Cutting out Bread .

[ASC1951]

The human being should try to avoid eating anything that contains pulverised grass seeds. That's 'refined grains' to most people, ie Flour.

It is a recent addition to the human's diet, approx 12,500 years ago.

There's no evidence for this theory at all. Humans have evolved to eat just about anything, which is one of the reasons why we became such a widespread species. There is a notion that modern diseases are diseases caused by the change from hunter-gathering to farming, whereas in reality they are diseases of extended lifespan. There are still a few hunter-gatherer societies and they live shorter fitter lives because they are more physically active, not because they don't eat grain flour.

Calorie density is irrelevant. Cheese and meat are much higher in calories, but that's not a reason to avoid them.

Crankarm has it right - a) it's not so much the bread, it's what you put on it and b) moderate amounts of wholemeal bread are a sensible part of the diet.

 

[Rob3rt]

We thank thee who giveth us our daily bread ...................

Bread does actually contain one or two beneficial ingredients of our diet.

White bread is the Devil's own sustenance.

Wholemeal is just fine. A couple of slices a day isn't going to do any harm. It has slow release carboydrates and helps keep one mobile.

As was suggested it's what people load onto the bread that causes problemos such as Nutella or spoonfuls of jam.

Hey dont knock the nutella! Two slices every morning and im closing in on racing weight just fine


My opinion on this topic is......... cut it out of you want, but dont feel you have to, 6 slices a day? Knock this back a bit, I eat between 2 and 4 slices of bread a day during the week and 2 slices a day at the weekend (always white, 2 slices with nutella for breakfast every day, and 2 slices for a sandwich as lunch maybe 3 out of 5 days a week) as part of a balanced diet and I can drop 1-2 lbs a week consistantly there is no reason you cant do the same. If you enjoy bread, keep eating it, but dont eat too much. Also beware moving from white to brown/wholemeal, a lot of these wholemeal and brown loaves aparently are only brown because of some dye or ingredient, and are pretty much as "unhealthy" as white.So check the ingredients and get "proper" wholemeal.

 

[numbnuts]

This thread has just reminded me to make some bread .....

 

[e-rider]

I lost weight by simply cutting out bread - as soon as I started eating bread again the weight loss stopped (although I didn't put it back on again which is good) - I'm now planning a second '10 day' period without bread to lose another 1/2 stone.

 

[ChrisKH]

I recently stopped eating bread and all irritable bowel problems have completely disappeared. I wish I'd stopped eating it twenty years ago. Thanks for the barium enema though, doc, that was fun - couldn't you have suggested a bread-free diet, hmm? Just thought I'd share

You could have just as easily started a food exclusion diet which would have told you the same thing. But it's extremely boring for the first couple of weeks as you start on nothing then eat just potato, add rice the next day, add bread the day after that, etc. until you get kickback. Then you just pull the offending foodstuff from your diet and go on to the next food item. It takes months of patient observation and record but access to a dietician helps.

 

[yello]

There's no evidence for this theory at all. Humans have evolved to eat just about anything, which is one of the reasons why we became such a widespread species.

That reads quite harshly, I'm not sure if your dead set against it or merely suggesting another interpretation. Personally, I'm not convinced either way with the 'evolutionary perspective' argument but I think it one that should be considered.

I think your wording ("humans have evolved to") might confuse the argument a little. Strictly speaking, humans don't evolve to do anything specifically. We evolve randomly and natural selection sorts out the survival aspect (though arguably, today, modern medicine helps us out there too!). Its follow then, to me at least, that there is a high probability that we have, in the past, eaten stuff that has killed us! It's our evolution that has allowed us to survive on what we have eaten.... which is almost the reverse of your wording. Moot point perhaps but I think important in understanding evolution and natural selection.

With that context in mind, it follows (again in my mind) that new food stuffs in our diet have an as yet unknown long term effect on us. We haven't in the past eaten the additives and chemicals that form a part of processed foods these days. And these are invented/discovered (and added to foods) much much more quickly than we evolve! Btw, when I say 'new food stuffs', 'long term' and 'in the past', I'm using the evolutionary time scale... millions of years.

I think your point about 'new' diseases being attributed to our longer life spans is valid. Though interestingly it can be understood using the evolutionary perspective too; that is, we're in uncharted waters - we simply haven't lived this long before so haven't evolved down this line! Give us another couple of million years and we could well be living disease free until we're 150!

To be perfectly honest, I don't know what the answer is. I haven't even decided which notion I side with (i.e. 'we can eat anything' or 'we have not evolved to eat the new stuff') but I don't dismiss either out of hand. What I do go by though is the equivalent of the mirror test for weight loss; if something I eat disagrees with me or just makes me feel bloated and farty, then I limit my intake of it! Be that white bread or a fresh home grown apple.

 

[jimboalee]

Think i would rather be the guy at the back who beats out the time on a drum

Seriously though if a loaf is 1700 cal. then I think that reducing my bread intake has got to be good.

I prefered to be the guy with the whip.

The oven was at the back of the boat. Some days the loaves tasted something like roast pork, then we realised what was happening to the dead slaves.

Some days the wind would be favourable and the slaves could rest their oars and have a rest.
On windless days it was a single ration. Double rations were handed out with a dip in the dripping ?? when the Top Neddy wanted to do some water skiing.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

It regullarilly seems to come up in weight loss threads that cutting out bread is a good idea.

can't comment too closely on the weight loss aspect, but reading what goes into industrially produced bread might make you want to make your own.
You can get away with putting what you want in the bread, it does normally need a bit of sugar though. See other bread making threads on this site

 

[jimboalee]

Breadmaker.

A machine that converts perfectly healthy human beings into lardyarses.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

Oh no it doesn't - not even in a breadmaker!

care to share some recipes?

Jimbo... *some* people perhaps

 

[Banjo]

Some interesting replies thanks for all the input.

So far I have managed to cut back on bread about 50 % which I am happy with for now.


Over the last year and a half I lost 4 stone from 16 to 12 stone waist size from a tight 36 to a needing a belt with 32. Lately I have put back on about 5 lb but genuinely think at least some of that is leg muscle.

Have been doing a sort of reevaluation of my exercise to food ratio and trying to make some small changes to get rid of the last bit of lard.

PS my arse wont fit in the breadmaker, cant see how that would help with weight loss anyway but I like to keep an open mind

 

[jimboalee]

Breadmaker.

A machine that converts grass seed pulp into feed for water fowl.