Is White Bread Worse For Blood Sugar Than Whole Wheat Bread?
Today lets discuss another article that relates to the effect that our individual gut microbiomes have on how our bodies process nutrients. The work surrounding the microbiome is typically focused on defining what makes a "good" one, or a "bad" one. The research we discuss today doesn't do any of that, it actually probes an interesting topic. Bread.
Well thats it, you are likely thinking, justtryme90's life must be really boring if he thinks BREAD is an interesting topic. You just might be right! Nevertheless this is a topic that is relevant to many of us, because bread is a very popular food.
Today we will dive into some work published in the journal Cell Metabolism titled "Bread Affects Clinical Parameters and Induces Gut Microbiome-Associated Personal Glycemic Responses"
Bread and The Glycemic Index
Bread, it sure makes up a lot of the human diet. Estimates place it somewhere around 10% of our total caloric consumption! [2].
Bread is high in carbohydrates and as such it has the potential to have a pretty big impact on our blood sugar levels. As type II diabetes is becoming more and more pervasive in society, many of us must keep track of our blood sugar levels and try to eat more foods that have less of an impact. To assist in this many people turn to what is known as the glycemic index. This is just a number assigned to a food which tries to predict the effect that food will have on blood glucose levels. As maintaining a controlled post eating blood glucose level makes it significantly less challenging to mitigate diabetic symptoms.
Despite bread being a high carbohydrate food, we are told that not all bread is created equally. You hear all over the place that white bread is much worse for blood sugar then whole wheat bread. White bread is assigned a glycemic index number of 73/100, while whole wheat ranges from 71 down to 51.[3] The logic behind this lower assignment for glycemic index, is that whole wheat bread contains a lot of fibrous material, and as such should slow the absorption of sugars by our bodies.
So based upon these numbers we should assume that yes, white bread is worse for blood sugar than whole wheat! Whole wheat has a lower glycemic index! Duh, you dummy, why even ask this question? Tch, what an idiot this guy.
But Wait... Didn't You Mention New Research and Microbiome?
That's right, you can set your pitch forks down for now. We've some new research to discuss. In the study that I brought up the researchers were looking at the effects that consumption of either whole wheat sourdough (yum) bread or refined flour white bread (less yum...) had on various aspects of participants body biochemistry and their microbiomes.
What they report is surprising
The researchers had 20 participants, half supplemented their diets with only white bread, and the other half with only the whole wheat sourdough bread. What they found was that with regards to glycemic control (effect that the two types of bread had on the participants blood sugar levels, based on an oral glucose tolerance test there was NO difference.
Wait a minute... what?
The researchers also looked for changes in microbiome composition between the two groups. What they found was that the white bread eaters had an increase in the amount of a gut bacteria called Eubacterium ventriosum while the whole wheat sour dough eaters did not. Eubacterium vertriosum, the authors report, produces a fatty acid called butryate which is thought to be protective against colon cancer [4]. So white bread ...leads to more bacteria that protect against colon cancer then wheat bread...
Wait... What?
So all of that data pertains to the averages from the two groups, the authors then also looked for trends inside of each group. This is where things get even more interesting.
Different People Respond To White or Whole Wheat Bread Differently
What they found was that, inside of the two sample sets (those who ate white bread, and those who ate wheat bread), that some individuals maintained a very good blood sugar levels after eating the white bread, while others did not. The same was true for the whole wheat bread, some had good blood sugar levels while others did not. This result makes no sense if we just rely on the glycemic index, because that indicates that a person should not have a better tolerance to white bread over whole wheat sourdough. Nevertheless, 25% of the participants in the study DID.
Is The Microbiome Involved?
They then wanted to know whether or not there was some difference in the microbiome of individuals that made them better able to process white bread, or the whole wheat sourdough bread. What they found was that by looking at the microbiome composition of the individuals that they could predict, whether or not they would better respond to white or whole wheat sourdough, reporting that two bacteria are the determining factors: Coprobacter fastidiosus and Lachnospiraceae bacterium 3_1_46FAA. What they do not know as of yet is WHY these bacteria lead to the observed results.
Conclusions
The glycemic index is not a good predictor for how white or whole wheat bread will effect the blood sugar of an individual, and the bacteria that live in your gut do play a role in this process.
White bread is not necessarily worse for blood sugar then whole wheat bread, in fact for some people, it's better.
Sources
- http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/pdf/S1550-4131(17)30288-7.pdf
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26590418
- http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/whole-wheat-bread-good-blood-sugar-3955.html
- http://jn.nutrition.org/content/134/2/479.long
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If you like this work, please consider giving me a follow: @justtryme90. I am here to help spread scientific knowledge and break down primary publications in such a way so as to cut through the jargon and provide you the main conclusions in short (well compared to the original articles at least!) and easy to read posts.
Im curious if one would be able to supplement or alter enzymatic occurrences within the gut via external means, in an effort to change the productivity of one relative to the other.
It's an interesting question and I don't know the answer. There are studies going on that I have heard about with researchers attempting to modify the microbiome composition to treat an underlying condition. However I havent read the results from any of these. It's all a bit of a black box to me yet, and I am waiting eagerly for the data to be available which will tell me more. (Unless there are useful articles out there I have not seen, it's also possible, I can not keep up to current status on all that many topics lol, only one small brain ).
I've heard some "health pros" compare white bread and whole wheat bread as coke vs Diet Coke. Neither is really heathy for you. Flour isn't a whole food. Also, flour by itself tastes pretty terrible...you have to add things like salt, sugar, oils, etc to give it flavor. Better off sticking to whole natural foods.
I do not know how you can live without bread, but I'm enjoying it right now. Freshly baked bread with butter - mmm.
And comparison of bread with coke is incorrect. During World War II a lot of people survived eating only bread. Can one survive drinking coke?
It's a good comparison. Most bread is junk, and the ones that are actually very healthy are often too expensive for most people. That's just how it is though, we live in a society where junk food is the cheapest option a lot of the times.
Junk food is cheap and convenient, but you get what you pay for. Another problem with the breads found in supermarkets is the additives. If you look carefully, lots of them use High Fructose Corn Syrup and preservatives. The ingredients look like a small paragraph.
Thanks for your input!
No prob. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the taste of bread and will eat it on occasion. Just like everything in life...do it in moderation. I just feel that some people eat way too much whole wheat bread and think it's healthy for them. It's very easy to overconsume carbs.
Wise words. Very true.
These was a very important knowledge for diabetes patient. They actually have to calculate the sugar level contained in the food before consume it.
For those in age of 40,please take note you are in a higher probability to get a diabetes. Dont eat a high sugar level of food for so much.
Oh, am I writting too much?
Sorry
Its a good idea to think about how much sugar we are consuming. Sound advice.
Thanks,just upvoted you!
Thanks for taking the time to read, and sharing your thoughts. Have a great day!
It's just always confusing, you never know what to believe. So many studies can contradict each other in different ways. I think just mix it all up then at least your half right in which one is better.
This is true, you never know what to believe and in fact with science thats usually a good thing. We can only go where the data points us. When you have enough data all pointing in the same direction, then thats usually the right way to go. The jury is still out with regards to this, however there is a path for the research to continue to go down. Unfortunately progress takes a while. It's still interesting to watch things unfold IMO. I love discussing it as well.
I had seen news articles and such talking about this before but I found this article to actually be helpful. I do eat way less white bread but mostly because I find others taste better to me. Argh now I want a grilled cheese lol
Grilled cheese... mmmm. Plane old white bread is really good for grilled cheese :D
I personally think white bread does more harm too to the body and ultimately increasing blood sugar. I just eat wheat bread and at a minimum. Got to protect our future. ;)
This study indicates that there is more to it then that. Wheat bread may actually be worse for you depending on your own microbiome composition.
To be safe..wihout the hassle of knowing which microbiome an indiviual have,
EAT RICE, white or brown or red or purple?
How do you know there is not variability there as well? It just hasn't been found yet.
that was a joke..but while there's no study done as yet, we Filipinos will stick to rice ;)
:D
Much informative posts with insights for certian medical conditions. Highly Commendable and Appreciated work.
Thank you for your kind words. I am glad you enjoyed the post.
Nice artical. Im going to follow you.
Thank you, I will return the favor.
It was a common saying among the Puritans, "Brown bread and the Gospel is good fare."
As it turns out, it's a bit more complicated. However, brown bread is quite tasty, I love a good whole wheat.