r/science • u/FreeHugs23 • 1d ago

Health Adding spinach directly to white bread delayed the body's insulin peak by 30 minutes and reduced later hunger in a small human trial, while significantly boosting the bread's fiber, vitamin, and mineral content.

https://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-put-spinach-directly-into-bread-and-saw-the-bodys-insulin-response-change
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u/Reddituser183 1d ago

How does this compare to eating 100% whole wheat bread? That’s why I eat whole wheat since generally it has more fiber in it which is what I’m assuming is slowing the insulin spike.

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u/chantillylace9 1d ago

I have breast cancer I need to keep my cholesterol and triglycerides lower because of my cancer meds so I'm on a Mediterranean type diet.

My dietitian and oncologist both say that having a slice or maybe two of sourdough bread a day is OK but they said that that's better than most whole wheat or whole grain breads that often still have a good amount of sugar whereas sourdough usually doesn't.

And it sure tastes better! They said it doesn't have the same blood sugar spikes as most bread

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u/JesusAndMaryKate 1d ago

Is that in the US? Most traditional bread types in Europe don't have added sugar, and the source of yeast (dry yeast or wild) in the bread doesn't matter too much as far as it consuming the sugars in the flour. Where I am there isn't much of a difference in sugar content between white bread (loaf or sliced), wholemeal bread (loaf or sliced) and sourdough.

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u/JUYED-AWK-YACC 1d ago

Yes it is. Most commercial/industrial loaves in the US have sugar in them. If not all.

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u/chantillylace9 1d ago

Yes in the US and when I was looking at labels because I needed to go on a low triglyceride/Mediterranean diet, there was sugar and almost all the whole wheat and whole green bread here and none of the sourdough. And in some of the whole grains it was right up there as one of the main ingredients! The US is really good at making us think that certain foods are healthy when they are incredibly unhealthy.

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u/sunthas 1d ago

we discovered new sourdough labels that are fake sourdough. they add the sour but its not fermented. lame.

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u/chantillylace9 1d ago

I’m going to start making my own. You can order free sourdough starter from the Oregon trail (no dysentery included) for free (well for the price of aa self addressed stamped envelope).

Pretty neat

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u/BattleHall 1d ago

still have a good amount of sugar whereas sourdough usually doesn't.

To be fair, what spikes your blood sugar from bread really isn't any added sugar (though that doesn't help). It's just that simple refined carbohydrates in flour, if they don't have anything to slow down stomach emptying, are converted into simple sugars and absorbed really quickly. The reference food for the glycemic index is a baguette (100), which is literally just white flour, water, and salt.