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Should you eat bread?  No.  Another mini adventure.

Bread features very highly on the glycaemic index meaning it hits the bloodstream very quickly, giving you a short spike of energy and then leaving you empty.

Here are a couple of things to know about bread (including brown bread):

 – Vitamins and minerals are lost when flour is extracted from grinding the grain and then added back in as part of the process.  It’s still no match for the naturally occurring nutrients that were there in the first place and have been lost! The food companies are using them in their synthetic form, which are not able to properly adapt to our bodies.

– A lot of breads contain additives, E-numbers, sugar and salt.

So yes, bread gives you energy, fills you up and gives you fibre but it is ridden with chemicals and lacks a load of nutrients that the body needs. 

So what to replace it with?  Something that gives us what we want from bread AND what we actually need!  The closer your food is to its natural source the better.  Bread does not grow on trees, apples do.  You cannot kill a slice of ham but you can kill a fish.

For breakfast, porridge is often suggested as it is one of the closest cereals to nature that we can get (i.e. no additives like there are in many breakfast cereals and no sugar coated dried fruit like there is/are in many muesli concoctions).  Some people will advise you against it but let’s be honest I certainly haven’t progressed to 4 raw eggs in the morning yet! For most of us, it is a step in the right direction as long as you remember that you need all the other essential nutrients as well:

i.e.

Essential fats – how about adding some walnuts?  I prefer the taste if I crush them but whole is also fine.

Protein – milk, nuts, how about adding some natural yoghurt either on top or separately?

Vitamins/minerals – add some berries or chopped banana?

Fat and protein are known as ‘gastric inhibitors’ and adding them to a meal lowers it on the GI scale, making you feel fuller for longer.  Maybe then you won’t feel less full on porridge than you do on bread?  If you have a mid-morning snack such as a piece of fruit or a handful of seeds then this could help.

Oh, one more thing; if you still don’t feel full then try this cutting edge new idea – eat more of these healthy foods!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Nutrition and Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.