Low calorie bread

jellyfruits

Lately, I have been eating Alpine Valley's 12-grain bread with omega 3, 46 calories per slice. Would you guys say this bread is healthy based on it's ingredients? It's so filling and good for only 46 calories, it's pretty unbelievable. Also, are there other healthy, wholesome breads out there?

rejectuf

If you feel fine eating it, and including it in your meals doesn't make you go over on calories, then go for it.

ahoier

I'd say go with it......if it works for you, and your macros...bread is one of my weaknesses lol.....I love carbs haha. But I also work out almost every day.....to burn off the energy lol. This isn't one of the breads with yoga mat material in it, is it? LOL. I was reading an article, and the Sara Lee 45 calorie bread contains yoga mat material.

rosebette

I like the idea of low cal bread because 80-100 calories for a slice of bread makes sandwiches so calorie-heavy. A sandwich ends up being 200 calories before you even put the meat in it, and let's face it, the nutrition isn't in the bread.. Many of the low calorie breads though are flimsy and tasteless. I have been trying to get my husband to eat low cal bread because he's also diabetic, and he won't touch the stuff, so thanks for the recommendation for a good one.

HeidiCooksSupper

It depends on how you define "healthy." Yes, this bread is probably a "healthier" choice than a bread laden with chemical dough conditioners and trans fats. To determine if a food is healthy enough to include in your own diet is a personal choice based on what else you are eating and your personal health aims.

Look both at the list of ingredients and the nutrition label information.

For Alpine Valley 12-grain + omega 3, the ingredients are

Organic Whole Grain Wheat Flour, Organic Wheat Flour, Water, Organic Evaporated Cane Syrup, Organic Honey, Organic Red Wheat, Organic Oats, Organic Barley, Organic Corn, Organic Rye, Organic Flaxseed, Organic Millet, Organic Oat Bran, Organic Cracked Wheat, Organic Sprouted Wheat Berries, Organic Sunflower Seeds, Organic Wheat Bran, Organic Cultured Wheat Flour, Organic White Distilled Vinegar, Sea Salt, Yeast, Wheat Enzymes.

Ingredients are listed in order of amount by weight. In other words, there is more "Organic Whole Grain Wheat Flour" than "Organic Wheat Flour" in this bread and more "Organic Wheat Flour" than water, by weight. The next two ingredients in this bread are forms of sugar, followed by decreasing amounts of each of the whole grains and finally by vinegar, salt, yeast and wheat enzymes -- that last probably being used to increase the gluten content to make up for the seeds and prevent the bread from crumbling.

The bread touts the fact that it contains 12 whole grains, but how much of each grain is present? We only know that the portion of each grain is less than the portion of each of the two sugars.

So now we can take this information and look at the nutrition label numbers.

Consider 45 calories per slice. This compares favorably to many other breads. For example. "Sunbeam Giant White Bread," which is exactly what it sounds like -- fluffy white bread, has 70 calories per slice.

Alpine Valley lists its fat content as 0. It is likely it does contain some fat but little enough that the manufacturer could "round down to 0." Thus, a slice of the Alpine Valley bread may have as much as 1/2g of fat per slice. Many of the listed whole grains do contain fat, e.g. about 1/2 the weight of sunflower seeds is fat, but yet the total of the fat found in the total of 12 grains included is still little enough to be rounded to zero. The fluffy Sunbeam has about 3/4g fat per slice.

-Alpine Valley slice has 60mg of sodium whereas the Sunbeam has just over twice as much at 130mg per slice.

-Alpine Valley has 9g cabohydrates whereas the Sunbeam has 13 grams per slice.

-Alpine Valley has 2g dietary fiber whereas the Sunbeam has less than .5 gram per slice.

-Alpine Valley has 1g sugars whereas the Sunbeam has 1.5 grams per slice.

-Both breads have 2 grams of protein per slice.

Now, take this information and figure out which bread would better fit your purposes at any given moment. Some may call the Alpine Valley bread "healthier" because it has less sodium and sugar and more fiber per slice. Neither bread may be considered "as healthy as" red cabbage because both are quite low in other nutrients, such as vitamin C, etc. Red cabbage, however, has no fat in it and our bodies do need some dietary fats.

Red cabbage is a lousy venue for peanut butter, so I'd choose bread. Now, given my choice is to eat bread, I get to decide what numbers I want that bread to have and choose accordingly. In any event, be it whole grain bread, fluffy white bread or that dreaded bowl of red cabbage, each must fit in my total daily dietary and nutritional needs.

(In the spirit of full disclosure, I like red cabbage and often make my own bread.)

martinel2099

Arnold's has a good 100 calorie sandwich bread. I don't get too often but they are nice when I know I'm going to have a bad week. Turkey sandwich on one of these suckers is pretty good too.

Lately I prefer using Demi Baguette because they're fresher and leave me fuller. More calories, but I think it's worth it.

Francl27

For what it's worth, I'd weigh the slices, I've yet to see those 40 or 45 calorie slices actually being 40 or 45 calories. Typically I go for the small slices that are 60ish calories each... I find them more filling and worth the few extra calories.