Brown bread is better than WHITE BREAD

Chapter 22

BREAD

                 People in India have now started eating more bread and bun since it is easily available in bakeries and even in small shops around the corner. Many people, who are too busy to cook a breakfast, go for bread. The sight of people eating a bun with a cup of tea/coffee has become so common everywhere. It may be a cheap and easy alternative to a healthy breakfast prepared at home but how good is it for our health?

       White bread is mostly prepared from baking dough prepared from Maida, yeast, water and other ingredients. Other ingredients may be milk, vegetables, sugar, eggs, onions, nuts, dry fruits, etc depending upon the type of bread. The job of yeast is to add gas to the bread to make it soft and full of holes. Yeast acts on the carbohydrates found in the dough and produces carbon dioxide gas.  Bread can also be made by using chemicals like baking powder and baking soda instead of yeast. Sometimes buttermilk is also added.

       People prefer fresh bread since it has a good smell and softness. But it can be eaten at any temperature. The inner soft part is called crumb and the outer hard part is called crust. It becomes stale due to the growth of mold if kept in warm temperature. Calcium propionate is used to make the bread last longer.

       Bread is mostly carbohydrates with very little proteins, fat, vitamin B1, B2, B3 and Sodium. One slice of bread has 75 calories. Hence it is not good for a person who wants to reduce weight.

       Maida is the central part of wheat grain called endosperm. It contains no fibre content called bran. The white flour obtained is bleached suing potassium bromide or chlorine dioxide to make it whiter and improve baking properties. Due to this bleaching, the bread lasts longer. White bread made of Maida is soft and good to look but it is not good for health. It is less nutritious and causes constipation in many people due to lack of fiber. Most of the vitamins present in wheat are lost when the bran is removed or destroyed during the bleaching process. Also white bread is too quickly digested resulting in an immediate increase in blood sugar. But brown bread is slower to digest and hence the above problem does not arise. Vegetables, dry fruits and nuts can be added to white bread in the form of sandwich to increase the fiber and nutrition content.  

       Brown bread is made from whole wheat flour. Compared to white bread, brown bread has more fiber and fewer carbohydrates. Hence it is better than white bread. Brown bread does not cause constipation. But unfortunately it has not become popular since it gets spoilt faster and is harder than white bread. Also the white colour or white bread attracts the people more than the brown colour of brown bread.