Whole Grain Foods Aren’t The Whole Picture

Not only does it make a difference what kind of grains are in the bread, but the complete recipe needs to be full of natural food ingredients.

For instance, did you realize that bread adds more sodium to the average American’s diet than any other single food? That’s because Americans eat more bread on a whole than other foods, even though there are many other foods with higher levels of salt. Since that’s the case, it makes it important to look for breads with lower sodium content.

More Toxic Substances To Avoid

High sodium content isn’t the only pitfall to finding a good healthy whole grain bread. Like so many other foods in the grocery store, many breads are made with HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup). This substance is thought to put people at risk for Metabolic Syndrome, “a cluster of conditions that increases your risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes.”

A Bread That Contains Natural Food Ingredients

There may be other brands out there with low levels of salt, but I know this brand contains natural food ingredients, is lower in sodium than most breads, and does NOT have HFCS. What brand is that?

Pepperidge Farm. Their 100% Natural breads have 100% whole grain, and they’re making it a point to reduce the sodium in these breads. Their breads also do NOT contain HFCS.

A Close Up Look At A Good Health Food

As you can see from this table, these breads have fairly low sodium content.

 (Please note that ingredients change from time to time, and the above amounts may not be exactly what’s in the bread you buy.)

Surprisingly, although Pepperidge Farm is making lower sodium a point in their advertising for the 100% Natural line, the Whole Grain line often has less sodium than the Natural Breads.

Other Breads In Comparison

Here are a few well-known brands to show a comparison of the sodium levels.

Some look good, but the trouble is you’re not getting the whole package of healthy food.  Most are not really 100% whole grain, and on top of that, they include ingredients like high fructose corn syrup.

As always, check your labels to know exactly what’s in there!

It’s An Easy Healthy Food

You can’t get much easier than switching brands of bread to make an easy health food change to your diet.  So next time you’re buying bread, just look for either the 100% Natural Breads or the Whole Grain Breads from Pepperidge Farms.

Post from: Health Food Made Easy

Looking For Healthy Whole Grain Breads?

First off, I realized recently I’ve been pronouncing this incorrectly for years. I won’t even tell you how I was mangling it, but instead, here’s the correct pronunciation: keen – wa

Quinoa is a seed about the size of a millet, produced from a plant related to spinach and Swiss chard. Chenopodium or “Goosefoot” comes from the Andes mountains region of South America.

It has some interesting history. The Incas used to mix quinoa with fat and roll it into a ball. The Incan armies used them for food, calling the mixture “war balls.”

Information On Healthy Food Quinoa

Now days quinoa is available as a grain, flour, pasta and cereal. It’s nutritional quality is compared to that of dried whole milk by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Bottom line, quinoa has more protein in it than any other grain known. Some varieties of quinoa have more than 20% protein. In comparison, hard red winter wheat contains about 12.6%, and red wheats have the highest proteins of the different kinds of wheat.

More Health Food Info on Quinoa

Even better, the protein in quinoa is complete, containing all the essentail amino acids. It’s also rich in iron, potassium and riboflavin, plus B6, niacin and thiamin. Since it’s high in protein, that makes it an especially good food for vegetarians.

More filling than rice and wheat, quinoa is a good food to help manage your weight.

Quinoa Is An Easy Health Food

Compared to some other grains, quinoa cooks up fairly quickly. It only takes about fifteen minutes to cook the whole grain. It’s excellent in hot casseroles, pilafs, soups, stews and stir-fries. Quinoa also works well in salads.

Try some quinoa as an easy way to put a high-protein grain in your diet!

Post from: Health Food Made Easy

Natural Food – Quinoa

Here’s a little video about finding the right bread for good health from the folks at Relish Magazine -

Post from: Health Food Made Easy

Finding Whole Grain Bread