It’s hard to pick a food in the grocery store that is more confusing than bread! And unfortunately, Canadian labelling regulations don’t really help. This is the one place where, if you’re trying to choose healthy, you really have to know your terminology; marketers use product labels and advertising very convincingly, and will often lead us astray.
The first thing to understand is that whole wheat , does not necessarily mean whole grain. A wheat kernel has 3 parts to it: the outer bran (lots of fiber here), the endosperm (here’s the starch), and the germ (most of the goodness of wheat is in here – protein, some fat, lots of B vitamins, vitamin E, iron, and magnesium to list a few). All three are technically “wheat”. The biggest problem with flour made from the entire wheat kernel is that the fat from the germ will quickly make wheat flour turn rancid; therefore, manufacturers will very often remove the germ to allow the flour to have a longer shelf life.
Now follow the logic carefully:
In Canada, for a flour to be called “whole wheat flour”, it must have at least 95% of the wheat kernel. (since the germ only makes up 2.5% of the grain, that can be completely removed and still be legally called whole wheat flour.)
And for a bread to be called “100% whole wheat bread” it just needs to be made completely with the whole wheat flour as defined.
Hence, 100% whole wheat bread is not necessarily whole grain bread.
The exact same logic applies to multigrain breads. Unless the individual flours are from whole grains, the bread can’t be assumed to be a whole grain bread. (The little flax seeds and oat grains sprinkled on the top can be deceiving! You need to check the ingredient list know for sure.)
So what to look for: it’s actually pretty easy. Read the ingredient list and look for the word “whole grain” in front of whole wheat and the word “whole” in front of all the other grains. For example “Whole grain whole wheat”, “Whole rye”, “Whole oats”, “Whole corn”. Some grains that are always whole include amaranth, bulgur, milet, quinoa, spelt, triticale, and brown rice.
That should give you enough to survive the bread aisle! Happy shopping!
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