Ready-made Bread: Why Should It Be Avoided?
Ready-made bread is not healthy at all, and its consumption may even cause health problems, among others due to its high calorific value, the presence of trans fats and sugar. It is a fact that ready-made bread tempts us with its amazing sweet taste and very high availability.
Unfortunately, however, most of them are junk food. Read on to find out why these types of foods aren’t healthy and why you shouldn’t eat them too often.
Ready-made bread, i.e. junk food
What comes to your mind when you hear the term “ready-made bread”?
If you are not sure yet what it refers to, it refers to a product group that includes various types of bakery products such as rolls, bread, cakes, cookies, cereals, bars, chocolate, etc. They all have several characteristics. common, such as excess:
- Calories
- Refined flours,
- Trans fats and low-quality vegetable oils,
- Trans fats,
- Sugar.
Let’s see what ingredients the ready-made bread consists of and the dangers of eating it.
Ready-made bread is a real caloric bomb
All because a small piece contains a large number of calories. In just 100 grams of the finished product there is an average of 450 calories, which is the same as in 0.6 kg of potatoes or 15 kg of peas. You must exercise for an hour to burn this amount of calories. Plus, that’s 30% of the calories the average person should be consuming during the day.
Most of the calories in the finished bread are so-called “empty calories”. This means that they do not bring your body anything of value. That’s a lot of calories with little to no nutritional value.
After all, in ready-made confectionery you will not find high-quality proteins, healthy fats, fiber or micronutrients other than salt, which is very much in them.
Contains hardened oils, i.e. trans fats
Hydrogenated oils, also known as trans fats, are produced by chemical processes. They have many advantages for the food industry because they are cheaper. Hydrogen is added to the oils heated to very high temperatures to make them solid.
As a result, foods stay fresh longer, are more addictive and easier to prepare. It is harmful to your health to eat as much as 5 grams of trans fat.
Prepared bread contains too much sugar
According to WHO recommendations, the amount of sugar in the diet should not exceed 5% of consumed products. This means that daily adults should not exceed about 5.5 teaspoons or 28 grams, and children 4 teaspoons or 20 grams.
Thus, when you eat four chocolate cookies in which there are 34 grams of sugar, i.e. less than 7 teaspoons, you already exceed your daily limit.
It has too much salt
There are practically no vitamins and antioxidants in these products. Instead, they increase the production of free radicals. The presence of minerals is also very small, mainly because there is too much sodium.
As you probably know, high levels of salt intake can lead to high blood pressure.
They are mainly made of refined flour
Refined flours are typically produced by industrial processes that produce lighter and smaller particles by removing some of the key ingredients in whole grain flours. They are used to make products that are easier to digest. In addition, they facilitate the production of cakes and cookies.
This means that such flours do not contain bran and germ, which contain all the vitamins, minerals and fiber.
The finished bread contains poor-quality vegetable oils
One of the reasons why baked goods are unhealthy is that they contain poor-quality vegetable oils. They are refined oils from which vitamins and minerals have been removed.
They are obtained through industrial processes that use high temperatures, which cause the oxidation of fats and chemical products. These types of oils are intended to enhance the taste of food and make it “tastier”.
Besides, they reduce production costs. As you can see, manufacturers replace high-quality oils with unhealthy derivatives.
Prepared bread can cause health problems
Industrial bakery products have negative health effects due to the ingredients they use, Prepared bread is unhealthy because:
It is extremely addictive
The level of processing of these products and the combination of fats and sugar they contain make you want to eat them, but they do not fill you up. At least that’s what the study published in PlosOne shows.
In addition, sugars will reduce stress in the body by lowering blood cortisol levels. Therefore, when we are stressed, we reach for sweets and we can easily become addicted to them.
Prepared bread leads to the development of obesity and diabetes
May cause weight gain due to the high caloric content and the ingredients it contains. Also, as we mentioned earlier, this type of product stimulates the appetite, but does not make you feel full, so you eat more than you should.
Increases the risk of cardiovascular disease
Consuming trans fats, refined oils, and salt increases your risk of developing high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which in turn increases your risk of cardiovascular disease. In addition, these substances are involved in the oxidation of LDL lipoproteins, causing inflammation and increasing the level of triglycerides in the blood.
Summary
In summary, ready-made bread does not have any beneficial nutritional value. In fact, it can even be harmful to your health. Try to exclude them from your diet, or at least limit their amount as much as possible. Instead, choose healthy homemade bread and sweets.
