Am I Allowed to Eat Bread?

Jul 15

A little information on the myths, fears, and confusion that surrounds eating bread and finding the truth in the midst of it all //

A few weeks back, I asked on my IG what questions you’d like answered in a blog post. This was one of those questions.

The question, more specifically, was posed like this: “for non gluten sensitive people, is all bread bad?”

I bet you’ve pondered this question in your adult life at some point. Or if not this exact question about bread, I bet you’ve labeled at least one food as ‘bad’ at some point. Maybe you currently still hold that belief. In this post, I’m going to ask you to kindly put that belief aside for the time being while I discuss said ‘bad foods’.

First, let’s talk about our dear friend bread. Everybody loves it, and if you say you don’t you’re either lying or you’re eating the wrong stuff. Those of us who can agree on our love of bread all know the seductive way it lures you in. The irresistible heavenly smell, the golden glow, the crackly outside crust with warm, soft inside, the way steam rises from it, the way butter melts on it…anyone else’s mouth watering?!

There’s so much to love about bread. Which is why humanity has been enjoying it historically since the beginning of time. It is one of the only foods that is so world wide and cross-cultural that everyone has it as a staple and serves it at the dinner table. Bread is used to connect us. Whether manna in Israel or a classic Italian loaf, nothing brings people around a table quite like bread does.

There is just one thing about bread that gives it a negative connotation: diet culture.

Okay two things: diet culture and gluten intolerance/sensitivity.

Let’s first talk about the less weighty topic of gluten intolerance and sensitivity.

Celiac disease is an inherited autoimmune disorder of the small bowel that can cause serious side affects. When people with this disease consume foods with gluten, the gluten irritates the gut, and your body reacts as if a toxin is attacking it. As a result, the sufferer may experience nausea, skin rashes, fatigue, or other side effects that can even sometimes lead to death. If you have this disease, you probably know it. It is not something to be taken lightly.

Then, there are gluten sensitivities. Gluten sensitivity has been coined to describe those individuals who cannot tolerate gluten and experience symptoms similar to those with celiac disease yet lack the same antibodies and intestinal damage as seen in celiac disease. This condition is less severe and less present than celiac. However, due to the popularity of carb-cutting diets and the idea that gluten-free foods are used for weight loss results in many people self-diagnosing a gluten issue. According to one study, 86% of individuals who thought they were gluten-sensitive could tolerate gluten. Additionally, around 30% of shoppers choose gluten-free foods, and 41% of U.S. adults think gluten-free foods provide health benefits for everyone, gluten-sensitive or not.

This leads us into the other thing defaming the name of bread. Diet culture has convinced us that there are certain foods that are to be labeled as ‘good’ and certain ones that are ‘bad’. The good ones are mainly fruits (except bananas for some reason), vegetables (but watch your potato and pea consumption?), quinoa, chia seeds, coconut oil, and all the other trendy super foods you’ve heard pop up in the media as your key to weight loss. The bad ones typically include the ‘8 major allergens’ (of which you could likely not be allergic to any of) which include wheat, peanuts, milk, soy, nuts, fish, shellfish, and eggs, and then also all sugar, fat, starch, and of course, bread.

One of the reasons why bread is made out to be such a life-wrecker is because the food industry decided to start processing it to make white bread. With this new form of bread, scientists and doctors discovered that it was having severely negative effects on our blood sugar. When bread exists in its lesser processed form, it is high in fiber, low in sugar, and contains a lot of important nutrients, mainly loads of B vitamins. The new form of bread is white because it’s wheat flour is processed which strips the wheat of almost all fiber and all the nutrients it once contained. With the loss of all of this high fiber + high nutrient content, the resulting simple carbohydrate content can very easily and very quickly be digested and processed which leads to swift spikes in blood sugar upon consumption. Traditional/whole wheat/whole grain/natural bread is slowly digested and slowly absorbed which creates a lasting fullness and delivers a steady spike in energy. It is actually a very healthy source of carbohydrates.

Now we know that all breads are not created equal. However, I want to make one thing abundantly clear:

You are allowed to eat it all. Dead serious.

We can all agree that it’s best to put the days of Schwebel’s and Sara Lee behind us if we want to have sustainable healthy habits, am I right? Given the breakdown above of white bread vs natural/wheat bread, it makes logical sense that we would choose the wheat bread as an act of self-care for our own health. But, that does not mean that white bread is to be labeled as “bad”, “off-limits”, or any of that. It is simply far less nutrient dense than it’s wheat counterpart and repeatedly choosing it would be unwise. That doesn’t mean you need to go about your life in fear of the evil white bread. You don’t need to ask your waiter if the pizza crust is made with wheat bread or if they have a whole grain dinner or roll or a 7-seed sprouted bun. If they offer it, great, make the healthier choice. But there’s no need to make a fuss. Life is too short for fusses. AND, when we label a certain food as “bad”, we are associating a moral quality to an item of sustenance which is completely asinine. Eating white bread isn’t “bad”, it’s food which is the substance your body needs to continue keeping you alive. Less healthy than other choices, for sure. But never “bad”. Make that mental shift.

On to the other types of bread — now I’m talking about your whole wheat, whole grain, sprouted seed, Dave’s Killer level bread, IT IS SO NOT BAD. It is amazingly good for you. Would I advise you to eat it at every meal? No, because that would be a whole lot of the same thing. But could you? Yeah!

Going back to the Dave’s Killer bread example. If you don’t know what this is, it’s a brand of my all time favorite bread and if you haven’t had it you are severely missing out. One slice of their Powerseed bread (my fave) contains 18 grams of total carbs and 4 grams of fiber bringing the net carb count to 14 grams. The Mayo Clinic states that, “The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that carbohydrates make up 45 to 65 percent of your total daily calories. So, if you get 2,000 calories a day, between 900 and 1,300 calories should be from carbohydrates. That translates to between 225 and 325 grams of carbohydrates a day.” That is the equivalent of roughly 13 to 18 slices of bread in one day to meet the daily recommendation. Of course,naturally, one should get their daily carbs from a variety of sources including vegetables, fruits, other grains, dairy products, beans, legumes, etc. and not from 18 slices of bread.

The point is that there is NOTHING WRONG with eating bread. Daily. Even twice daily or three times daily if it floats your boat.

Some of you may be feeling resistance to this news. You may be thinking of all the ways you could prove me wrong based on some research some keto person did about how bread is evil.

My challenge to you would be to examine that resistance and see if it may be you trying to defend a food fear you may have yourself because it is part of your identity. If you have gone so long applying labels that act as truths for you in your life such as “I don’t eat bread” or “I’m cutting out carbs”, try to think about when and why you decided those were truths for you. Determine if those beliefs actually serve you or if they are just rules you gave yourself to try and instill control.

If this message is resonating with you and you don’t know where to start, I encourage you to sign up for my 6-week 1:1 virtual nutrition counseling program! I cannot explain to you the value it will add back into your life once you finally make peace with food, discover mindful eating habits, and ditch your yo-yo dieting for good. This is the LAST MONTH that the price will be this low ($225!) so now is the best time to sign up before the price goes up at the end of the month! I promise you this is so unbelievably inexpensive for this type of service and the value you will gain from it is 10-fold the small investment.