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Bread And Weight Gain: Discerning Fact From Fiction

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Keeping the body trimmed and toned are popular goals these days. Unfortunately, bread often gets caught in the crossfire for people on a quest to accomplish these goals. There is a widespread belief that eating bread causes you to bloat and the idea that the carbohydrates naturally found in bread will make you gain excess weight. Consequently, some people do everything in their power to avoid bread. Much of the information about bread as it pertains to weight loss is simply untrue.

Bread Makes You Gain Weight

When it comes to this misconception, looking at bread as an empty canvas can help put things into perspective. On its own, bread is a low-fat, blank canvas. However, if you put a bunch of high-fat ingredients on it, such as buttery spreads, you can quickly turn it into something different.

For those individuals who feel like they are consuming an excessively high number of calories when they eat bread as part of their meal, the problem might actually be what they are putting on top of their bread and not the bread alone.   

Bread Causes Bloating

When it comes to bread and bloat, misinformation is a common problem. Some people are under the impression that if they eat bread, they will automatically experience bloating. However, this is only the case for those individuals who have a known sensitivity or intolerance to wheat or those who have celiac disease – not everyone.

People who suffer from these types of medical concerns typically have a harder time digesting the bread, which can ultimately cause them to experience bloating. For a person without any of these digestive concerns, enjoying a slice of bread shouldn't cause this issue.

Carbs Prevent Weight Loss

A popular diet trend is the elimination, or significant reduction of carbs. For people following these types of plans, eating bread isn't allowed because there is the idea that carbs, such as bread, block weight loss. While consuming fewer carbs can help you lose, consuming carbs won't necessarily keep you from losing weight either. Weight loss isn't just about carbs, but also following a well-balanced, nutritional diet with a healthy calorie deficit. In fact, for a well-balanced diet, bread and other carbs should make up between 45 and 65 percent of your daily calories.  

Bread isn't just a good source of nutrition--it's also delicious. Keeping everyone informed about the real benefits of bread and helping them recognize the myths can ensure more people enjoy bread as they rightfully should.


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