Do You Have to Give Up Bread to Lose Weight?

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By Bev Bennett

It's no secret that proponents of low-carbohydrates are bashing bread, once proudly called the staff of life.

If you want to know what bread's nutritional reputation is becoming, look no further than The South Beach Diet (Rodale, 2003). "Each slice [of white bread] is worse than a spoonful of table sugar," writes the book's author, Arthur Agatston, M.D.

But others insist you don't have to give up your daily bread for the sake of weight loss. You can select one of the new low-carbohydrate breads on the market, you can eat whole-grain breads that are satisfying, or you can practice self-control and eat a reasonable amount of bread. Low-carbohydrate breads may contribute fewer calories to your daily intake because the products contain some fibers your body doesn't absorb, says Julie Miller Jones, a professor of foods and nutrition at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn.

"There's a disconnect between the calories on the label and the calories absorbed in the body," says Jones, an expert on grain nutrition. These bread products often use carbohydrates called resistant starches that aren't absorbed in the small intestine. The more resistant starch a bread contains, the fewer the calories your body takes in. (Don't overdo it; eating too much food made with resistant starches can cause digestion problems.) Whole-grain breads are also an effective diet tool because they contain slowly digested carbohydrates that stay in your gut longer and keep you feeling full, according to Jones.

"Studies show women who choose whole-grain bread weigh less than those who eat white bread," says Jones, who cautions that the studies may simply reflect all-round improved diets among women who eat whole grains. The whole-grain message may be taking hold, according to George Kashou, with Kangaroo Pocket Breads in Milwaukee, Wis. For the last few years, the company's whole wheat pocket breads have been outselling the refined white varieties by a margin of about two to one, says Kashou. "We attribute the spike to talk that eating whole grain is best if you're going to eat bread," says Kashou.

However, his research also suggests that eating bread that comes in a portion-controlled form, such as a pita pocket, may help you lose weight. He commissioned Community Memorial Hospital in Menomonee Falls, Wis., to create a diet using pocket breads and test it on volunteers.

"People are gaining weight because they're eating too much of the wrong things. The dietitian [at the hospital] suggested the pocket offers an opportunity for portion control," says Kashou.

The hospital recruited 38 volunteers for the recent study. Participants were given a 1,500-calorie daily diet if they were shorter than 66 inches and a 1,800 calorie diet if they were taller. Participants were at least 15 pounds overweight at the beginning of the diet. Recipes called for using the pockets instead of thick slabs of bread for sandwiches or as accompaniments to salads.

"We built a diet of everyday basic foods and served them in a pocket bread. The pocket bread has the advantage of looking large. You can fill it with food and it looks generous. When you eat the proper food you can eat more food, a greater volume, and still maintain or lose weight," says Kashou.

At the end of the six-week experiment the average weight loss was eight pounds. Dieters in the experiment ate an average of four pockets a day.

Losing weight, Kashou says, is a matter of eating less, not restricting carbohydrates.

The company has published a diet booklet. For more information on the Kangaroo diet or the booklet, check the Web site at: www.kangaroodiet.com. Here is a recipe from the Kangaroo diet.

Chicken Sesame Pockets