Google Gary Taubes, also Robert Lustig.

I stopped eating so much bread this year, a necessary thing now am going on two hmm-dread and hmmmty pounds in weight. Except for one day a week when I can have a sarnie.
I replaced it with more of other food, ie a ham sandwich is now 6 rolls of ham with mustard in the middle, rather than two slices of bread around two slices of ham w/mustard in the middle.

Porridge rather than toast for breakfast.

Bacon and eggs rather than bacon and egg butties.

Dont know what the science is for or against but have done it before and I lost weight/felt better.

Any dietician worth there salt (not too much salt though) will tell you that there aren’t many foods around with that many nutrients for less than 100 calories

Pfft! Read it and weep sucker!

Slight tangent:

I’m looking for an alternative to wholemeal bread. I’ve been eating wholemeal pitta for lunch every day for ages now. I like the taste, it’s filling and it’s convenient for taking around with me wherever I happen to be working. But it makes me bloated and a short while after my tummy seems to be doing somersaults.

What would make a good, healthy alternative for lunch that does the same job.

Mass-produced bread is loaded with extra fat and additives, to reduce the fermentation time.

It’s not really that different. Fat’s added to lots of traditional breads in similar (around the 1-2% mark) or significantly greater proportions to chorleywood (and the like) processed loaves. It uses a fair bit of yeast – but again, plenty of traditional loaves are heavily yeasted – about double what you’d reckon for a standard home baked white loaf.

Sure there are some emulsifiers in a lot of loaves and then there’s typically something like 1% “improvers” of which ascorbic acid’s the main other ingredient – again, not uncommon amongst more traditional bakers and the rest is largely enzymes which increase proving speed these days but it’s not in quantities that you could reasonably call “loaded”.

The main difference with mass produced loaves isn’t the ingredients but that they effectively have air whipped into them to avoid having to be left to rise.

As it happens I’d wager there’s more fat, salt and sugar in the homemade Vollkornbrot that I just had for lunch than in your average cheap white bread.

What would make a good, healthy alternative for lunch that does the same job.

All 4. For starters. Then maybe

No bread! 😀

Molgrips – how many vitamins and minerals are in a piece of meat at a value of 100 calories? My point is as a single piece of food there arent many foods out there that provide an amount of many different vitamins/minerals for what is only a hundred calories. As many people have pointed out there is an alternative to manufactured white bread all with vast amount of vitamins etc. i advocate meat,veg,seeds and nuts etc but it seems people like to partially blame bread for it all.
As for an alternative to bread why not keep the humble sandwich but replace bread with large lettuce leaves, filling of your choice.

15 no-bread sarnies

Molgrips – how many vitamins and minerals are in a piece of meat at a value of 100 calories?

CBA to google it, you tell me.

But – you know that calories aren’t all the same, don’t you? And different foods have different effects on satiety.. both in the short and long term.. it’s complicated you know.

Bread’s not a bad way of getting plenty of carbs down you, but do we all need plenty of carbs?

Been gluten free for the past 26 days and this article has helped with it tremendously:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ailbhemalone/15-mouthwatering-no-bread-sandwiches#.vugyOkMjv

Ones I have tried are:

I’ve not noticed a physical benefit to going gluten free. However, what I eat is much more varied due to it.

Another tip is to use large lettuce leaves in place of wraps. It works quite well if you don’t mind getting messy on fajita nights!

Molgrips – yeah i know about the varying ways in which calories come in and out. I think dieting and the whole good food bad food debate is quite evocative and there are a lot of myths and bad information out there. Bread is not bad for you but by the same token there are better things for you and of course its best in moderation. My friend has given up bread as he has said its making him fat but it has since become apparent he was averaging 9 slices a day. The point i was sort of trying to make was that bread isn’t the issue but the quantity but people are too quick to blame bread for this. Bread has far more good properties than bad and thus shouldn’t be eliminated altogether.

Bread can be eliminated entirely because there’s nothing in it we can’t get elsewhere.

^^^ that cucumber “baguette” looks great, seeing as I can quite happily munch a whole cucumber like it’s an apple! I bet that is awesome stuffed with loads of cheese & bacon!

I’m also a fan of a burger wrapped in a nice crisp iceberg lettuce leaf. I thought it would be rubbish, but if you have a proper good juicy burger it really makes that stand out. Obviously don’t bother trying it with a birdseye frozen one!

I’ve tried various paleo “bread substitute” recipes with coconut flour, etc, and whilst some are very tasty I don’t think any are really a substitute for bread.

It’s not really that different.

rubbish. I’d go with some proper sourdough over the chorelywood method crap you get in supermarkets.. Alloxan anyone?

Bleached flour

Bleached flour is not in any way exclusive to chorleywood bread and most of that article seems to relate to bleaching methods not used in the EU.

Edit: Also, Alloxan is produced in utterly minute amounts as a side effect the bleaching process – as an aside it also happens in naturally oxidised flour too as far as I’m aware – and there’s no evidence of it building up in the human body or causing harm. Just because it’s a scary chemical doesn’t mean that it’s killing you.

What you want is this….

😀

@zilog6128

Only bread substitute I’ve tried so far that was ok was a pita bread. All the others taste quite powdery. Also, the rice flour used in the alternatives remind me of bland Indian cooking.

It would be a cinch in India/sub-continent though!

Just out of curiosity some months ago I tried giving up wheat, all wheat, for a week. The results were such that I’ve avoided it ever since. Occasionally I realise I’ve eaten something with wheat in it, way down the list of additives perhaps. It’s a guts thing, and might be linked to hay fever.

I wouldn’t eat a sandwich or a pasty if you paid me.

This was after realising that life was better if I stuck to sourdough and avoided Chorleywood bread.

Just out of curiosity some months ago I tried giving up wheat, all wheat, for a week. The results were such that I’ve avoided it ever since.

A lot of people say this. I personally found my asthma got noticeably better when I ditched wheat entirely (I do eat it again now but way way less).

Of course avoiding wheat due to intolerance or another health reason is a separate (and easier!) issue than giving it up just because you want to lose some weight.

Mostly I agree with you zilog, but wheat turns up in an awful lot of things, biscuits and cereals sold as ‘oaty’ for instance, one reads a lot of contents small print. It’s not easy to avoid.

Yep you’re quite right – it’s insidious! When I said “easier” I meant from a psychological/willpower point of view i.e. the health improvements far outway missing the taste so you’re not really tempted to eat it.

Bread is not bad for you

No of course not, but there’s a whole spectrum of bad and good effects depending on what you want to do and what your requirements are.

Lots of carbs can cause weight gain, and reducing them can help weight loss. And bread, along with the other starch components of traditional meals, contains a lot.

In addition, it seems anecdotally that gluten causes a lot of undesirable effects in people even if they are not coeliacs. Not me though!

I have found that reducing my daily bread eating from six slices total to two a day, say two slices of bread for breakfast and then maybe a salad at lunch (in a wrap) 😆 has actually helped me to loose weight substantially, that and days when I have no ridden a good half hour forty five minute walk…..
And when something is labelled as a portion for two we split it 50/50, not one pack each.
As for Wotsits, you haven’t had a cheese puff until you’ve tried Marks and Spencer’s Cheese Puffs……not as greasy as Wotsits and out cheeses them 100%….. 😆

Binners attempts at getting a rise throughout this thread are quite commendable!.

What about replacing white bread with rye bread ?

wholemeal pitta or wholemeal wrap

Our white breads just pure crap as said by others not really sure why they make white flour since it involves removing all the good stuff.

I cut bread out of my diet as it seemed to give me really bad indigestion. Whenever I have a sandwich now I just use Tortillas, either bought or make my own. Feel a lot better for it.

Binners attempts at getting a rise throughout this thread are quite commendable!.

Let’s be honest, if a food thread didn’t have such contributions from Binners it simply wouldn’t be cricket, would it.

Additionally, and I know it’s totally wrong, but I salivated at the pic of those Peperami. I wouldn’t touch ’em nowadays, obviously…but I have.

Some French relatives were concerned about their bread intake a while back, kicked up a bit of a stink about it too, they were advised to increase their intake of non yeast based baked goods to compensate.

I like peanut butter sandwiches, with the peanut butter so thick you can squidge it out the sides to nibble on before devouring the centre, I can have 3 on the bounce without stopping to inhale.

If you are not fat and have no weight to lose and don’t feel bloated after a sarnie or some toast is it o.k. To carry on eating your wholemeal or that Vogels wholemeal and oat bread?
Is bread is really that bad for you?

Try going without for a week or three: then you’ll know.

bread = death & devil

I go through spells of eating it or not eating it, I can never really tell the difference. Though when I don’t eat bread I’m more likely to be sad as I like bread. If that is not a pure scientific reason for eating bread then I’m not sure what is…..

The Mrs and I have stopped eating bread potatoes pasta and white rice. We are eating a more varied diet that includes more fresh vegetables, nuts, fruit, beans and pulses. Its good and variety is the greatest benefit.
Simple carbs are great as they fill you up but it is very easy to meet your calorie requirements but not much else.

The Mrs and I have stopped eating bread potatoes pasta and white rice. We are eating a more varied diet that includes more fresh vegetables, nuts, fruit, beans and pulses. Its good and variety is the greatest benefit.

Then why not eat an even more varied diet by also including bread, potatoes, pasta and white rice?

Cos they fill you up and are bulky and I find I am less inclined to make the effort to eat as varied range of foods as I am presently eating.
My diet is more varied for not eating bulky carbs – simple. You don’t have to do it, but I am quote enjoying it.
Other things I am not eating at the moment – cheese, milk, yoghurt, biscuits, crisps and breakfast cereal.

Oh and I ain’t fat but could happily loose my 42 year old muffin top! Oh and I am getting 10 portions of fresh fruit and veg as there is room and desire to eat them cos I ain’t full of pasta.
And I was never really a big bread eater. 5 slices a week? Not had sandwiches for work packed lunch for 6 years.

God damn fad diet crap. It’s really not difficult at all, eat whatever you want but follow a few simple guiding principles:
Avoid if possible processed food.
Eat more fruit and veg.
No carbs after 5pm.
Drink more water.

A wholemeal bread sarny is no bad thing at all.

I’d have no chance of packing in bread, and stuff. I work right next to the Warburtons factory where they make these…

Which are ace! And these…

Which are acer! The smell of both constantly drifts into the office. Its like torture. I really want some buttery crumpets now. 😥