Abstract
Objectives
Are wheat bread products healthier than white bread products at sandwich restaurants?
Methods
An online nutritional analysis was conducted for wheat and white bread item from seven restaurants. Nutritional apps, including Cronometer (www.cronometer.com) and restaurant websites nutrition information were used to collect the data. Specifically, nutritional information was used to compare one wheat and one white bread product from each restaurant in the following nine categories:
Calories, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, cholesterol, total carbohydrates, dietary fiber, sugar, and protein. In order to maintain consistency, the data were normalized to weight of the bread product.
Results
The results suggest that what is determined a ‘healthy’ choice is dependent on the specific nutritional characteristics. For instance, white bread consistently showed lower Calories, total carbohydrates, added sugars, and sodium. However, the wheat bread had higher protein content and 2–3 times the dietary fiber compared to its white bread counterpart.
Conclusions
These results reinforce the idea that healthier choices may be individualized and underscores the trend towards personalized nutrition.
Funding Sources
None.