process and bleach it and add in treacle. Ehhhh!?! why not skip all this separating and remixing and just give us the original raw product...

Most say mc-cambridges is decent bread, I do like it with cheese or butter BUT it is totally different bread to sliced pans, you can't make a decent sandwich with it and it has a totally different texture.

because_I_can

why eat bread at all?

PeadarofAodh

Yeah, let them eat cake...

brianthebard

A good/better choice might be bread that has no hydrogenated fat in it, I've noticed it on a few different brands the last while, like foxfords.

turbot

My understanding is this:

- The less refined the flour, the slower you metabolise it, the better it is for your blood sugar levels

- The less refined the flour, the higherthe concentration of nutrients

So - wholemeal bread is better than white - though is not neccessarily an optimal food. Also many people seem slighly alergic to wheat, and feel better when they exclude it.

Finally - the metabolism part can be helped if you are wise in how you digest it - for example - if you have cheap wholemeal bread + jam (sugar) - tis not good. If you have two slices, with a scrambled egg and some lightly fried mushrooms and salsa, it's better.

King of Kings

because_I_can wrote:

why eat bread at all?

cos it's nice and fills you up.

also it's handy to carry the rest of the food in

brianthebard

Make the bread yourself-its piss easy and you'll know exactly what went into it.
http://ballina.mayo-ireland.ie/Brigown/SodaBrd.htm

That's a recipe for soda bread. Yeast bread has even less ingredients and no fat. (or no added fat at any rate)

j@utis

because_I_can wrote:

why eat bread at all?

I eat bread very rarely, I can live without, never miss it. But if I eat it then it's always 100% rye bread. Dunno how better it is than wheat bread, but at least it looks so much more natural.

brianthebard

But if you don't eat bread, what do you spread the butter on???;)

j@utis

what's butter?

Sauce

Brennans Wholemeal is pretty decent and has wholemeal flour listed as its first ingredient