I didn't think bread was fattening?

Belt-tightener_2

There is about 90 calories in one slice of bread so 2 plus marg plus cheese adds up shop bought sanswich is about 350 clas a cadburys cereal bar 150 and a flake 137 so if you are having 4 slices a day it soon adds up and home made the slices tend to weigh more

Debt_Free_Chick

JennyW wrote: »

I appreciate and am aware of this as it applies to all food stuffs in great quantity, it's just that bread seems to be a big no-no for many people but as badger_lady says, perhaps it's the complex carbs :rolleyes:

White bread wouldn't be classed as complex carbs. Wholemeal is slightly better, but I still wouldn't describe it as complex carbs.

Complex carbs are carbs that can only be broken down slowly, so the carbs are converted to sugar and released into the bloodstream gradually, compare with a bar of chocolate where the sugar hits the bloodstream quickly and in one hit. Complex carbs don't convert to calories the following day ..... it's the conversion from carb to sugars that takes place over a period of time.

Complex carbs are generally considered to be "good carbs" because of the slow release of sugars into the bloodstream. A big hit of sugar causes the body to produce insulin to counteract the bloodsugar level. The insulin rush can then cause a lowering of bloodsugar level, to the point whereby you feel hungry again. So you take another sugar hit and your bloodsugar/insulin levels yo-yo.

Calories are calories - but some serve a useful process, especially those that have nutrional value in addition to just sugar. On a scale I would rate the following in ascending order of "complexity" as carbs

Chocolate (lowest)
White bread (low)
Wholemeal bread (higher)
Bananas (highest)

But there are many other complex carbs, in addition to bananas. Wholefoods and unrefined versions of foodstuffs being the best examples eg unrefined brown rice.

But it's still the overall calorific intake compared with calorific output that determines weight gain. Total calories are total calories, irrespective of the foodstuffs. One could, in theory, consume calories only as alcohol and not gain any weight. But if you're already getting your daily calorific input from food, then the calories from alcohol are excess and likely to result in weight gain.

So .... bread is fine, provided you have a balanced diet and consume no (or only minimal) excess calories.

HTH

dannahaz

It depends on the bread.

It's not true to say that bread doesn't contain fat. In my staple homemade bread recipe, I put butter and milk powder.

Commercial loaves have fat and many of them have horrendous amounts of sugar. I remember the outcry a few years ago when it was discovered that one of the M&S loaves had three times as many calories in than those used as a per-slice guideline for slimmers, and most of this came from sugar.

LumpyCustard_2

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Calories are calories - but some serve a useful process, especially those that have nutrional value in addition to just sugar. On a scale I would rate the following in ascending order of "complexity" as carbs

Chocolate (lowest)
White bread (low)
Wholemeal bread (higher)
Bananas (highest)

Bananas are high complex carbs? That surprises me, because I thought they give a quick sugar hit, like eating chocolate.

NemoToad

Bananas aren't made of complex carbs. As far as I can remember from Biochemsitry they're made up of fructose which is only slightly more complex to break down than glucose.

Debt_Free_Chick

The carbohydrate content in a banana is twice that of the sugar content.

Unripe bananas contain mostly starch and ripe ones contain a mixture of sucrose, glucose and fructose. Fructose is more complex than glucose - the body has to break fructose down into glucose, but it's the starch content that's "complex" and there's a certain amount of starch in all but very ripe bananas.

Generally, the longer it takes for the body to digest a particular food, the more complex the carbs. That's not to say that complex carbs give you indigestion although some may experience that, especially if they move from a diet with less complex carbs to one with more.

Bananas were the highest on my simple list, but there are complex carbs that are higher than bananas.

thriftlady_2

Eat what you like, but only when you are hungry and only until you are satisfied;)

Worrying about carbs/protein/GI/calories blah blah di blah is not the way to enjoy your food.


If only I practised what I preach:rolleyes:

Swan_2

troo wrote: »

It's not the bread that's fattening, it's what you put on it - lots of butter for me please :rotfl:

me too

similarly with potatoes, plain boiled are fairly low in calories, but add butter, make them into chips, cheesy baked potato, potatoes dauphinoise etc etc & you immediately up the calories

rice & pasta too

if we ate only unadorned bread/rice/potatoes/pasta, we'd not become overweight because they're simply not that attractive to eat on their own in quantity & we'd get bored before we overindulged, it's the calorific additions that make them so more-ish & get them a bad name

Debt_Free_Chick

Carbohydrate is the equivalent of putting petrol/deisel in your car. It's the body's energy.

As Thriftlady says .... don't consume to excess.

My suggestion is to aim to eat plenty of fruit & veg .... once you've done that, eat what you like and don't get hung up on calories, composition, low-fat this, or that ..... common sense .... like your Grannie had!

dixie_dean_2

Oh dear, there's a lot of nonsense being spouted here. Bread contains a lot of calories, is the very, very, simple answer. As previously mentioned a slice of bread contains about 100 calories (often more actually), so having 2 slices of toast for breakfast, 4 as 2 sarnies for lunch and a slice or two with tea is 800 calories straight away. There is quite often high sugar in bread (sugar is a form of carbs), sometimes fat and almost always a lot of salt (in shop bought). With most bread 4 or 5 slices would be half your recommended salt intake.