The Scary Truth About White Bread

Michael Pollan was not kidding when he wrote the food rule: The whiter the bread, the sooner you'll be dead.

Here is some scary truth to the seemingly "normal" bread that most people eat on a daily basis.

Have you ever asked the question, 'Why is white bread white?' It's bleached, right? Yes it is bleached, but have you ever stopped to think what that actually means? The truth is that white flour is whole wheat flour that has literally been bleached with chemicals. Chlorine, chloride, nitrosyl, benzoyl peroxide... Yes, these are all the different chemicals used to bleach flour. Do these sound like things you would like to put in your body?? WHY is it bleached? To make it look pretty, and to extend the shelf life. This is a FACT.

Ever wonder why they call it whole wheat flour? Because in the bleaching process, the 2 healthiest parts of the wheat berry are stripped. The bran and the germ are removed, leaving only the endosperm, taking away the most nutritious, fiber-rich parts. Whole wheat is exactly what it says -- it's the whole part of the wheat berry.

And if that wasn't scary enough, read the following paragraph:

You may want to think twice before eating your next sandwich on white bread. Studies show that alloxan, the chemical that makes white flour look "clean" and "beautiful," destroys the beta cells of the pancreas. That's right; you may be devastating your pancreas and putting yourself at risk for diabetes, all for the sake of eating "beautiful" flour. Is it worth it?

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/008191_alloxan_diabetes.html#ixzz1eJ2vq4WR

AND there is more. Have you ever read a label that says "enriched" flour? This would be the government... saying, Oh man, we just removed all these valuable nutrients out of the flour... let's put it back in. Artificially. Enriched flour is bleached white flour that has nutrients put back in. Better.... but still not ideal.

Here is a table showing the differences in whole wheat and bleached white bread.

Nutrient	Whole Wheat Flour	All Purpose Flour*
Total Dietary Fiber	12.2g	2.7g
Calcium	25mg	15mg
Iron	3.6mg	1.2mg
Magnesium	124mg	22mg
Phosphorus	332mg	108mg
Potassium	340mg	107mg
Zinc	2.8mg	0.7mg
Copper	0.4mg	0.1mg
Manganese	4.1mg	0.7mg
Selenium	70.7mg	33.9mg
Thiamin	0.5mg	0.1mg
Riboflavin	0.1mg	0.04mg
Niacin	5.7mg	1.3mg
Pantothenic Acid	0.9mg	0.4mg
Vitamin B6	0.3mg	0.04mg
Folate	43mcg	26mcg
Vitamin E	1mg	0.06mg
Total Fats	1.9g	0.98mg

Per 100 grams (approx. 3 ounces).
*= unenriched
Source: USDA National Nutrient Database

 

 Quite a difference. Something else to keep in mind that even the "enriched" bread has only some of the nutrients added back in, not all of them. (Fiber being the most important!)

What should you do? Only eat breads and whole grains that have the words WHOLE in front of them. It is possible to have white whole wheat, so again, just look for the word 'whole'. Even some "wheat" breads claim to have all the necessary nutrients, but usually are made with bleached white flour, and just enough whole wheat flour put in to give it the 'brownish' color.

Several articles revealing this scary truth. Look into it, I'm sure you will find more.

http://www.naturalnews.com/008191.html
http://www.womenfitness.net/ugly_truths.htm
http://www.livestrong.com/article/398149-is-white-bread-healthy/