The nutritional quality of wholegrain and multigrain breads is not necessarily better than white breads: the case of gluten-free and gluten-containing breads

Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2022 Nov;73(7):902-914. doi: 10.1080/09637486.2022.2086974. Epub 2022 Jun 13.

Abstract

Despite the importance of breads through the history, the wide range of options might lead to a choice dilemma from health-conscious consumers when purchasing bread. In this study, commercial white, wholegrain and multigrain regular breads, sold in Europe, were collected, and classified into gluten-free and gluten-containing categories. For gluten-free-breads, no significant differences were found in energy, saturated fatty acids, sugar, fibre and salt between white and wholegrain breads regardless of the mention "multigrain." For gluten-containing, carbohydrates and fibres differed between white and wholegrain breads, while when considering multigrain presence all the nutritional composition varied significantly. Nevertheless, the mentions wholegrain and multigrain on gluten-free and gluten-containing breads do not guarantee a better nutritional quality compared to white bread. Gluten-free breads showed increased fibre, and decreased carbohydrates, sugar and energy which are comparable to gluten-containing wholegrain breads. This underlines the improvement of gluten-free breads and suggests further investigations to increase protein content.

Keywords: Bread; fibre; gluten-containing; gluten-free; multigrain; wholegrain.

MeSH terms

  • Bread*
  • Carbohydrates
  • Dietary Fiber
  • Fatty Acids
  • Glutens*
  • Nutritive Value
  • Sugars
  • Triticum

Substances

  • Glutens
  • Dietary Fiber
  • Carbohydrates
  • Fatty Acids
  • Sugars