For the love of bread

For the record, I have a bread problem.

Maybe not so much a problem, but a serious love of good, delicious, crusty, whole grain bread. Nothing like it. My mum wouldn’t have the store bought kind in our house. It was only delicious, homemade, and lots of it. She made 5 loaves a week. For 4 people. I could have eaten all 5 loaves in a week given the opportunity, but unfortunately, I was forced to share.

The only thing that came close to my love of bread, was my love of pasta.

I could eat it three meals a day. What could be better? Bread and pasta. My dad used to joke that I was switched at birth, an Italian family somewhere was wondering what was wrong with their child that wouldn’t eat pasta…

Bread and pasta have not been popular lately. Everything has gone all gluten free all the time. For no good reason. Carbohydrates aren’t going to cause you to gain weight. Eating too many calories is the what causes weight gain and you can get too many calories easily, everywhere. Eating too many processed calories is a quick way to increase the number on the scale.

If you are part of the 1% of the population who are celiac avoiding gluten is a must. But if you are avoiding gluten, like 30% of the public, because you think it is the miracle weight loss solution or healthier, then sadly you are missing out on the joy of bread.

You are also missing out on the health benefits of whole grains. The results of a 25-year study have shown that reduced gluten intake, which included a reduction in whole grains resulted in higher cardiovascular disease risk.

Whole grains are good for you and for your heart. Of the almost 65,000 women and over 45,000 men studied, eating gluten meant eating more whole grains. The study also showed that those who ate more gluten were less likely to smoke, drink, eat fatty foods and red meat. 

Whole grains come with more benefits. 

Whole grains have fiber, important for your health. Most people only eat about half of the 25-30 grams a day that they need. There are many choices to increase your fiber intake.

Fiber reduces blood sugar, cholesterol, the risk of cardiovascular disease, some types of cancer, diabetes, obesity. Fiber is your friend. Get some today. 

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla