White bread - healthier for many?

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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White bread has fallen deeply - it has lost its nimbus as the bread of the fine people and is now considered by many to make fattening and sick people. But it's not that simple: For some, toast and Co. could prove to be the better alternative. At least when it comes to blood sugar levels.

Researchers led by Eran Segal from the Weizman Institute of Science have put the test to the test. For a week, they had 20 healthy test subjects eat either wholemeal sourdough bread baked in a bakery or an industrially manufactured product made from refined white flour. And that in good quantities: The volunteers covered a quarter of their daily calorie requirement with their bread. After a two-week break, the former white bread consumers received sourdough bread and vice versa.

Sourdough versus white bread

During the study, the researchers checked various health parameters of their subjects, including blood sugar, mineral levels, and liver enzymes. The result amazed the scientists: "We were certain that the sourdough bread would prove to be the healthier alternative, but to our surprise we did not find any differences in the health effects of the two types of bread," says Segal.

Among other things, the blood sugar level rose particularly sharply in half of the participants after consuming white bread, but in the other half after consuming the sourdough bread. High blood sugar levels and the associated high insulin levels are harmful to health. This increases the risk of obesity and diabetes.

The power of intestinal bacteria

The researchers attribute the fact that half of the participants reacted with spikes in blood sugar just after eating healthy wholemeal bread: the food is digested differently depending on which bacteria dominate the intestine. And that is very different from person to person. "The body's response to food is a highly personal matter," says Eran Elinav, one of the study's lead authors.

Individual nutritional recommendations

The study thus feeds doubts that are becoming increasingly widespread when it comes to general statements about healthy eating. Because there is obviously no one correct answer to this question. People are very different. And so it is becoming more and more popular that what is good for one person does not necessarily benefit the other. Keeping this in mind is one of the challenges nutritionists are facing right now.

Important fiber

Nevertheless: There are nutrition-related findings that have been consistently confirmed by science. And this also includes the fact that dietary fiber, for which whole grain products are an important supplier, has a positive effect on health. From colon cancer to heart attack, eating a high-fiber diet lowers the risk of countless diseases.

Given the short period it covers, the study cannot answer whether those participants whose blood sugar level reacted unfavorably to the sourdough bread would not have benefited from whole-grain bread in the long term.

Danger from high sugar levels

A steep rise in blood sugar is unfavorable to health. If the body's cells are overwhelmed with absorbing all the sugar, it is converted into fat. This increases the risk of obesity.

In addition, with high blood sugar levels, so too does the insulin release - because the hormone is responsible for getting the sugar out of the blood into the body's cells. Chronically elevated blood sugar levels reduce the willingness of the body's cells to absorb sugar. These then react less sensitively to insulin. The pancreas responds to this with increased insulin production.But at some point the organ is overwhelmed - type 2 diabetes develops.

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