Daily Archives: March 7, 2011

Breaking Bread

How many times have you heard that if you buy bread, pasta, or any kind of baked goods made from wheat you should buy whole wheat or whole grain varieties? Of course you have and of course you should. But there is something else I bet you haven’t heard. With bread and other baked goods made from flower you are essentially getting the same glycemic index effect that you would get with white bread. This means it has the same effects on spiking your insulin as white bread or other sugar laden foods without much in the way of nutrients. This is because the flower, even whole wheat flower is still pulverized and turned into powder making it pass through the system much faster and hitting the blood stream.

For most people this won’t be a big deal if you have a healthy balanced fiber and nutrient rich diet but if you are insulin sensitive or insulin resistant then this could be a big deal.

There is a silver lining to this cloud. If you look around you can find bread products that aren’t made from flour. Ezekial bread is one such product. Here in the northwest there is a fantastic bread maker named “Dave’s Bread” that sells a product called “Good Seed Bread“. This bread is made from sprouted wheat. No flour. It may be hard to find products in your area, but if you look hard enough you might just be able to find something that doesn’t reduce the whole wheat kernel to flower instead sprouts the wheat retaining it’s low glycemic index properties.