Why Is Fibre Good?

Brown bread is made from ground wheat grains. White bread, on the other hand, is made of polished wheat (maida).

When a grain is polished, it loses its covering which has most of the nutrition and fibre. But why is fibre good for you?

"When you include fibre in your food, the body works harder to digest it. This raises your body's metabolism, which helps in weight control," says Lisa.

When you eat grains that haven't been polished, the fibre, minerals and vitamins of the grain remains intact. This improves the nutritional content of the food, which contributes to better health.

Nutritionist and food consultant Naini Setalwad says that fibre reduces the cholesterol and blood sugar levels in your body.

Fibre in the diet helps produce good cholesterol - HDL in the body, which protects your heart from heart attacks and other diseases.

Also Read: Foods that Fight Cholesterol

Is White Bread Harmful?

If you don't have a supermarket close by and your local bakery doesn't stock whole wheat bread, what do you do? Is it okay to still eat those two slices of toasted white bread with butter? How much of white bread is okay to eat?

If your usual breakfast includes two slices of bread and a glass of milk, and if you don't have whole wheat bread at home, there is no harm in having white bread.

In fact, if you skip the bread and have only the milk, you are doing more harm than good to your body. Your body needs carbohydrates giving your body the required energy. So depriving your body of carbohydrates is a bad idea. Even though whole wheat bread is nutritionally better, so don't skip the white bread if you don't have a choice.

Just Like My Chapathi

Yes, making the atta dough and chapathi can be a tedious, time consuming job. But chapathis are made out of whole-wheat flour just like whole wheat bread. So is it okay for you to substitute it for whole-wheat bread?

"Yes," says Lisa, "you can replace chapathis with brown bread. Two slices of whole wheat bread is equivalent to two small phulkas."

Lisa tells her clients to buy whole wheat bread and freeze it. Frozen whole wheat bread can be stored for almost 10 days.

So instead of coming home after work and slaving over making perfectly round phulkas, just defrost your bread and heat it up!

How Much is Too Much

According to Lisa, eating six-eight slices of whole wheat bread a day is perfectly normal. That means that you can have two slices per meal. If you have a job that makes you burn a lot of calories, you can eat even nine slices of bread everyday.