Whole wheat bread—no better than white

We have been led to believe that whole wheat bread is better for us than white bread. Well, it isn’t, at least according to Nathan Myhrvold. Myhrvold used to be the Chief Technology Officer for Microsoft. After leaving that company, he became interested in food science (among other things) and has spent the last 15 years enmeshed in the study of food. I would trust this guy. He holds a doctorate in theoretical and mathematical physics from Princeton University, did postdoctoral work with Stephen Hawking, and also acquired a culinary diploma from École de Cuisine La Varenne, in France. He has created a scientific test kitchen that you can see in an entertaining TED talk. 

Anyhow, Myhrvold says there’s no evidence that whole grain breads are better for you than white bread and, in fact, there’s some “evidence to the contrary.” After sifting through 50 years of studies, his team found that all types of breads have pretty much the same result in your body. The theory has always been that the bran is the healthy part of the bread because it contains more fiber and vitamins. (In processing flour, the bran  is separated from the inner wheat kernel. With white bread, the bran is left out; with whole wheat bread, the bran is put back into the flour.)

 Myhrvold says that, when studied on a nutrient by nutrient basis, whole wheat bread would be slightly better because the bran contains manganese, phosophorus, and selenium, but that these components are “generally not important in the sense that they’re not things that most people run a deficit of.” Moreover, our bodies don’t absorb many of the vitamins and minerals in raw grain. Even worse, a compound in bran called phytates can actually bind to some of the potentially beneficially minerals to block absorption—it’s called the anti-nutrient effect.

The other supposed benefit of bran is that it causes the starch to break down more slowly, preventing sugar spike and delivering a longer, steadier flow of glucose into the body. Myhrvold’s response: because whole grain bread is only 11 percent bran, the effect on blood glucose is minimal.

OK. Now’s the perfect opportunity to mention a pet peeve of mine. At restaurants, wait-persons ask if you want white or wheat. “It’s all wheat, you ninny,” says snarky me to myself.

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