Wheat to Bread Facts for Kids

Many children will include whole grain breads in their diets if they understand why they should select one type of bread over another. Dr. Jennifer Fisher, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Children's Nutrition Research Center teaches that parents influence the types and amounts of foods that their children consume. If you want your child to make healthy food choices, provide them with data to show them how

Nutritional Value

• Discuss the nutritional value of bread made with whole wheat flour. The Center for Disease Control recommends that people select whole grain foods for at least half of their daily grain choices. Whole wheat breads have more nutrients than breads baked with processed white flour. The refining process removes valuable nutrients found in the whole wheat's germ and bran. Manufacturers remove the kernels in whole wheat flour that contain tryptophan, selenium, potassium, zinc, folic acid, vitamin E, chromium and magnesium when they produce white flour. Manufacturers add "enrichment" to white flour such as vitamins B1, B2, B3 and iron, but these replacement levels don't equal the amount of iron and vitamins that the flour loses during the refining process. White flour produces a bread that lacks almost all of the nutrients that were originally present before the manufacturer refined the flour.

Weight Loss Aid

• Encourage kids to maintain a healthy weight by substituting whole wheat bread for white bread. Many kids worry about their weight yet don't know how to go about losing weight or controlling their weight in a healthy manner. The Mayo Clinic emphasizes the importance of incorporating whole grains into a diet as a weight loss and weight maintenance strategy. Whole wheat flour contains added fiber. Fiber is important to a weight-loss program because when people eat a fiber-dense wheat bread they feel fuller and are less likely to take in additional calories in order to feel full. A whole wheat bread slice has only three more calories than a similar-weighted white bread slice.

Energy

• Give the kids information about the energy boost that eating whole grains can provide. Many kids, especially those involved in sports, want to succeed in activities that demand a high energy and stamina level. Breads made with white flour are high on the glycemic index. White breads release glucose quickly into the eater's blood stream. This provokes an immediate response in the blood sugar level, decreasing sugar levels in the body and making it difficult to sustain energy levels for a long period of time. On the other hand whole wheat breads are low on the glycemic index. They have the opposite effect on glucose levels, increasing sugar levels and allowing the individual to sustain her energy level for a longer period of time.

Fitting In

• Show the kids "white" whole wheat bread that looks like white bread but is actually whole wheat. Kids want to fit in, and many kids won't bring a sandwich to school if it looks different than that of their friends. Using "white whole wheat flour", kids can eat bread that doesn't look any different from that of their peers but, in actuality, is made with whole wheat flour and has all the nutrients present in the darker, redder whole wheat flour that most people recognize.