Introduction
When it comes to eating bread, it can be difficult to know what to choose. Bread is a staple in many diets, but it can have a significant impact on your blood sugar levels. Eating the wrong type of bread can cause your blood sugar to spike, leading to a host of health issues. In this article, we’ll discuss what happens to your blood sugar when you eat bread and provide some tips on how to choose the right type of bread for your health. We’ll also provide some alternatives to bread that can help you maintain healthy blood sugar levels.
What Happens to Your Blood Sugar When You Eat Bread?
Bread is a staple in many diets, but it can have a significant impact on your blood sugar levels. Eating bread can cause your blood sugar to spike, which can be dangerous for people with diabetes. It’s important to understand how bread affects your blood sugar so you can make informed decisions about what to eat.
How Bread Affects Blood Sugar
Bread is made from grains, which are carbohydrates. When you eat carbohydrates, your body breaks them down into glucose, which is the main source of energy for your cells. As your body breaks down the carbohydrates in bread, your blood sugar levels rise. This is why bread can cause your blood sugar to spike.
The type of bread you eat can also affect your blood sugar levels. White bread is made from refined grains, which are broken down quickly by your body. This causes your blood sugar to spike quickly. Whole grain bread, on the other hand, is made from unrefined grains, which are broken down more slowly. This means that your blood sugar levels will rise more gradually.
Tips for Eating Bread
If you have diabetes, it’s important to be mindful of how much bread you eat and what type of bread you choose. Here are some tips for eating bread:
- Choose whole grain breads over white breads.
- Limit your portion size to one or two slices of bread.
- Eat bread with other foods, such as lean proteins and healthy fats, to slow down the digestion process and prevent your blood sugar from spiking.
- Monitor your blood sugar levels after eating bread to see how it affects you.
Bottom Line
Bread can have a significant impact on your blood sugar levels, so it’s important to be mindful of how much and what type of bread you eat. Choose whole grain breads over white breads and limit your portion size. Eating bread with other foods can also help slow down the digestion process and prevent your blood sugar from spiking.
Whether you have diabetes, prediabetes, or are just trying to manage your blood sugar, you know how crucial it is to be mindful of your diet. While you have likely already been given a list of foods to avoid, there are still plenty of foods that will keep your blood sugar levels at bay.
However, there is one rather ubiquitous food that is somewhat more complicated in nature: bread. Here’s how eating bread affects your blood sugar, and for more healthy eating tips, check out 5 Eating Habits to Lower Blood Sugar in Your 50s, Say Dietitians.
How does bread affect your blood sugar?
We all know that bread is high in carbohydrates, and this nutrient has been classified into two categories: simple and complex.
Simple carbs are made up of sugars like fructose and glucose, which have “simple” chemical structures that consist of one or two sugars. Although this structure allows these carbs to be quickly converted into energy, it can often lead to blood sugar spikes.
Conversely, complex carbs are composed of three or more sugars. This “complex” structure makes them take longer to digest and therefore doesn’t cause your blood sugar to rise as rapidly.
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However, as the Harvard Public School of Health notes, classifying carbohydrates as simple or complex “does not account for the effect of carbohydrates on blood sugar and chronic diseases.” Instead, it’s better to use the glycemic index (GI)—a system of ranking carbohydrates on a scale from 0 to 100 based on how they impact blood sugar levels.
Low-glycemic foods like oats and stone-ground whole-wheat bread have a rating of 55 or less. These foods cause blood sugar levels to rise more slowly. High-glycemic foods like white bread, on the other hand, are rated between 70 and 100. They digest more quickly, which leads to significant changes in your blood sugar levels. Plus, grains that have undergone more processing have a higher GI than whole grains that have been minimally processed.
What type of bread should I eat?
Whether you’re baking homemade bread or purchasing a loaf at the grocery store, when you’re watching your blood sugar, it’s best to opt for bread made with whole grains, according to Medical News Today. Additionally, fiber is key when it comes to selecting your bread, as studies have shown that consuming fiber slows down digestion, ultimately decreasing blood sugar spikes.
According to Everyday Health, whole grain varieties can include whole wheat, whole oats, and whole rye. Within these categories, there is a range of different types of bread, including fiber-enriched whole grain bread, multigrain bread, sprouted bread, and whole-grain wraps and tortillas. Grain-free bread made with ingredients like almond flour or flaxseed meal can be high-fiber, blood sugar-friendly options, as well.
For more, check out The #1 Best Bread to Eat if You Have Diabetes, Says Dietitian.
Brianna Ruback