Gluten-Free Bread Versus Regular White Bread

Today is our first gluten-free Friday! Today’s topic is going to be all about gluten-free bread and how it compares to regular white sandwich bread. When I have people come to me with things that they don’t like about gluten-free dieting, they often tell me that they hate not being able to have that regular white sandwich bread that they used to use and love all the time.

Ingredients of Gluten-Free Bread

There are options out there for gluten-free breads. The ingredients of the gluten-free bread really determine how it tastes, the texture, and everything else. Many gluten-free breads have ingredients in them like white rice flour, quinoa, corn, almond flour, amaranth flour, and other ingredients like that to make it gluten-free but still offer that desired texture. 

Many of these gluten-free breads will have thickeners like guar gum or things like xanthan gum to give it that density that it needs to compared to the regular white bread. Now, these ratios of ingredients will vary depending on who makes the brand. It really depends on your taste buds whether or not you are going to like the blend that they are using. Don’t be discouraged and try different kinds – there’s bound to be one brand that you love. 

Gluten-Free Bread Brands that I Enjoy

There are a few brands that I love to eat including the Udi’s brand white sandwich bread. It’s very good. Udi’s is a sandwich bread that’s fluffy and great for sandwiches. Kenyan Bakehouse is another good brand that I buy. I recently bought one from Costco that was called Promise that was really good. Those are all really great brands and that I love. 

Ingredients of Regular White Bread

Let’s contrast the ingredients of the gluten-free bread with the regular white bread. The regular white bread ingredients typically include – you guessed it – wheat flour, wheat gluten, and other ingredients that are really bad for you like the high fructose corn syrup. They have oils and added vitamins. 

What really amazed me when I looked at the ingredient list was dough conditioners. What does that mean? Dough conditioners are basically chemicals that they add to the dough during the manufacturing process to make it softer. This creates that lovely texture that everybody gets really addicted to. They add those bad ingredients to make you really love that white bread. I did not see any dough conditioners on any of the ingredient labels that I read for gluten-free bread. That is definitely a plus! To regular white bread, they also add things like potassium bromate, or any other chemical that can bleach, to make the bread whiter. The famous white color of sandwich bread is something everyone loves, so they add chemicals in it to bleach the bread to make it whiter. 

Potassium bromate is actually banned in Europe from being known to cause thyroid and kidney issues. The United States isn’t quite to that point of banning this compound, but it’s already banned in Europe from its effects. Most gluten-free bread, at least the ones that I’ve come across, don’t contain potassium bromate. 

Nutrition Content of Gluten-Free Bread versus Regular White Bread

One argument that people like to make is that gluten-free bread is higher in fat and more calories than regular white sandwich bread. They argue that people who eat the gluten-free diet are not losing weight because of all the fats and calories within the gluten-free breads. The discussion is these nutrition values are higher in gluten-free bread than regular white bread. I decided to give you some numbers to really see if that’s true or false. 

For gluten-free bread, the average values that I came across was 140 calories per two slices of bread, 4 grams of fat, 3 grams of sugar, 22 grams of carbohydrates, and 4 grams of protein. 

For regular white bread, the average values were 130 calories, again for two slices of bread, 1.5 grams of fat, 3 grams of sugar, 25 grams of carbohydrates, and 4 grams of protein. 

If you are looking at the two, the gluten-free bread is a bit higher in calories and in fat as opposed to regular white bread. However, you’re getting the added benefits of it not having the dough conditioners or any bleaching agents that they add to give it that nice white color and texture that is desired. You’re eating better bread, in my opinion, but if you’re trying to watch those fats or those calories, maybe don’t eat as much of the gluten-free bread in order to cut down on those fats and calories. 

Ketogenic Bread – Nutrition Content and Ingredients

You could also opt for a ketogenic bread. One brand that’s really good is called Ketothin. For two slices, it has 140 calories, 8 grams of protein, 12 grams of good fats (these are not bad fats), and 1 gram of carbohydrates. The keto bread is different because ketogenic diet is all about cutting down carbs and replacing it with good fats. Ingredients in this bread would be things like almond flour or eggs, baking soda, butter, cream cheese, natural things like that which are packed full of good fats, but no carbs. 

Conclusion on Gluten-Free Breads

You really have a lot of options with gluten-free breads. Your choice depends on what you’re looking for, whether or not you care about those fats and calories, or if you do care about them. It depends on the type of blend of flowers that they use. Rice flowers and similar ones are definitely going to be higher in those fats because of all the starches. Your selection really depends on what you want out of your bread, so keep trying them until you find one that you like. 

Comment below if you have any suggestion for next week’s gluten-free Fridays! If you have anything that you want me to cover, just comment below and I will look at all of them and pick one for next week!