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ARTICLE
How Much Bread Do I Need to Eat?
Today I am going to try to answer one of my most frequently asked questions.
In fact at the recent Knead Your Cure conference in Oxford MS where I was a guest speaker along with 5 other great presenters and health care providers, the very first question asked of this brilliant panel in the Q&A time was directed to me:
How much bread should I be eating every day to see the health benefits that so many speak of?
First, I want to say that it is interesting to me that we are so dosage minded in America. We ask how much bread we need to eat, like asking how much medicine we need to take. I get the whole idea of let food be your medicine concept but I never want anyone to approach bread like it is something we have to eat.
When I first started on my journey of milling my own grain and making all my bread, muffins, pancakes and other baked goods for my family, I never even considered how much we needed to be eating. I just incorporated these new real whole grain foods into every meal. We didn’t really change what we ate at meal time – we just made sure that any bread or grain food was freshly milled and real.
But let’s look at what the general recommendations have been over the years.
For years the USDA used a food guide pyramid and the general recommendation was 6-11 servings of grains, including bread, cereal, rice and pasta every day. This grain category was the base of the pyramid with the recommendation to make at least some of these choices whole grain. Of course, my recommendation is to make ALL your choices real whole grains and real bread and to avoid processed grains and white flour completely.
These guide lines were revised in January 2020 and recommend 3-5 whole grain servings a day. These can surely serve as guides but are not meant to be hard and fast rules.
So, what is the answer to this frequently asked question – how much bread do we need to eat every day and how do we get the recommended servings?
The key is to make ALL your grain choices whole and real. And more importantly it means incorporating whole grains into every meal.
Now you may be thinking “What might a serving look like”? A serving of whole grains is considered by some to be a one-ounce portion.
This might be 1 slice of bread, a 1 oz muffin (mine typically weigh about 1 ½ ounces from a standard muffin pan) or 1-2 pancakes, all made with freshly milled flour of course. It might also be ½ cup cooked brown rice, whole grain pasta or cooked hot cereal, such as grits or oatmeal.
So, an average day for me might include a muffin or toast for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and a side of brown rice and a roll or other type of bread for dinner. That’s about 6 servings right there without even thinking about how much I need to eat.
If it is a pasta night then my pasta will be whole grain and of course some sort of bread to go with it. Mexican night will be homemade tortillas made from freshly milled flour and with a soup or chili night we will definitely have cornbread made from freshly ground corn. In reality, my menu planning often centers around what bread I am in the mood for, not how much bread I need to eat.
In addition to the recommended servings of whole grains we need to be getting in a day there is also the recommended fiber. When centered around whole grains and bread made from freshly milled flour it is easy to get in our 25 -30 grams of recommended fiber per day, as one slice of real bread easily provides about 3-4 grams.
In 2 previous episodes of Sue’s Healthy Minutes #48 and #50, I mentioned the protocol of Dr. Ken Anderson formerly of the University of Kentucky. His easy program was called the 1234 High Fiber Eating Plan.
His recommendation was simply to include in your daily diet:
- 1 serving from the cereal group – either a prepared high fiber cereal choice or something like granola, oatmeal, grits or cream of wheat
- 2 servings of fresh fruit
- 3 servings of vegetables
- 4 servings of starch –which includes high fiber whole grains, breads, brown rice or pasta – the bread of course we want to be made from freshly milled flour
In his protocol, he considers a 2-3 ounce portion of bread and 1 cup of brown rice or pasta a serving. Following his plan, you can see that you could easily be getting more like 10-12 – 1-ounce servings recommended by other standards.
But, I want to point out that how many servings we need to be eating in a day does not have to be our focus or a task to achieve. When you are eating a simple diet of real foods, such as real fruits, vegetables and real whole grains and real bread made from freshly milled flour – there is really no need to worry about what determines a serving, the amount of fiber we need or even the calories we might be consuming.
Just make whole grains and real bread a conscious part of every meal, every day, every way. Real foods such as these are going to fill you up so the chances are slim that you will over eat or indulge with an oversize serving. High fiber foods, such as real whole grains fill you up and satisfy you naturally for a longer period of time.
Sadly, the average American eats less than 1 serving of whole grains per day and some studies show that over 40% of Americans never eat whole grains at all. The anti-grain, anti-bread and anti-gluten agenda that has been pushed on us over the past 10 years has certainly not helped. And of course, the age-old philosophy that bread will make us fat, is a particular concern especially among women.
So many people shy away from bread for this very reason. But the truth is that much of the world lives off of whole grains and beans, especially the less industrialized cultures and those rarely see the obesity and health issues of America.
In fact, a 12 year study conducted among women to investigate the relationship between the intake of dietary fiber and whole grains over time found that those who consumed more whole grains consistently weighed less than women who consumed less – Those who had the highest intake of whole grains had a 49% lower risk of obesity.
Research also shows that those who consume 3 or more servings of whole grains a day saw better insulin metabolism, reduced risk of metabolic syndrome and reduced risk of heart disease and various cancers.
Complex carbohydrates such as whole grains and bread made from freshly milled flour supply our muscles with fuel, improve stamina and endurance and increases our energy. Whole grains are a rich source of B vitamins, many minerals, one of the richest food sources of Vitamin E, even a good source of critical amino acids and proteins and of course lots of good fiber. Remember whole grains and particularly bread has long been considered the staff of life.
Over the many years now of teaching about the many health benefits of real bread made from freshly milled whole grains and sharing the 100s of testimonies we have heard of improved health, this question, how much bread should I eat, continues to come up.
I have also had people explain that they have just not seen the results and health benefits that I talk about so passionately that myself and others have experienced.
When asked, how much bread they are eating they often answer with something like – “Well I eat my muffin every morning”. To be honest, this is simply not enough, especially if you eat out or consume commercially processed foods for the rest of the day.
Those like myself and so many others who have seen incredible health improvements and healing, made bread from freshly milled flour and whole grains the main focus of our diets and for the most part eliminated white flour and processed breads completely.
In conclusion I will give you my simple answer, to the question, “How much bread do we need to eat to see the health benefits that we want to see?”.
Jesus compared himself to bread – how much Jesus do we need?!
Every Day – Every Way – Every Meal!
Give us this day our daily bread.
Sue Becker
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