Question about Whole Grain Bread

hey guys,

I get this bread from Costco that is a Mulit-grain 100% whole grain bread. From what I understand, this is the kind of bread we should eat. Problem is -> one slice = 140 calories!! That's a lot.

So, my question is - if I cut off the crust, am I still getting the benefits of the bread? Is the crust of bread equivilant to the skin of a potato? I know that all the fiber and nutrients of most fruits and veggies reside in the skin. I always eat the crust of the bread just in case. But it's my least favorite part and a good way to cut back the calories for the sandwich as a whole.

What do you guys think?

No, composition of bread is pretty uniform throughout.  The crust is darker because it is the part exposed directly to the heat source while cooking.
The only thing you might lose is if the bread has a garnish of whole grains on the top crust.  But calorie-wise, you may want to find a thin-slice whole-grain bread ... just the smaller serving size will cut some of the calories, and also thin-sliced often doesn't have that pronounced top crust the way some fuller-sliced varieties do. 

I don't know how you would measure the difference in cutting off the crusts, unless you weighed it before and after on a gram scale and did the math to calculate the calories in the remaining bread.

thanks stellajo -

I planned on just logging the whole slice instead of trying to figure out exactly how many calories I saved. I believe in overestimating a bit anyway. That way, if I underestimated something else (or sneak in a hershey kiss), my total won't be too off.

I tried slicing the bread in half (longways). I've never been successfull doing that :) I like to buy my bread at costco for the savings. They don't offer the thin sliced. Oh well. Thanks again!!

The crust is the same actually as the rest of the loaf. 

I just bought some bread (its either Aunt Millies, or Sara Lee or something like that) that is 60 calories a slice!  And its 100% whole wheat. 

Also allrecipe.com has some good whole grain bread recipes if you want to make your own that way you can work on getting the calories down and know exactly what is in it.

gfrisbie - I just saw something on tv the other day that said we shouldn't eat whole wheat. The guy said to look for 100% whole grain.

What do you guys think of that advice? Was that guy just crazy? I don't know what he has to gain by giving that advice though (he wasn't selling bread - at least not on the program he was giving...)

the whole grain bread 100% whole wheat I got has 70 calories.

Its from the Vermont Bread Company. I just looked on the labels until I found the lowest calories, and I made sure it was whole wheat flour.

I actually read in the newspaper that research had been done that supported the old wive's tale of "eat your breadcrusts" because they contain more nutrients. Not sure what paper, andd not sure how accurate the story was. sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Sun123 posted this in response to a similar query on 17 Sep -- apparently there is a reason mom told us to eat our crusts:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/11/ 021105080817.htm

I eat Arnolds flax and fiber  -- 80 calories w/omega3 ALAs -- also no high-fructose corn syrup (most breads have them, including many Nature's Own versions).  And yes -- I've heard that whole grain is more important than whole wheat

gfrisbie - I just saw something on tv the other day that said we shouldn't eat whole wheat. The guy said to look for 100% whole grain.

What do you guys think of that advice? Was that guy just crazy?

The relevant question isn't: "Is this advice correct or not?" but rather "Does this advice have a significant effect?"

This is what I think of the 'specialty heath foods' market.  Often they exploit something that might have a clinically demonstrable effect (often they exploit something that has a weak or unproven effect too) but the dosage used in the study (or that which was found to have an effect) and the dosage you get in your product "Now enriched with Tree Bark" are completely different.  Not to mention that there is some question as to their ability to even put the amount written on the label in the jar...

 

 

The crust might have more acrylamides, but otherwise it's probably the same as the rest of the loaf.  Cutting off the crust will not hurt you and like you said, it's a good way to keep the calories down.

"100% whole grain" is just a legal term, it means that all of the flours in the mix have all of their endosperm, bran and germ.  Theoretically, having more bran and germ in the bread means it would have more iron, fiber, folate, protein, and some minerals like manganese, than plain "wheat bread."  But whether it is a ^significant^ amount more is more questionable.  It is probably less ^significant^ if you have other sources of whole grains in your diet like whole oats or brown rice.