Bread is known as the staff of life because it is a basic food that helps to support life and has been an important part of the diet of most civilisations for many generations. Homemade is better than processed, but it does contain calories and can lead to feeling bloated after eating it. Giving it up shouldn’t do any harm, it might even lead to feeling more energised for some people, so here we have 4 things that happen if you stop eating bread.
Lose Weight
Bread is high in refined carbohydrates and when eaten makes the body build water weight. It’s thought that every gram of carbohydrate intake binds up to 3 – 4 grams of water. This is one of the reasons it can leave a bloated feeling.
Refined grains can also increase the risk of gaining visceral fat around the stomach. It’s easy to see why those wanting to lose weight are keen to cut out bread from their diet, it’s usually one of the first things to go. Once bread is cut out there’s a good chance that there will be some weight loss as a result.
Boost of Energy
Another of the 4 things that happen if you stop eating bread is a possible boost in energy. Wheat can have a detrimental effect on some people, it can sometimes cause a quick rise in blood sugar levels. There is an amount of glyphosate residue in wheat which may increase intestinal permeability and lead to leaky gut syndrome. This is to do with the control of materials which pass from inside the gastrointestinal tract through the cells lining the gut wall into the rest of the body (source: Wikipedia).
Gluten is difficult to digest for most people and some are a lot more sensitive to it than others. Gliadin and glutenin are compounds that make gluten, they are immunogenic anti-nutrients which attack the body as you eat and can make you feel tired, weak and uncomfortable.
Improved Digestion
Although wheat is present in many foods, it is very hard to digest. A gluten heavy meal can cause digestive problems but many of those suffering are unaware of the cause. There are a number of conditions with the most well-known being wheat sensitivity, coeliac disease and wheat allergy.
By cutting wheat from the diet along with other fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols may also help to relieve the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. This does suggest that by cutting out wheat, especially for those who are sensitive to it, there may be improvements to the digestion.
Controlled Diet
White bread doesn’t contain nutrient rich wheat bran or germ, so it’s easier to digest, but it does contain refined carbohydrates which are quickly absorbed into the bloodstream and get converted into glucose. This can cause an increase in blood sugar levels.
Quick rises in blood sugar means it will decline quickly too and this can make you feel hungry after a meal and crave simple carbs. As white bread doesn’t contain fibre, it’s likely that after eating it you don’t feel so full and might want to snack through the day.
It’s amazing that a food like bread, which is seen as an important part of our diet, can have so many effects on our body and some we don’t even realise it is causing. Of course it also can provide nutrition, but if any of these 4 things that happen when you stop eating bread improve your wellbeing, it might be worth testing going without it for a while to see if it helps.