What’s the number one question most people have when trying to change their diet?

Bread…Can I still eat it? And where does it fit into a healthy eating plan?

What about the Trim Healthy Mama eating plan?

Bread is such a staple of our diets. It is probably the one food eaten by people of every race, culture and religion. Most of us grew up eating toast for breakfast and having cute, little sandwich squares placed in our lunch boxes by mum. During the 1700s, the Earl of Sandwich gave his name to the sandwich: meat between two slices of bread. How often have we eaten a sandwich with meat between the two slices of the fluffy stuff? Bread is eaten with soup for dinner and then if you are like me, often as a bedtime snack with a glass of milk. Peanut butter toast anyone?

When did we first start eating bread? It is believed that the first grinding stone was invented by the Egyptians thousands of years ago. In ancient Egypt, bread was a form of currency used interchangeably with money. In fact, bread was so important to ancient Egyptians that loaves were often placed in tombs for the deceased to take to the afterlife.

Pre-sliced bread was invented in 1928 by a man named Otto Rohwedder, after working on it for 16 years. Many thought it was a passing fad, assuming the bread would go stale faster than unsliced bread. Bread of all descriptions now line the shelves of our modern supermarkets, a showcase of how popular pre-sliced bread is today. We won’t mention what they add to stop it going stale 😉

Bread is not going away anytime soon so it’s a great idea to learn how to incorporate it into a healthy diet.

For those of us following the Trim Healthy Mama eating plan here is a quick tutorial…

Bread…Can I still eat it? Well, yes and no.

Firstly, ingredients trump numbers…always. If the ingredients are NOT on plan then it doesn’t matter what the numbers say. Work with your ingredients.

Secondly, white flour is not on plan…it may be called wheat flour or bakers flour, but it’s still just white flour. Don’t be tricked by clever packaging or labels.

There are FOUR types of on plan Bread options…

1. Bread made with wholegrain rye, quinoa, oats or chickpea flours, coconut, almond, chia meal, flaxseed/linseed meal. These are on plan as they are, so any bread made with them as the only grain is on plan.

2. Sourdough bread. Any of the above grains or buckwheat, bulgur, teff, Kamut/ Khorsan, amaranth, brown rice, spelt, whole grain can be used in a bread providing it is soured using a culture for at least 8 hours OR cold souring/fermenting for 3-5 days like Gwen’s Easy Bread recipe

3. Sprouted. Any of the above grains or buckwheat, bulgur, teff, Kamut, amaranth, brown rice, spelt, whole grain can be used in a bread providing it is sprouted before use. Sprouting does the same as the souring; a bread made from soured sprouted grains is the absolute best! to find out how to sprout your own grains, go here.

4. Acceptable alternatives. We don’t have the easily available low carb frankenfood (low carb, not detrimental, but not great either) wraps they have in the US. We have 3 types of wraps based on best available to us in Australia at this time … Goodness brand Barley Wraps, Rye Mountain Bread and the Sorj Rye Wraps. These all contain at least 70% on plan grains (Rye and barley don’t need sprouting or souring) and can be used in E meals.

Some points to remember:

Sourdough is on plan, but can never be an S. Grains are E. You could have an S meal with bread as a side dish but it will be a crossover…all on plan ingredients, but not beneficial for weight loss. Crossovers are best kept for when you reach goal weight or are pregnant or nursing. If you would like to have one slice of bread with an S meal, it becomes an S helper if you keep the carb count to 10-15g.

Sourdough is on plan, but can never be an S. Grains are E. You could have the meal you describe as a crossover…all on plan ingredients, but not beneficial for weight loss. Crossovers are best kept for when you reach goal weight.

Some great options are available from Alpine Breads, Ancient Grains and Bill’s Organics. Just remember to check the ingredients.