It’s amazing to think that bread is a controversial topic today, when once upon a time, bread was a huge part of a human’s daily diet: bread was a main course when other food was not readily available. Today, our break is much different than the bread of our ancestor’s day. Not only that, bread is different from country to country!
Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly about our bread today: let’s see whether we should eat it.
The Good
First off, when we think of carbohydrates (carbs), you might think of delicious pastas, cakes, or breads, and most of us, if not all of us, have been told that bread is bad for us. Truthfully, though, our bodies need carbs because it is our body's way of getting energy. So, eating bread is actually good for your body (in moderation!) because carbs are one of three major nutrients that are needed in our diets to stay healthy. Carbs are little over 33% of what your body needs, so by cutting out carbs or bread from your diet, you may be depriving yourself of energy you’ll need. It’s a nutrient that cannot be cut out!
Knowing that you need carbohydrates in your diet is important, but just as important is the types of carbs you’re consuming! Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are examples of good carb, while white flour and white rice are examples of bad carbs because they contain sugars and fats (and also because they don’t contain fiber!). Other examples of bad carbs would be donuts, cakes, white bread, or pasta that contain white flour.
So, the good news? You don’t need to cut bread out of your diet! You actually shouldn’t if you want to get your proper nutrients. For a further breakdown of good and bad carbs, check out this article on Today.com: they give great examples of good and bad carbs!
The Bad
So we can eat bread and stay healthy, but we’re not out of the woods just yet, because not all bread is created equal. No, I’m not talking about the difference between wheat, white, or whole grain. What I’m trying to say is, bread simply isn’t made the same way it used to be. It’s different depending on its country of origin; this plays a factor in the health of the bread. We can’t look back at history, see that the people were healthy while eating bread constantly and try to compare their bread to our bread.
I mean, today, the United States has chemicals in our bread that can be found in yoga mats, hair straighteners, and even explosives. Even some brands here utilize ingredients there are banned everywhere else for containing pesticides. Does that sound like the nutrients that your body needs? I think not!
Not only is the bread we are consuming in the US bad for us, but it can hurt our bodies in the long run.
The Ugly
Learning what ingredients can be included in bread in the United States suggests that the bread we’re eating may be unsafe, and the system that decides what is okay for Americans to eat, is broken. And that’s it! That’s the ugly truth and one that I am not proud of. Americans are dying younger, are sicker, and are more obese.
If writing this article has taught me anything, your best option would be to simply make your own bread from scratch, so your body can get that 33% of nutrients from carbohydrates it needs. (Don’t forget your fruits and vegetables as well! It’s all about 5-a-day.)
It’s important to educate yourself on all the ingredients that are in the foods you’re consuming. Otherwise, you’re not fully informed on what you’re consenting to put in your body! When presented with chemicals, your body will try to divide up foreign substances that never should have been introduced to your bodies, to begin with.
The United States is not the only country that uses chemicals and pesticides, but they are far behind the other countries for change. A chicken pot pie is not as wholesome as it once was: that breaded crust is a slow-cooked killer.
Eat organic and make as many foods as you can from scratch!
The good, the bad, and the ugly about our bread today has not only taught us to read labels and ingredients but to educate ourselves on what we should and should not consume. Your body will thank you.
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