Oh, the great battle between white bread and brown bread. It is a widely held assumption that wholemeal bread is far, far healthier than white bread. This notion has left parents teetering over a metaphorical cliff-edge when it comes to trying to force feed their children some brown bread, but is it really true? Well, let’s try to compare them to see once and for all which one will win the battle!

Wheat flour is used to make white bread but it goes through a specific process that removes bran. Brown bread, meanwhile, uses wholemeal flour and doesn’t go through this process. It therefore retains all of its natural goodness. So, that’s one for brown bread and nil for white!

White bread has a high proportion of carbohydrates, which causes sugar to be realised quickly into your bloodstream. Type I diabetics suffer from insulin regulation problems and eating white bread can theoretically increase your chances of getting diabetes. Brown bread, meanwhile, has a low proportion of carbohydrates and encourages the slow realise of insulin in your body, reducing your chances of getting diabetes. So, again brown bread wins, and that’s 2-0!

Now, there are also the issues of waste removal, vitamins and nutrients, and cholesterol and, you’ve guessed it, brown bread wins there too! Not only is it much healthier, it also seems to help save the environment; since it does not go through the process that white bread does, it spends less time in production, helping you save the planet. The only thing that is on white bread’s side is the fact that because it is made of wheat flour and has been refined, it will last longer, which is good news if you’re a student and want your bread to last a whole week!

So, it seems that all the talk about brown bread is true; it is healthier… so carry on shoving that bread down your children’s throats. Eventually they’ll like it and one day (hopefully) they’ll thank you!