Is Brown Bread Good For Weight Loss?
Introduction
As a dietitian, I have well and truly lost count of the amount of people I’ve worked with who have told me about their current stance on bread. “It’s the bread, I know it is!”, “I’ve cut bread out, I’m trying to lose weight!”, “I need to cut out bread, but I just love it so much!” are but a few of the endless variations on how people tell me of their love-hate relationship with bread, and how they feel it’s the only thing standing in the way of their weight loss progress. This often prompts the question of: Is brown bread good for weight loss?
Whoever started the misconception that bread was the devil in loaf-form, did a pretty good job of starting off decades of fear around the food that, quite frankly, need not be feared. Especially to the degree at which many people talk to me about bread. I often feel like a priest in a confession box as people, with shame in their voice and all over their face, will confess their terrible crimes of eating bread.
Brown vs White Bread: What’s the difference?
Milling process
Apart from the obvious colour difference, the main difference between brown and white bread is down to the way the wheat grains are processed. Simply put, a grain of wheat is made up of several sections, these being the bran, germ and endosperm.
Flour produced to make brown bread still has all of these sections present when it is milled in to flour. However, for white bread, the bran and germ sections of the wheat grain are removed, leaving the starchy endosperm section.
Nutritional Content
While the differences begin with the type of flour, they certainly don’t end there. There are quite significant differences in the nutritional content of brown versus white bread.
Fibre (and recommended daily intake)
Brown bread is usually significantly higher in fibre compared to white bread of the same type (i.e. when comparing similar-sized slices) due to the bran section of the wheat grain not being removed, which is a rich source of fibre.
A medium slice of wholemeal bread can contain around 2.5-3g of fibre (depends on brand and size of loaf – check the label), whereas a medium slice of white bread contains around 1g of fibre.
It may not seem like a massive difference, but for a sandwich using two pieces of bread, wholemeal bread will provide around 5-6g of fibre, whereas white bread will only provide around 2g.
The recommended fibre intake per day is 30g, so a couple of slices of wholemeal bread can make up around 20% of that amount, with white bread only making up around 7% of that amount.
Vitamins and Minerals
We often only think about fibre, but wholemeal bread is significantly more nutritious due to its higher vitamin and mineral content.
Wholemeal bread contains much greater amounts of vitamins and minerals, including:
- Vitamin B1 (Thiamine)
- Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)
- Vitamin B3 (Niacin)
- Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)
- Vitamin B9 (Folate)
- Vitamin E
- And a range of minerals, such as magnesium, zinc and phosphorus.
So, surprisingly, wholemeal bread can pack quite the nutritional punch!
Protein
Bread?! Protein?! While we don’t often think about bread as a great source of protein, a medium slice of white bread contains around 3-3.5g of protein, whereas a medium slice of wholemeal bread contains around 4g of protein. Not a huge difference, but another point for wholemeal bread in the overall comparison between the two.
Carbohydrates
The word that strikes fear in to many, when it absolutely shouldn’t. But that’s a topic for another day!
When we think of bread, we tend to think “carbs”, and you’d be right in thinking this, because bread does contain carbohydrates.
However, the amounts of certain types of carbohydrates found in brown bread are different to that of white bread.
Brown bread will contain a significantly greater amount of complex carbohydrates compared to white bread.
“What the hell are they?!” You might’ve just said.
To put it simply, there are several types of carbohydrates that fall under the carbohydrates category, these being:
- Sugars (simple carbohydrates) – such as table sugar, lactose and fructose. These are quick for the body to break down because they are only made up of one or two sugar molecules.
- Starches (complex carbohydrates) – such as starch, which is made up of long chains of sugar molecules, meaning they take the body longer to break down and absorb.
- Fibre (complex carbohydrates) – such as cellulose, this is also made up of long chains of sugar molecules. However, the complex structure of fibre means humans are unable to digest it.
Is Brown Bread Better For Weight Loss?
Considerations For Weight Loss
Thinking you need to remove bread from your diet to be able to lose weight is a misconception that’s been around for decades, and it holds absolutely no truth. There are several things we must consider when aiming to lose weight, however, removing bread in our diet need not be one of them.
A better question could be whether white or brown bread is better for weight loss. Let’s run through some things to consider.
Overall Calorie Intake
Ultimately, weight loss comes down to how many calories you consume versus how many you burn (expend). If you consume fewer calories than you burn each day, on a consistent basis, then over time, your weight will come down.
However, that is a very oversimplified view of weight loss, and there are many factors to consider, but we’ll just focus on a few main points here.
Let’s say someone needs to consume around 2000 calories per day to lose weight, it doesn’t matter whether they consume 2000 calories of healthy, nutritious foods, or 2000 calories of not-so-nutritious foods. Weight loss, weight maintenance and weight gain are all determined by that energy balance, and intentional weight loss can only happen through giving your body less energy (calories) than it needs each day.
This is commonly known as being in a calorie deficit.
So, when it comes to bread, you absolutely can include bread in your day-to-day diet when losing weight. A slice of medium-thickness bread contains somewhere around 90-100 calories. So, most people can comfortably fit that in their day-to-day diet.
Overconsuming calories as a whole is what prevents you from losing weight, so, contrary to popular belief, the bread’s not guilty!
Yes, I spent far too long with an AI image generator making this picture of a loaf of bread in court.
White vs. Brown Bread: Which Fills You Up The Best?
It’s generally well known that foods higher in fibre are much more effective at helping us feel fuller for longer, owing to the slower digestion of higher-fibre foods meaning they take longer to break down and absorb.
Some research has shown that brown bread can be more satiating (filling) than white bread, with a 2021 systematic review and meta-analysis finding that the consumption of whole grains (e.g. brown bread) in comparison to refined grains (e.g. white bread) were more effective at reducing hunger, increasing fullness, and reducing the desire to eat.
And, while it can be very useful to have research to help us understand what has been observed in studies, these results may vary for you. By that I mean, you might have a sandwich with white bread, and a sandwich with brown bread, and find that you felt no difference in how full one made you feel compared to the other.
We all respond a little bit differently to food.
So, while research tends to point towards brown versions of foods filling us up the best, your personal experiences may vary.
Sustainability: Which Do You Prefer?
One thing I’m not a fan of, is insisting that someone eats something because “they should”. I’ve worked with more than enough people to know that some people just don’t like the brown versions of certain foods and would prefer the white version.
That is absolutely fine.
When it comes to weight loss, one of the most important things to do is to include foods you actually like (I know, crazy!), and can see yourself consuming for the rest of your life. If you don’t like wholemeal versions of foods, you don’t need to force yourself to eat them because they’re more nutritious. If anything, this is just going to put you off your weight loss plan because you’re not enjoying the foods you’re eating.
Yes, wholemeal foods tend to help us feel fuller for longer, but other things matter too, like if you even enjoy that food!
From experience, one of the biggest struggles people face when adopting changes to help them lose weight, is boring, bland food that they don’t enjoy. Nobody wants that in their life!
Weight loss and enjoying your food should not be separate things.
Summary: Is Brown Bread Good For Weight Loss?
In short, simply adding brown bread to your diet isn’t going to magically improve your weight loss progress. However, if you’re looking for ways to help you sustain your weight loss efforts, then opting for brown bread over white bread could help. It can help in reducing your hunger, and consuming more nutritious foods with greater amount of vitamins, minerals and fibre, is only going to be beneficial for your health and general wellbeing compared to foods that don’t contain as much of these important nutrients. All of this can help you to stay motivated when losing weight.
Weight loss isn’t just about eating less calories; you must consider the sustainability of your choices and be mindful that weight loss isn’t a quick fix. Most of the changes you make to be able to lose weight, must be sustained when you achieve your weight loss goals. Therefore, ensuring that the changes you make are ones you can see yourself doing for a long time, is absolutely essential for both losing weight, but also maintaining that progress, too.
Brown bread is absolutely fine to include in your diet for weight loss as long as you consider the points discussed, and as long as you’re mindful of consuming fewer calories than you need per day on a consistent basis, you’ll be on the right track.
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