Is "Wheat" Bread Healthy?

Think you are making the right choice when you make your sandwich on wheat bread? 

News flash!  “Wheat” bread does NOT mean your bread is whole grain. If wheat flour is the first ingredient, you are eating white bread.  White bread is made from wheat flour… it’s just not whole wheat flour.

A dark color bread, such as rye or pumpernickel does not mean the bread is whole grain.  Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight.  The first three ingredients in many brands of rye bread are unbleached wheat flour (refined), water and rye flour (refined). The bread owes its dark color to caramel coloring. Rye and pumpernickel bread aren't much different than white bread

In order to ensure you are choosing a whole grain bread, you want the word “whole” to be part of the first ingredient. WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR listed as the first ingredient is an example of a whole grain bread.

Multi-grain sounds amazing.  This bread doesn’t have one grain, it must have many grains!  In reality, this food could have ½ a teaspoon of whole grains and a large quantity of white flour.  So the same rule applies here.  The first ingredient should read, whole wheat flour or whole oat flour and many multi grain breads do not have “whole” listed as the first ingredient.  Oatmeal bread lists as its first ingredient – wheat flour, then water, then oats…this is not a 100% whole grain bread.

The next time you are thinking about making a sandwich, read the ingredients on the loaf of bread before you purchase it.  You might be surprised that your old standard bread is not as healthy as you thought.