schwager (03/02/83)
#N:uiucdcs:8600013:000:1124 uiucdcs!schwager Mar 1 13:09:00 1983 excuse my ignorance, but i wonder if anyone out there can set my mind at ease. i hate to admit it, but yes, i eat cheap white bread. i get it at 29 cents a loaf at my local grocer. while i do like some of the whole wheat stuff, i cannot justify spending 2-3 times as much of my hard- earned, limited student money on a pound of whole wheat. so tell me- am i doing my body great harm by eating that cheap white stuff? i mean, i eat plenty of raw vegetables- carrots, celery, spinach (with the stalks), lettuce of all varieties, etc., so i think im getting my fair share of roughage. so whats the big deal? im constantly getting advice from people that the bread i eat is all a bunch of garbage. does anybody have some info theyd be willing to divulge? or is this whole wheat kick my friends seem to be on just the result of some media induced paranoia- i.e., white bread being the scapegoat for all of America's national nutritional problems. does anybody have something from a reliable source (not aunt martha)? i would certainly be interested to know. thanks in advance. mike schwager uiucdcs!schwager
courtney (03/09/83)
#R:uiucdcs:8600013:hp-pcd:3500006:000:1489
hp-pcd!courtney Mar 9 09:53:00 1983
I don't think white bread is exactly a scapegoat, but it is a classic
example of the substition of "bad" food in place of "good" food.
Humans are animals... we have appetites, and there is a wide variety
nutritious foods available to satisfy that appetite. And if you happen
to believe that our bodies are better genetically adapted to "natural"
foods (seeing as though we have had only the last 30 or so years to
genetically adapt to processed foods), it makes sense that WHENEVER
you substitute empty food for whole food that you are doing your body
a dis-service.
In other words, you could choose to eat a spoonful of white sugar and
a vitamin pill instead of eating white bread, and your body would be
getting about the same stuff. On the other hand, if whenever you are
hungry you were to reach for fruit or whole wheat bread or some other
REAL food, your body would be much better off.
I once heard that (based on sales) the average US citizen consumes
80 pounds of white sugar a year... the worst of it is (apparently)
not that white sugar is POISONOUS, but rather that whenever you DO eat
such worthless food you are NOT eating something GOOD for you... ie,
I don't believe that there is any such thing as ENOUGH good food... ALL
food that you put in your body should be GOOD food (unless you are just
eating/drinking for some reason other than feeding your body, which, for
most of us, has its time and place... always?)
Courtneymark (03/10/83)
#R:uiucdcs:8600013:zinfandel:4300024:000:96 zinfandel!mark Mar 9 13:16:00 1983 Cardboard is even cheaper, and doesn't taste that much worse than white bread. Mark Wittenberg
cball (03/13/83)
#R:uiucdcs:8600013:inmet:3500001:000:615
inmet!cball Mar 11 11:47:00 1983
Consumer Reports had a product review of bread sometime in the past twelve
months. As I recall, they found white breads to be cheaper and more nutritious
than wheat bread. I think the artical indicated(implied) that bran in
whole wheat bread tends to tie up some of the nutritional value (vitamins
and minerals) somehow. It is probably worth looking up the article as it
compared many brands of bread including white and whole wheat amoung other
types. They also included a home-made white bread (with recipe) in their
sample. The later did well on all counts; cost, nutrition, and taste.
- Charlie Ballschwager (03/14/83)
#R:uiucdcs:8600013:uiucdcs:8600020:000:109 uiucdcs!schwager Mar 13 18:39:00 1983 I know, but I can't seem to get my peanut butter to stick to it well enough to spread it. -mike schwager
jeremy (03/14/83)
#R:uiucdcs:8600013:uiucdcs:8600022:000:1456
uiucdcs!jeremy Mar 13 20:32:00 1983
Speaking as a Biochemist, you're not really hurting your body at
all. White bread is enriched, usually with 100% of the daily
adult requirements (not always, though). That means that you're
getting all the vitamins and nutrients that get bleached out when
the wheat is processed. Since you do eat a fair amount of ruf-
fage; i.e.raw veggies; you're not really doing your body any
harm.
The reason that I eat whole-wheat bread and such is because I
like the taste a lot better than white bread. Since I became
turned on to whole-wheat, I really feel that white bread is pret-
ty bland. I seem to run into quite a few people on health food
kicks who don't really seem informed about the subject.
These are the kind of people who read "Newsweek" or "Omni" and
think that the articles in these types of publications really
tell you the truth about everything. Actually the kind of arti-
cles most lay people are exposed to that tell you about how
healthy something is are so watered down that they almost miss
the boat completely on whatever topic they are trying to
represent.
Anyway, as long as you're eating lots of ruffage, protein and
getting at least the minimum requirements of vitamins and
minerals, you're fine. My advice is to eat your white bread,
however bland I find it to be, and live long and prosper.
Cathy Flynn
University of Illinoishenry (03/17/83)
"Conventional wisdom" on what's nutritious and what isn't is not always reliable. I once saw a comparison of nutritive value of a "typical" health-food meal and a typical MacDonald's meal. You guessed it -- the plate with the Big Mac came out well ahead in food value. Another person who eats whole-wheat bread mainly for the taste, Henry Spencer U of Toronto
mendelso (03/17/83)
ANYONE have any NON traditional passover recipes? please post before passover