Fitness Bread

With an entire grocery isles stocked with bread, crackers and snacks to choose from, how do you know which one is really doing your body the most good? I have a few tips that may help you as you wander down that particular isle or visit your local bakery. 

First things first; what does "whole wheat" mean? 

Whole wheat means they are using the entire grain of wheat and not discarding the most nutritious parts of the grain (which many types of bread do). A piece of grain contains three specific parts; germ, bran and endosperm. Most of the time when grain is milled the germ and bran are discarded making the bread primarily endosperm. The reason they do this is to extend the shelf life by taking out the germ that contains oils that speeds up the process of making the product go rancid. In addition, by discarding the bran they are producing fluffier and softer bread, because bran tends to toughen and make the bread more dense. The problem is when they take out these two parts of the grain, they are taking out the most nutrient and vitamin rich sources of the grain! Then many companies tend to bleach the remaining portion of the grain! Not something you really want done to any product that is going to enter your body.

Multi-grain is a bread that goes through the milling process and is stripped of its most important nutrients. They usually add (they use the term 'enriched') additional grains but they are still often stripped of the most important part(s) of the grain. 

So choose a bread that is 100% whole wheat or 100% whole grain. This should be the first word on the ingredient label.