eat bread 90-Q&A

Bread Q&A: What Kind of Bread is Good for You & Other Questions

For a food as simple as bread, there are lots of questions about it! What kind of bread should I eat? How many kinds are there? Who came up with that whole sliced bread thing? Here are a few answers:

 

What kind of bread is good for you?

The key with picking out a healthy loaf is the ingredients. If the label says it has whole grains and seeds, then you are getting the most vitamins, minerals, fiber and protein that can be packed into bread. There are also breads that have lower amounts of sugar. However, generally speaking, bread won’t hurt you!

 

Will eating a loaf of bread a day for 90 days make me fat?

Maybe, it depends on what you are sandwiching between the slices.  Are you slathering gobs of Nutella on every slice? Or buttering each slice? Or eating 8 tuna fish sandwiches every day? Or spending your days munching on peanut butter and banana sandwiches?  Or crafting super cheesy grilled cheese sandwiches? The kind of bread influences some things as well.

 

How many types of bread are there?

There are endless varieties of bread. New forms of yeasty deliciousness are dreamed up by bakers all the time. Grocery stores typically have over 50 different varieties of bread on their shelves at all times.  And that doesn’t include in-store bakeries.

 

What proves that bread is a staple of our diet?

Because of all the common expressions that involve bread.  When we are not eating it, we are talking about it.  Think about how many sayings have risen out of our obsession. No matter how you slice it…breadwinner…bread as another word for money…asking which side is your bread buttered on…and the list goes on.

 

How long has bread been around?

Bread has been around since the Egyptians invented a grinding stone to crush wheat into flour. Historians believe that the idea of combining yeast with the flour and other ingredients happened accidentally when a pot of hot wheat cereal was left over night and yeast naturally developed.

 

When did bread start rising in popularity?

Bread got its lucky break with the invention of the sandwich in the mid 1700s when John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, summoned his chef to put his steak between two slabs of bread so he only needed one hand to eat his dinner so he could keep playing cards and gambling with his friends.

 

Who invented sliced bread?

Sliced bread has probably been around since it was first baked in loaves.  An official bread slicing machine was invented in 1912 in Iowa. And it took about 15 years after that in Missouri to set up the first production line for bread that included baking uniform sized loaves, slicing them, and bagging them for easy transporting and sales.

 

What do the colored tags mean?

Bread is delivered to grocery stores five days a week and the plastic tags are color coded by the day the bread was baked. The colors are alphabetized to correspond with the days of the week, so Monday is Blue, Tuesday is Green, Thursday is Red, Friday is White, and Saturday is Yellow. Now you know what to look for when you want to buy the freshest bread at the store.

 kind of bread, variety, bread diet, loaves,

workout-exercise-eat bread 90 -run

Diet and Exercise During EB90

Now that I’m adding a loaf of bread daily to my diet, the main comment has been something like, “OMG! You are gonna get soooo fat!” So, I have asked the experts in the health and nutrition fields to take a look at my diet and exercise plan and provide feedback. They all harp on the importance of exercise during the 90 days I am eating a loaf of bread.

Though this does not qualify as a high risk diet, I will be monitoring well beyond the 90 days should anything change with my health. The experts have recommended a regime of intense exercise in the evenings lasting a minimum of 30-40 minutes.

Sticking with what works

Since the ideal form of exercise is something you will actually do, I plan on running, swimming, cycling and walking. A recent study published on JAMA provides some encouragement. The researchers found that “weekend warriors and other leisure time physical activity patterns characterized by 1 or 2 sessions per week may be sufficient to reduce all-cause, CVD, and cancer mortality risks regardless of adherence to prevailing physical activity guidelines.” Because my calorie intake will be on the high side of recommended daily levels I will be a full-time exercise warrior!

My target calorie intake including 1 lb (11-13 slices) of bread every day with other foods from the vegetable, fruit and protein categories should equal 2,000 calories a day. I may have to make the occasional exception for my mom’s curry; she really is a bad influence!

Staying on top of the calories

With the 2000 calorie intake I have figured a basic exercise regimen to include:

  • 45 minutes of running to burn 340 calories
  • 20 minutes of swimming to burn 200 calories
  • 70 minutes if cycling to burn 767 calories.

My initial observations after a few days of my East Bread 90 diet have been positive. I am really happy with the diet.  It is keeping me on track with exercise and I have lots of energy and drive. The bonus of eating so much bread is that I am not hungry at all!

I hope you all will follow my journey and join the conversation about the health benefits of eating bread!

bread-stacks-everywhere-eat bread 90

Eat Bread All Day, Anywhere: Day 10

Franz® Organic Nine Grain.

Franz® Organic Nine Grain

I figured how to make my jams and spreads portable. I must spread them on the slices every day before I leave the house. Today I dug into my bag of wholesome Franz® 9 grain bread. It’s loaded with different seeds and grains, yet it is not overly dense. Its slight sweetness makes it an easy bread to eat all day.

So, I used various jams and spreads to create my sandwich pile this morning. This is what it is going to look like from now on—says this bread bag lady.

bread-jam-eat bread 90

My bread pile for the day. On-the go-bread, anywhere, everywhere!

I’ve found it is easier to fold the bread into halves because I can take it out and eat it without any mess during meetings.  The people around this office are so used to me eating and talking all the time, so something would seem amiss if I don’t do this.

Tonight, we cooked pork bulgogi with vegetables and rice. I didn’t consume the rice, but I did place some sriracha sauce over it and made a sandwich out of it. Yummy!

Franz® Organic Nine Grains made a delicious Pork Bulgogi Sriracha sandwich.

Franz® Organic Nine Grains made a delicious Pork Bulgogi Sriracha sandwich.

Here’s what I ate on Day 10 of EB90:

Food Portion Calories
Franz® Organic Nine Grain 12 slices (43g) 1440
Tillamook® Salted Butter 2 Tbsp 200
Kroger® Whipped Greek Cheese Spread 1 Tbsp 22.5
Justin’s Nut Butter 2 Tbsp 190
Nature’s Hollow Sugar Free Strawberry Jam 4 Tbsp 80
Orange 1 orange 45
Nutella 1 Tbsp 100
Kelp soup 1 C 10
Pork Bogulgi 4oz 250
Calcium Supp
Total 2337.5

 

scale- weigh-in-eat bread 90

Week One Weigh-in

While I’m tracking my diet over the whole 90 days, I’ll also keep you updated on my weight once a week. Our body weight usually goes up or down 1-2 lbs every week. My weigh-in before I started my bread-eating journey was unfortunately after spring break, when our family went on vacation. The fancy restaurants at our vacation spot, and my weakness for foreign sounding desserts appeared on my weigh-in. So instead of 145lbs, I started this journey with 149lbs.

I should be targeting around 2,000 calories/day to maintain my weight at about 145 lbs. It seems that my average for the week was about 1,500 calories. Therefore a drop in weight didn’t surprise me at all.

weigh-in- week 0 - eat bread 90

My weight at the start of 90 days.

 

weigh-in - week 1 - eat bread 90

My weight at the end of the 1st week.

Now, I hope you know that my goal for this journey is not to gain a single pound while eating large amounts of bread everyday. I have safely consumed over a pound of bread everyday this week. I am proud to say I have accomplished my goal for round one.

As for losing weight, I don’t think I’m going to lose that, at the amount of calories I am consuming a day, with the same amount of exercise per week. My body will eventually find its comfortable weight range after getting used to eating a pound of bread a daily.

 

bakery-bread-eb90-weight gain from bread

Bread Makes You Fat

This was the immediate reaction from family and friends when I told them about my plan to embark on a 90-Day bread-eating journey. But I know weight gain from bread is a myth. This is no late-night whim. The truth is, I’ve been considering doing this for a long time. It started with a thought: “What if I can eat my favorite food—bread—every day?” Then it grew into a challenge:

“What if I can eat a loaf of bread every day?”

A quick check on the nutrition labels of my bread at home proved that this challenge made sense. I could definitely eat a loaf everyday, get all the nutrition I need to stay healthy and not put on weight. Just to make sure, I brought in Registered and Licensed Dietitian Connie Evers, MSc., to keep a watchful eye on my calorie-intake and BMI.

How much bread can you eat and not gain weight?

Basically, succeeding in this challenge comes down to input vs output. I’m in my mid 40s, size 6-8 (which fluctuates between summer and winter) and 145 lbs. I don’t smoke or drink and I don’t take any recreational or prescription drugs. I am a mother of three boys, an entrepreneur, scientist, foodie, baker, Chihuly fan and a lover of the outdoors who runs, cycles and swims at least three times a week. Other than that, I lead a normal life. My eating habits and cravings are pretty normal. Some people may even call me…boring.

eat-bread-90-boring

So why not challenge people’s negative perception of eating bread, while eating my fill of delicious loaves? I’m not worried about weight gain from bread, because as a baker I’ve been working with bread and researching it for a long, long time.

I contacted all my baker friends and told them about the challenge. Their reaction? Immediately sending over loaves and loaves of bread with all the nutritional labels intact! I have been so overwhelmed with their support! Not only are they cheering me on but they are also keen on providing me with my lots of bread. I feel so loved.

thanks-support-eb90-weight gain from bread

I should explain how I know all these bakers. My business, BAKERpedia, serves the commercial baking industry. We provide a knowledge base that is freely available to help bakers with all their scientific questions. We also offer technical support and consulting services to bakeries who are at the tipping point of business expansion. In the short two and a half years BAKERpedia’s been in business, I’ve met a lot of wonderful people in the food industry who are hungry for knowledge. Most of them are searching for reliable information and ways to be innovative with their products.

I’m proud to say we have always done our best to help all bakers and equipment suppliers to enhance their businesses and have generally helped the entire baking ecosystem thrive. If this is their way of giving back to BAKERpedia, I am deeply touched and definitely encouraged—not only to continue making BAKERpedia a success, but to go all out on this ambitious bread-eating journey.

Taking on the challenge

Today is the very first day of my challenge, and the list of bakers who want to send me bread keeps growing. That means, I get to eat more of my favorite food for free over the next 90 days! If you run a bakery and would like to support me, send your lovely loaves to:

707 SW Washington St., #1100, Portland, OR 97205. Attn: Ms Ana Rinck, Operations Manager, BAKERpedia. 

Thank you for feeding me and helping give bread a good name!