White Bread: The Danger Lurking In Your Kitchen

That one item that has long been a constant at our breakfast tables, has earned quite a bad rap in recent years.

Keep being told that white bread is bad for you, for your health; why exactly is this so? What is it about white bread that is so bad for you? There are several reasons:

Refined flour

The refining of wheat flour strips it of many of the nutrients and health giving properties that wheat has.

The wheat germ and bran, which are the most nutritious part of the wheat grain, which includes vitamins and minerals are removed when making refined flour. What remains are starch and some protein.White Bread

The protein is not good quality protein. The starch is converted into sugar and is stored in the body as fat. Refined flour provides what are sometimes known as empty calories, or calories without the goodness or nutritional value of wholesome food.

Low Fiber

Fiber is essential for the healthy functioning of the human body and for the efficient working of the digestive system. In milling of refined flour, the fiber of the wheat grain is removed and what is left is not healthy.

Lack of sufficient fiber in the body also makes it difficult for the colon to evacuate the bowels of waste matter effectively, which can lead to Irritable Bowel Syndrome and even cancer of the colon.[colon cancer]

Digestive rates and the efficiency with which the food is digested slow down. There are also greater amounts of fat deposits and this increases how negatively eating white bread can impact health.

Bleaching

Ever wonder why that loaf of white bread is so white when the grain that it supposedly comes from is brown? Well the fact is that the flour that is used to make the bread is routinely bleached using chemicals, which results in the white color.

There are several harmful bleaching agents used for this and among them is chloride oxide, which, when combined with whatever proteins are still left in the flour, produces alloxan. This is a poison and has been used to produce diabetes in laboratory animals. Chlorine oxide destroys the vital wheat germ oil which is another nutritive element destroyed.

For someone who is used to eating white bread all their lives, the switch to whole grain bread (as against brown bread, which may simply have some caramel added for the color) may be a bit difficult however one can soon get used to it, and can also start to appreciate a healthier and tastier meal option.