Bread With Your Meal

[Andy M.]

So what's the difference between homemade bread and storebought when it comes to carbs?
Don't they both use granulated sugar and white flour?

If the homemade bread is white bread, no difference.

 

[taxlady]

So what's the difference between homemade bread and storebought when it comes to carbs?
Don't they both use granulated sugar and white flour?

Well, they could both be made with whole grain flour.

I buy wholegrain bread that's made without sugar.

Store bought tomato sauce probably has more sugar than homemade. BTW, I don't add sugar to tomato sauce. I find most of the store bought stuff too sweet.

When I make muesli, it has a fair amount of carbs, but they are from whole grains, nuts, and dry fruit, no added sugar. My homemade granola probably has less added sugar ,from honey, that store bought. I've seen sugar as an ingredient in store bought salad dressing and soup. I've seen corn starch added to stuff that I would never have considered adding corn starch.

I can't remember all the stuff that has sugar or corn starch where you don't expect it. I avoid those things.

 

[RPCookin]

Just wondering...

Do you eat bread as part of your main meal on a regular basis?

Let's not count sandwiches. Also, if you have a dietary issue that prohibits eating bread, what did you do before that came into play?

I do not eat bread as part of my meal. I never really got into the habit. Not at home and not at a restaurant. My Mom and Dad did. So pasta - no garlic bread. Thanksgiving - no rolls. Easter - no hot cross buns. I always felt like I didn't want to use up valuable stomach space for bread when there were so many other goodies on the table.

What about you?

Take a second and complete the poll.

Back on the original question, I did not grow up eating bread for every meal. I did have sandwiches for lunch fairly often (still do, usually with just store brand wheat bread), and sometimes dinner rolls with a nice holiday meal.

However, sometimes the bread offered is one of the real goodies being served, and then I definitely will have some. I like good quality breads - white and other grains, I'm not that fussy about it - but I eat them in moderation for the same reason as Andy states - I want to make sure that I don't miss out on anything else on the table.

Probably one of my most common ways of eating "bread" with a meal is when I have pizza. Then the "bread" also serves as the plate.

 

[pacanis]

If the homemade bread is white bread, no difference.

Thanks. I didn't think so. Strictly talking carbs that is.
Which brings us full circle to my questioning the generalization that processed food has more carbs.
Anyway...

 

[FrankZ]

So what's the difference between homemade bread and storebought when it comes to carbs?
Don't they both use granulated sugar and white flour?

In homemade bread you can control the sugar levels. That helps.

You don't need to add sugar to bread to make the yeast happy.

 

[pacanis]

In homemade bread you can control the sugar levels. That helps.

You don't need to add sugar to bread to make the yeast happy.

Interesting. Thanks for the information.
All my bread recipes have called for sugar, so I (erroneously) thought it was needed.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Processed, to me, means needing a copy of the Periodic Table to figure out what is in my food. I'm talking about those compound elements added that are difficult to pronounce.

 

[pacanis]

Same here, Fi.

 

[tinlizzie]

I love bread and would have it at all meals, but had to mark the 'depends on the meal.' It has become so much easier to put on weight the older I get, so I sacrifice the baked goods for the calorie count. The main exception is BLTs made at the height of 'good' tomato season. YOLO.

I can recall when very small that the bread was the meal -- a bowl of Mom's cornbread (sometimes with cracklins), crumbled, with milk or buttermilk poured over it. I guess we were poor -- I just didn't know it.

 

[Steve Kroll]

You don't need to add sugar to bread to make the yeast happy.

Absolutely. A lot of people think you need oil for homemade bread, too. The recipe I've used for much of the last 10 years has three ingredients (four, if you include water): flour, yeast, salt. I usually use a mix of flours. White flour does comprise a portion, simply because it has a higher gluten content than whole grain flour. But most of the time I use either whole wheat or rye to make up the balance. I've tried cutting back the salt, but I'll be honest... it doesn't taste as good. I like salt.

What does that mean, Steve?
Not that I'm a carb counter, but if I make my own mac and cheese does it have less carbs that the Kraft box version or frozen Stouffers (sp?)? If I make my own bread does it contain less carbs than comparable storebought bread?
We're just talking carbs here. I realize it's supposed to be healthier to make your own, less preservatives/chemicals/salt and all, but why would processed food contain more carbs?

First, my definition of processed is pretty much the same as PF's. If it was designed in a laboratory and the list of ingredients takes up the entire side of the box, chances are it's processed.

Regarding mac and cheese, it depends on what you put in your homemade version. The boxed versions probably have more carbs, though. If you look at the box and see ingredients like modified food starch, cornstarch, high fructose corn syrup, or any ingredient ending in "ose", that translates to carbs. Manufacturers tend to put a lot of these sort of things in packaged products to improve the flavor. This includes any of the following:

• sugar, brown sugar, raw or invert sugar
• corn sweetener
• syrup or malt syrup
• corn syrup or high-fructose corn syrup
• honey
• molasses
• fruit juice concentrates
• glucose
• lactose
• dextrose
• fructose
• maltose

When I say things like "pick your carbs wisely", I don't entirely mean the type of carbs, but also the percentage of carbs in your meal. It seems like nutrition experts vilify white rice, but the fact remains that at least a quarter of the world's population eats white rice every single day and suffers no ill effects as a result. But they usually balance it out with fresh vegetables, protein, and fats, so that the meal isn't overly heavy in carbohydrates. And they don't typically wash down meals with a 20 oz. Mountain Dew.

 

[taxlady]

Didn't beriberi first appear when people who eat mostly rice started eating white rice instead of brown rice? Yes, getting your vitamin B1 from other sources does help prevent beriberi.

 

[Sprout]

Which brings us full circle to my questioning the generalization that processed food has more carbs.

I don't often hear people say that processed foods necessarily have more carbohydrates, more that they're a poor source of carbohydrates. They sometimes contain a higher carbohydrate count because of, like other mentioned, added sugars. Even when they don't though, they're more likely to contain refined sugars and less likely to contain whole grains. Even products that say whole grain often just have some corn flour or wheat bran added in. If I make my own wheat bread from my own flour ground from wheat berries, I know it not only contains the carbohydrates, but it also contains the bran(fiber) and germ (vitamins and minerals, not even present in many 'whole wheat' flours from the store). Even if the carbohydrate count is exactly the same per serving, my bread (or pasta dish, fruit and yogurt, grain pilaf or whatever) is a healthier source of those carbohydrates because I can be certain that extra sugars, excessive sodium and other additives are not included and that the healthy nutrients are there. I only have a limited amount of food that I can/should eat each day, so when I choose better sources of carbohydrates over highly processed foods, I'm making sure that food gives me the most nutritional value it can.

Of course, I know all this and try to practice it as much as I can, but sometimes those little pies just beg me to eat them...

 

[taxlady]

What Spout said.

I think nutritionally dense food is more satisfying. I think you get cravings for more food if you don't get all the nutrients you need. No, I have no proof of this. It's just something I believe.

 

[pacanis]

Very interesting stuff.
Not being a carb counter I didn't realize so many sugars were associated with carbohydrates.

That said, I just had two slices of garlic bread with lunch

 

[CarolPa]

What Spout said.

I think nutritionally dense food is more satisfying. I think you get cravings for more food if you don't get all the nutrients you need. No, I have no proof of this. It's just something I believe.

I agree with this 100% Taxlady. And I have no proof, either.

Pac, to me, anything that is not in the form that nature supplied it is "processed." Things like boxed mixes are a prime example. Betty Crocker Scalloped Potatoes come to mind. I don't think a person who is not diabetic has to worry much about carbs in moderation. Your body works properly to process them the way it should. So eat all the bread you like! I will just be jealous.

FrankZ, there's a lot more to worry about with diabetes than sugar. It's the simple carbs..... sugar, flour, rice, starchy vegetables such as potatoes that enter the blood stream quickly that are not processed properly by the body. Vegetables and beans are carbs too, but they are complex carbs and the body can handle them a lot better. Some diabetics can eat wheat/whole grain bread without a problem. I am one of those who can't. Doesn't matter whether it contains sugar or not.

 

[Addie]

Diabetes, carbs, and diets all combined is a very complicated subject. But one fact will never change. Once a diabetic, always a diabetic. I no longer am on any medication for diabetes. But I still watch my carbs. And I am an avid back of the container reader. I see "ose", and I will usually put it back on the shelf.

 

[TaraWildes]

Well, if you make your own bread and pasta, you'll work off some of the deleterious effects. At least that's what I tell myself.

Growing up in a poor southern farming community, we had bread of some kind with every meal. Mostly biscuits or cornbread, if we were feeling lazy, what we called "light" bread, storebought sliced white, usually Sunbeam brand. Even if the meal was starchalicious, like chicken and dumplings, there was still bread on the table for sopping up those last drops.

Today, if there's a starch already in the meal like rice, pasta or potatoes, we skip the bread. But I still miss it.

I do like the idea of matching the type of bread to the type of cuisine prepared, just love fresh Italian bread with pasta, naan with lamb stew, crunchy toasted Cuban with black beans, tortillas with just about anything and cornbread with greens and pork. We eat a lot of pitas here too, middle eastern food like kibbe, tabouli and falafel have been a staple in our city for generations.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I love bread and would have it at all meals, but had to mark the 'depends on the meal.' It has become so much easier to put on weight the older I get, so I sacrifice the baked goods for the calorie count. The main exception is BLTs made at the height of 'good' tomato season. YOLO.

I can recall when very small that the bread was the meal -- a bowl of Mom's cornbread (sometimes with cracklins), crumbled, with milk or buttermilk poured over it. I guess we were poor -- I just didn't know it.

Us too! Dad made pancakes or waffles with cheese, diced onion and a cup of diced ham for the six of us. Mom could make one can of tuna feed six, too! My parents did an amazing job of keeping us fed.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I picked up two kalamata olive rolls today...it's probably a good thing the store and bakery are across town or I would be eating them all them time. I bought a grilled tuna steak for making a sandwich with one roll, red onion, alfalfa sprouts, tomato and EVOO with vinegar. The other roll was torn into bite size pieces and devoured.

 

[Addie]

Us too! Dad made pancakes or waffles with cheese, diced onion and a cup of diced ham for the six of us. Mom could make one can of tuna feed six, too! My parents did an amazing job of keeping us fed.

I don't ever remember my mother's pantry being as full as I keep mine. Of course she shopped weekly, and me, monthly. And she didn't have a freezer until the late 50's. Yet we always had great meals.