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A loaf of white bread

White bread is bread made from wheat flour from which the bran and often the germ have been removed, in contrast to whole wheat bread made from whole wheat flour, in which these parts are retained and contribute a brownish color. In addition, this white flour is often bleached using potassium bromate or chlorine dioxide gas to remove any slight yellow color and make its baking properties more predictable.

The current popularity of white bread is a response to the adaptation of the grocery business to modern commerce. Bleaching gives white flour a far longer shelf life than whole wheat flour, and bread made from it has a longer shelf life. This allows it to survive storage and long transit times.

White bread is often criticized for being less nutritious than other breads. Most of the vitamins inherent in wheat are removed along with the germ or destroyed in the bleaching process. By the time the United States joined World War One, the lack of vitamin content had led to an increase in the proportion of failures on basic entrance physical exam for draftees and military recruits. In response to this, the United States, by law, directed that white flour must be enriched with vitamins, replacing most of the major vitamins removed by bleaching—though critics claim that valuable trace minerals removed by bleaching are not replaced in the enrichment process. Counter-arguments to this claim note that the amount of trace minerals in bread is minuscule to begin with and their supply is easily substituted by other common dietary constituents such as fruits and vegetables. Most commercial white bread contains little dietary fiber when compared to bread that includes bran. A low fiber diet is linked in some instances to cases of both constipation and diarrhea. Canadian grain regulations require relatively high amounts of protein in their grain, resulting in a style of bread known as Canadian white.

White bread is also criticized for being too easily digested, resulting in more drastic rising and falling of blood sugar and insulin levels than results from eating slower digesting whole grain breads.

White bread is made from wheat, flour, water, salt and yeast.

[edit] Other meanings

Whitebread can also refer to alleged blandness or plainness in a person. Its usage is similar to that of the term plain vanilla. In the DC comic book, Justice League International, the sarcastic Green Lantern Guy Gardner would often refer to his innocent, pure-hearted teammate Captain Marvel as "Captain Whitebread".

[edit] External links

• Enriched White Bread Recipe