Bread

This past week, after returning from spring break, I made a radical food decision. I switched from white bread to whole wheat bread. And not just any whole wheat  bread - the kind with grains and seeds still in it (as my roommate calls it, 'birdseed bread'). For some this may seem like a mundane switch, but for me, it was serious. Life and death serious. I was voluntarily leaving the realm of comfort and taste that my Country Hearth Cottage Bread provided me with for a bumpy, dull colored  and undoubtedly unsavory loaf.

But more importantly, I didn't make this switch on a whim. I'd been thinking about it. For some reason, white bread has become a food faux-pas as of late. I've seen countless ads on television that promote whole wheat and multi-grain breads over white because its 'healthier'. My friends have told me they eat whole wheat bread because its 'healthier'. And companies have created white bread with the same old color and texture that is 'healthier' because it contains the same vitamins found in whole wheat bread. So, when I was walking down that bread aisle I thought, why not be healthier? Even the packaging of the all the different kinds of breads were pushing the same line - eat me, and you'll be healthier! you'll be making a life change that will make you fitter and better! The front of the plastic bags in which the bread was wrapped had things like "12 Great Grains!" "Low in Fat!" 'Wholesome and Nutritious Ingredients!" on them. Even the white bread was amping up its game by adding calcium.

I didn't stop and think about whether or not there even was a benefit to switching my bread. What do all of those words and ads even mean? Is there really a bigger benefit of eating two pieces of whole wheat bread a day instead of two white pieces? I've realized that I didn't switch because I had a concrete idea of why I should. Instead, I had this vague notion that, somehow, it was better. Every food ad is marketing whole grain- those words are on cereal boxes and granola bar wrappers, chip bags too. Instead, consumers should be concentrating on bigger issues, like the fair trade price of the wheat and grains that went into the bread, or the chemicals that are in it, or even the plastic bag the bread is wrapped in.

Even though I continue to eat my new bread (which is pretty good) I realized that my choice in this simple matter isn't my own. In a country where obesity is an epidemic, every small change in a food product that can be labeled as 'healthier' is a comfort. And companies are jumping on this. It works. Just look at me.