What type of bread do you buy? Is it wholemeal, is it salado? Maybe it's multigram, or maybe it's high five or one. There are many, many varieties of bread in our supermarket, so this week we take a closer look at three popular bread varieties and the pros and cons of each. Hi, I'm Leanne Wood and I'm Sissy Barrow and it's still of Australia's leading dieticians. We bring you the Nutrition Count Product Review, a weekly chat on new products and old favorites that you can find at
the soupermarket. So bread, Susie. We have done a lot of bread in the product review is but I must say I'm a big bread fan. Love some bread with my eggs, love some bread with a bit of peeb on it. Although a now Judames allergies, I don't have that as much, but I do love bread, are you Obviously? I would imagine with two twin boys who are growing very quickly, you would have a lot of bread loaves in your household.
Oh my god, Lean, I'm using so much more bread than I ever used to. So now they'll have a sandwich every day and toast and then often like they want more sandwiches, you know what I mean. Like, they're so hungry, so I buy for them just plain a whole meal, high fiber. Now, if you ask me before I had kids, if I would have given them what sort of bread, I would have said multi grade, But of course it's so different in reality. So I'm happy because one of mine's a little bit sensitive on the tummy.
I've just given them a smooth hole meal and they love it. To be honest, they've never really had white bread. It's not like they asked me for it, and I, you know, for the family, it's good. I sort of can find it anywhere. It's nice and soft and goes nicely with their topping if it's ham or peanut butter or even vegemant. For school myself, though, I like a
dense grain. If I am having eggs, I'll either buy a bakery loaf, you know, and use it for a few days, like one of those expensive Artisian loaves that you think, how can I a loaf of bread costs that much? But it's just delicious, and my kids love that crunchy grain bread as well, so that's good. Or I'm sort of a soylin fan, you know, if I was going to buy loaf bread for me, I don't normally use it. I'd just be more likely to use what's in the house with the boys. But yeah, probably
a treat loaf, you know, every week or so. It would be a freshly baked Autesian loaf that's just delicious with like some fresh goats, cheese and tomato, like so good.
Love it, love it all. Right, Well, we have got a couple of different varieties today. We've chosen a whole meal, a white high fiber, and a nine grain loaf. So the first one we've got is the Abbot's Bakery Farmhouse whole mial. So this one is four dollars thirty roughly it Colson more Worth. It's a seven fifty gram loaf, and I think, I mean there will behold we do per serving because serving size is two slices. Two slices, yeah, I think so, yeah, Okay, so serving size is two slices.
So what's up with the ingredients? So it is whole meal, a whole grain, wheat flour sixty five percent, so a good percentage of wheat flour in that grain flour, followed by water. Bakers used canola oil vinegar, idized salt, fermented wheat flour, soy flour, more wheat flour. It's the third time they've mentioned wheat flour. Some amulsifiers and some vitamins. They've got added diamond and folic acid, and that's very common, very common to see those added vitamins in our bread
loaves in Australia. Thyamine and pholic acid is something that a lot of people can be lower, particularly if you have a less than optimal diet, particularly if you're a big drinker. And I think a lot of the research did find that a lot of people who were low in thiamine and folic acid were people who had poor quality diets and who did drink a lot of alcohol, and bread was a cheap and easy product to fortify that with. So it's very common to actually see these
added vitamins in loaves of bread in Australia. So I would say fairly clean ingredient list from a ingredient perspective, and then per serving, So one serving is eighty four grams, and we're going to assume that's two slices of bread.
I would imagine eighty four grams. Yes, yeah, yeah, So energy wise, We've got eight hundred and thirty one kilodule, so just over two hundred calories, seven point seven grams of protein for two slices, two point six grams of fat with zero point four grams being saturated, thirty two
point eight grams of carbohydrate, which is fairly standard. It's about roughly, you know, what you would say is two rough serves of car hydrates, two point one grams of sugar, that being just naturally occurring sugars, five point nine grams of dietary fiber, and three hundred and nineteen milligrams of sodium, which I think is probably, you know, fairly fairly average for two slices of bread. So overall, I think this is a fairly great product. I wouldn't say I'm giving
it ten out of ten. I'm not giving it all gold stars, but I definitely give it sort of a seven or eight. I can't really fault it. I definitely do think there are better nutrition wise products on the market. But I think it's a nice family friendly loaf. You know, growing up, my family was much like you. My dad didn't like the multi grain because he hated the seeds getting stuck in his teeth. So we were very much mum used to bias whole meal loaves growing up, so
I'm very much used to wholemeal bread. You write it is a little bit of an easier texture for some people to manage, particular children and older people particularly they have benches. So I think it's a good, well rounded product. What do you think?
Yeah, I don't disagree. I think that the interesting thing is that you know, as soon as you're growing a plain whole meal bread that doesn't have any specific health angle. So for example, if you're buying a soylin seed loaf or a high protein loaf, you know, or even a loaf that's had nutrients like extra vitamins added, you can justify I feel at a higher price point for me,
this is just a plain wholemeal bread. It's got a good amount of dietary fiber coming in almost six grams per two slices, which is outstanding, but there's nothing remarkable about it. The sodium is actually reasonably low. It's quite good for bread. Yes, you look at the ingredient list and you think it's not overly clean, but it's pretty you know, innocent, there's nothing really there. I'd be concerned about but four dollars thirty, I'd say we'll buy the
no name brand wholemeal bread for two bucks. You know, I think in common times where budgets are so important and we're spending so much money on food, four dollars thirty for a loaf for me is quite a loth for a family, And when you're not getting any super period nutritional profile, you'd be better in my mind to buy the coals or woolies no name hole meal for half the price. But that's more of a budget issue than nutritionally. It's a strong bread, you know. I'd buy
this bread and feed it to my family. It's it's not the one I opt for because I like my SELFI and a thinner slice. These slices are quite thick, and I think it's important for kids in particular that we offer them small bread because if you think back to bread back in the eighties, it was thirty gram slices, so sixty grams and this is, you know, twenty thirty percent more than that, and that adds up, and I think it's quite large, particularly for kids. But there's nothing wrong.
I'd give it a seven out of ten. There's better breads there's worse breads, and it's it's got a good amount of fiber and that's one of the most important things. And it's got a good amount of holemeal flower. So yeah, pretty good greed, all right. Same product is an interesting one. I feel like it's something that I think was specifically developed with some key nutrient and macro targets in range. So it is the Coals Bakery fifty percent lower carb
white toast loaf. So it's a thicker slices. It's three dollars fifty for the loaf. And when we look at the ingredients, water is our first ingredient, which I think is interesting for bread, followed by a modified wheat starch and obviously we don't know how they've modified it, but they've modified it in this case to get a ton more fiber in there and a lot less carbohydrate in there.
The modified wheat starch is followed by wheat flour, wheat gluten, wheat fiber, more wheat fiber, yuased sesame seeds, some idized salt, canola oil, thyamon, and folic acid. And there's this disclaimer on here saying that the Coals fifty percent lower carb white loaf has fifty percent last carbohydrates and the coal
standard white loaf of bread. So when we look at the nutritionals per serving, which is two slices, is five hundred and ninety three killer jewels, so around one hundred and forty calories, so a lot, I would say, a lot less, you know, than the two slices of the Abbot's whole meal that we just discussed. Now, protein wise, we've got six point six grams. We've got one point seven grams, so quite low fat, with point five of that being saturated, fifteen point six grams of carbohydrate, so yes,
about fifty percent less carbohydrate. Then again, a traditional standard white or wholemeal loaf are nineteen grams of dietary fiber am I reading that right? That is insanely high with two hundred and seven milligrams of sodium. So that dietary fiber is coming from the modified wheat starch as far as I'm aware, SUSI, plus a little bit of that wheat flour and some wheat fibrins and wheat glutens. So it's very much how they make you know, the high
fiber type passes as well. They're using a lot of modified wheat, starch and fiber in there, so I would almost call it one of those fake fiber products. So, yes, you're getting in a lot of dietary fiber, but it's not the good type of stuff like the whole grains and the lentils and the nuts and the seeds that we know can actually positively impact our gut health. And for some people that's a heck of a lot of fiber and one load. So there are definitely positives to this low carbohydrate.
If you need it. It's lower calorie if you need it. But to me, Susie, it really is just a white loaf when you look at it. Despite the high fiber content, there's none of that whole grain real goodness in there that I'd prefer to see in something with a really high fiber profile.
What do you think, Well, I put it in here for a reason because I find it fascinating because a little while ago, Klin of mine said to me, I'm buying the Coals white low car bread and I was like, no, it doesn't exist, Like no, I swear to God. So I went to Coals and I was looking at this label and I just was like, this cannot be right.
Like there is.
It's just no, it's so strange. And and I actually messaged the one of the ditesians that Coals and ask her about it. Because bread is not made in seven hundred factories, you know what I mean, there's one or two companies that will be making all the bread, whether it's Audi, whether it's Coals, And I was like, is this are these nutritionals right? It seems such an odd mix because it's not overly low carb, as we've mentioned
in the potty before. You know, low carb for me is in bread like five grams or less pursue slices. This is still fifteen so you're getting two slices like half the amount, which is what it's advertised as. So that's kind of weird because it's not low carb. But then all this weird fiber, which you're arguing is not digested and good for gut health. But as you've described it, so heavily processed, you're not getting any of the whole
grain benefits of bread. If I'm wanting bread, I want actual bread, not this sort of mix of process nutritionals to give that. And I see this, we see this in wraps a lot. Any of those kind of lower carb wraps, so using these kind of really complicated formulations to add all this fiber back in. And I would never give someone two slices of bread with nineteen grams of fiber, Like if they're sensitive, it's going to blow their gut up. Like if you're having a sandwich, it's
got like lots of salad on it. So say, let us leaves plus tomato plus beet s troit plus had that fiber. You're getting a sandwich with like twenty five grams of fiber. It's I'm insane. So I'm really not quite sure who this product is targeted to because it's white and then like fifty half the amount of carb, Like what sort of family is buying white bread and they want less car? He's buying that, So I find it just fascinating, and I would never I don't recommend
white bread. I don't care what it is, whether it's sour doough, whether it's I don't think white bread is good for us. It doesn't have any of the nutritions of whole grain. And yeah, I don't recommend or use this product, So I'm interested to hear if anyone does, because I just can't even imagine who's buying it, And I.
Think I really see it targeted to those gym populations who are those like big macro trackers, you know, the macro people who are like, I just got to get my macros. I've got to get my fiber and got to get my protein and got to keep my carbs lower. I see it marketed at a lot of the gym population who are macro trackers, who, if I'm being honest, I really obsessed with the macros but not really looking
at things like the micronutrients and ingredients too much. They're doing a lot of scanning of labels, inputing into something like my Fitness Pal, and as long as it fits their macros, they're pretty happy with it. And from a general health perspective, we've talked about it before in the Potti Susie, we don't love it because you don't really consider things like ingredients and micro nutrients and that sort
of thing. So it's not something I must admit I've ever recommended, and I probably don't see myself recommending it in the future, but it is certainly an interesting product, and I think again, I would say a lot of parents I have had a lot of parents who have fussy kids, and they do use something like you know, the tip top white high fiber loaf, all this one
as a high fiber option for their kids. But I do think there's so many better ways to get in fiber, even for fussy eaters than something like a loaf like this. I would still be trying to encourage you know, whole meal or even if it's one slice of normal white bread, one slice for wholemeal bread together in a sandwich to kind of ease them into that I think is a better option. That's something my mum used to do until we grew up a little bit and you know, tolerated
the whole meal a little bit more. She kind of used to mix one slice of each in a sandwich, so we sort of felt like we're getting fifty percent of what we wanted, fifty percent of what she wanted.
And I do think I'd be a bit concerned giving that bread to kids at nineteen grams fiber or a so much time, and I think they would have potentially abdominal distress in some cases. So yeah, I do think you have to be careful with some of these formulated products for kids. Some of these high protein, lower carb foods are not appropriate. They're weigh too much, and in the case of this bread, I think that's way too much fiber for a child and.
As a specifically formulated product. So then, yeah, as you said, we have to be careful with who we're recommending it for. So the last one that we've chosen, I must say this is one of my favorites. I do recommend this for my clients quite a lot, although I must say I don't recommend sandwiches a whole lot for my clients. I just don't find them that feeling or sustaining for very long. I'm much more of a wrap or a
salad or a hot meal lunch kind of girl. Particularly for my clients as well, I just want them to actually be sustained so they're not snacking all afternoon. So I'm not a huge sandwich person, but I do like this sandwich loaf. So it's the Tip top nine grain original bread. So it is seven hundred grams for the loaf and it's three dollars ninety so a little bit more affordable than the Abbotts one that we talked about.
So from an ingredient perspective, the top ingredient is wheat flour, followed by water, followed by mixed whole grains, which we love at fourteen percent. And the mixed whole grains are made up of some kibbled rye, some kibbled wheat, some old buck wheat, some kibbled corn, kibbled purple wheat, millet, tricolate,
kidled barley, and some roll dots. Then we've got some seeds with a blend of limbseeds and some flower seeds, followed by Baker's yeast, wheat gluten, kibbled soy, vinegar, idized salt, canola oil, salt soy flower, some amolsifiers and some vitamins being thiamon and folic acid again, and some wheat malt
flour to finish us off. So I like that it has a strong foes and whole grains, and also some seeds in their SUSI so I think fairly strong from an ingredient list, And I think you know, you're just not going to get a bread made in a supermarket that doesn't have some addition of a little bit of vegetable oil and some salt and some extra vitamins. So for me, that ingredient list, although I wouldn't say it's
one hundred percent clean. I don't see anything outstanding in there or anything that I would say, Oh, I definitely wouldn't buy that. So I think the ingredient list is fine. It's got some good things in there from a whole grain perspective. Now, looking at a serving size, one serving size is seventy four grams, So that's for two slices
of seventy four grams. Energy wise, we've got seven seventy kilogel, so just under two hundred calories nine grams of protein, which is a decent amount of protein coming from a
lot of our grains and our seeds. Fat wives. Have got three point seven grams zero point four of that being saturated, twenty six grams of carbohydrate total for the two slices, with one point six grams of that being sugar, and that's naturally occurring, four point eight grams of dietary fiber, which I think is a decent amount of dietary fiber, and two hundred and ninety six milligrams of sodium, which is fairly standard all perhaps a little bit lower on
average for a bread. So I really like this one Susi. As I said, I do and I have recommended it particularly just because it's got a strong base in the ingredients from whole grains and from seeds, which we know does saturally support our gut health and our digestion and our healthy bowel movements as well.
Yeah, I'm a big set nine grain. I love all everything about it.
Really.
It's a really nice calorie load, you know, less than two hundred calories for two slices. They're nice and thin. Nine grams of protein massive something they don't label fully, and like they don't label the long chain fats, but I actually think they'd be really favorable with that beautiful mix of lind seeds and sunflower seeds, so you get a nice dose of long chain amiga threes i'd imagine. I always sort of look for breads that are to
a thirty grams of carbor less per serve. So I love this because it's in twenty six so it's a really nice overall balance nine four point eight fiber beautiful. Yeah, I'm a big fan of nine grain. I always have really liked it. And what I particularly like is that if you buy a dense like soylin bread, which would be my go to toasted for those superior nutritional properties of those long chain fats. It's not great as a sandwich.
It's sort of more chewy and a bit harder, and it's great as toast, Whereas this strikes a perfect balance between a bread that's great good for toast, but also really nice on a sandwich, so nice and soft and still chewy. So I have no qualms on recommending a nine grain. It's on my list. I probably should actually add it to my list more often with clients. I've sort of gone off that just, you know, because you just do what's familiar for a while. But yeah, I'm
giving that. I love it. I think it's a nine out of ten. I think it's a really strong bread nutritionally, it tastes good, it's not too heavy for people. If you've got grain eaters in the family, it's the top pick. Then I would buy that and recommend it as well. So yeah, I can't really fault it. I think it's really strong. Agreed, And I did notice correct me if
I'm wrong. That picture is very small. But I do have good eyes, so I do think that I can see a low GI label on the front of that as well, so that's another bonus as well, which we would assume with a good healthy mix of sort of seeds and whole grains in that bread, a decent fiber amount as well a lower carbohydrate amount. We would hope that that's sort of a lower GI product as well, so good for our diabetics or anyone looking from a
hormonal perspective as well. If we pair that with some good protein, a little bit of healthy that's like some avocado and tons of salad, it can actually be a really really nice balanced sandwich option. And as you said, it's great for a sandwich bread, it's also good for toast in the morning as well. So that rounds us off for our three products for the week, Susie, two that we would recommend and one perhaps not so much, which I think a few people would find quite interesting.
So brings us to the end of this week's episode. Now, if you're interested in products, we must say, if you've missed the big announcement, we have our Nutrition Couch product guard review. This is specific for our Aussie clients. We've gone through the soupermcrot We've picked over one hundred and thirty of our favorite products in every category. We've got breads, wraps, cereals, milk, We've got tomato sauce. We've got you know, stir fry
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Have a great week,