For a long time I totally ignored anything with whole wheat in it. I was raised on white bread and so I did not feel the need to eat whole wheat. After having tried it once or twice I discounted it as being tasteless and having a coarse texture. But years later having grown up and expanding my horizons a bit, I have long since included whole wheat as part of my normal diet as a healthy alternative and a low fat snack. And I have to say, this was one of the best ideas I ever had.
For a while I would just eat any and everything and ignored whole wheat completely. I did not like the taste – or at least, I thought I didn’t – and stuck with white bread for a majority of my life. But after having reevaluated my health and how I wanted to treat my body I removed most white bread from my kitchen and choose to consume whole wheat over any other type of bread. The richness of whole wheat can be brought together with the always winning combination of peanut butter and jelly. Think about it for a second. The already awesome combination of PB&J and whole wheat? This is an excellent way to fill up an empty tummy and enjoy a healthy snack at the same time!
So what makes whole wheat bread such a better choice than typical white bread? In a nutshell, whole wheat bread has a lot of positive benefits white bread does not have. For one thing, whole wheat has a lot of fiber. This means two things: fiber can aid in the digestion of food and can help you lose and maintain your weight because the fiber-dense whole wheat bread can help fill you up. Another benefit of adding whole wheat products as a low fat snack is the amount of important vitamins it contains. The processing of flour that creates white bread all but destroys any nutritional value the grain it comes from might have had. After processing, white bread only contains endosperm, the starchy part of the grain. Wheat bread, on the other hand, contains high concentrations of the nutrients white bread loses including fiber, magnesium, folic acid, Vitamin B6, Vitamin E, zinc, and chromium. These vitamins and nutrients are not only good for you but they are also essential to your daily life. Instead of wasting money on supplements, you can eat whole wheat and gain just as much important nutrients.
As someone getting older in years, incorporating whole wheat into my life has allowed me to live a better life. Eating whole wheat crackers and whole wheat rice cakes and the like in conjunction with other nutritional foods and portion control as part of good eating habits has helped me maintain a healthy lifestyle. In fact, choosing whole wheat over white bread was the first step I took into creating a healthy eating environment for myself. And whole wheat is not relegated to just bread; you can just as easily find whole wheat snacks. Right next to normal saltine crackers you can find whole wheat crackers that come in variety of yummy flavors. These flavors include apple cinnamon, sea salt, and even honey! Who is crazy enough not to love honey on crackers?
When shopping at your local grocery, do not just blow past the whole wheat products you see. Eating whole wheat is an easy and nutritional way to start a positive way of life. We all want to live longer and healthier lives and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.