It’s colder outside. Perfect time to bake! Speaking of bread, one of the best recipes for this fall is definitely potato bread. Not only does it taste amazing, but it’s also healthy. Potato bread, as the name suggests, is whole wheat bread flavored with boiled potatoes. So that you understand why I say that potato bread has different health benefits, let’s talk about its ingredients.
Why potato bread is healthy
First up is whole wheat flour. Now, where is the difference between whole wheat flour and regular wheat flour? Unlike whole wheat flour, wheat flour is made from husked grain. Unfortunately you lose all the vitamins and minerals when husking the grain. Another very important aspect is that whole wheat flour contains a greater amount of complex carbohydrates. We’ll delve into complex carbohydrates when we’re done talking about our second potato bread ingredient, potatoes.
The potatoes themselves have the same advantage as whole wheat flour. Potatoes are pure starch. And starch is a complex carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are sugar, but there are different qualities. Simple sugar and complex sugar. While simple sugar is easy to digest, complex sugar takes time to be processed by your body. The latter is an advantage of whole grain breads like potato bread. You have to understand that the easier sugar is available to your body, the more damage it will do to you. I will explain, why this is the case. To digest sugar, your body releases insulin. Insulin regulates the amount of sugar in the blood. If it is too much, insulin will be released to lower the blood sugar level. The more simple sugar you have eaten, the higher your blood sugar will be and the more insulin you need to release.
The problem and its solution due to potato bread
The insulin itself is not the problem. The problem is that your blood sugar will go up and down dramatically. This effect is why you need (really want) even more sugar after you’ve eaten it. That fact is the problem, why most people gain too much weight. What do we do with this knowledge? Correct, we are looking for foods that contain a large amount of complex carbohydrates. We have already learned that complex carbohydrates must first be broken down into simple sugar. This results in a slower release of blood sugar and a flatter insulin level. It sounds easy, actually it is easy and it is very useful for everyone.
Whole wheat bread is my first choice on this subject. But its healthy effect can be improved. If you add cooked potatoes to this bread, you have a true complex carbohydrate monster. You wouldn’t have to eat as much, which is good for all of you calorie counters out there. But you wouldn’t be as hungry and often as you were used to anyway, because you’ve put more complex carbohydrates into your nutrition plan.
