For several years, bread has been accused of causing digestive issues, weight gain, and other discomforts for those who eat a little too much of it.
Yet, bread has been in human hands since the Paleolithic era, appreciated for its taste and texture. Moreover, 60% of the French declare they eat it at every meal.
So what happened for bread to be less celebrated and for us to want to find alternatives?
When we talk about bread, most of the time we mean white bread or baguette. White bread is indeed made with refined T55 white flour, with minerals reduced to the minimum at 0.55 g/100 g of bread, unlike wholemeal bread with 1.55 g of minerals/100 g of bread.
Furthermore, baguette has a high glycemic index (GI 55), while sourdough bread has a GI of 35.
The alternatives are numerous in the big family of bread, and other more or less original alternatives might also make you want to reduce your white bread consumption.
1. The 1000 types of bread
One of the most popular alternatives to white bread is whole grain bread, such as wholemeal bread or multigrain bread.
These breads contain additional fiber and nutrients that can be beneficial to our health.
I particularly like:
- rye bread, which is rich in fiber and minerals and reminds me of the taste of Breton buckwheat pancakes
- sourdough bread with its authentic flavor and composition that is particularly effective for our microbiota diversity, thanks to lactobacilli and yeasts, among others
If you just want to replace white bread with another type of bread, there are hundreds of different breads to satisfy your taste buds.
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From wholemeal bread to spelt flour bread, including seed breads (sesame, poppy…), sourdough bread, corn bread, brown bread, and bran bread…
If you want to replace bread at breakfast, these alternatives are for you!
2. Pancakes, blinis, and other wraps
Buckwheat pancakes, blinis, or even corn wraps offer an ideal alternative to bread. Whether as a side dish or a main dish, pancakes, blinis, and wraps add texture and starch to your meal.
For blinis, there are many ways to make them by either changing the flour (buckwheat, rice, or chickpea flour) or by mixing the batter with spinach, zucchini, red beans, or pumpkin, for example.
This adds color to your blinis while incorporating some vegetables, perfect for children.
3. Vegetables in sandwiches or burgers
Eggplant, mushrooms, or sweet potato can be eaten as a sandwich! If you want to replace the bread in your sandwich or your burger bun, several healthy and tasty options are available to you.
Indeed, you can opt for vegetable-based bread alternatives.
For example, you can make sandwiches with lettuce leaves or tomato slices, or use portobello mushrooms as buns for your hamburgers.
Personally, I love using vegetable patties, like zucchini or carrot patties, to replace the bread in my sandwiches.
Try also with:
- sweet potato
- sticky rice (sushi burgers, my guilty pleasure…)
- avocado
Why replace bread?
Potential digestive discomfort
The French eat much less bread than in 1960, but it remains a staple of our meals. Many of us want to reduce or completely replace bread in our daily lives for various reasons.
Some of us want to reduce bread consumption because they have a digestive discomfort linked to various elements of bread.
For patients with celiac disease, it generates more than discomfort since it is a true gluten intolerance that forces them to completely eliminate gluten from their plate.
Read also | Gluten-free flour: 9 ideas for alternative and nutritious flours
For others, it is a sensitivity to this protein found in wheat, barley, spelt, and rye.
You may then experience bloating, stomach pain, with diarrhea or constipation, sometimes fatigue and a lack of concentration.
If reducing gluten makes you feel better, you can find alternatives to bread and other products containing gluten.
These pains can also be caused by FODMAPs and particularly fructans found in wheat. But before completely eliminating gluten and FODMAPs from your diet, consult a healthcare professional who can conduct tests and assess your sensitivity.
Reducing consumption to cut calories?
Because there is a fear of gaining weight, people think that reducing their bread consumption will promote weight loss. However, several studies show that it’s not the bread that causes weight gain but the type of bread.
Indeed, this study shows that white bread is more likely to promote obesity, whereas this is less the case with whole grain, seeded, or mixed flour breads.
In any case, it’s more the amount of bread consumed over the week that will make the difference. A small piece of bread per day will not affect your figure. If eating bread is a pleasure, don’t deprive yourself!
