Hey fit fam, this week I want to talk to you
about an awesome cooking ingredient, bread crumbs. Great for binding meat balls, try my faux
fried recipes, the possibilities are endless. But did you know that most store bought bread
crumbs contain, high fructose corn syrup? That’s because a lot of store bought bread
contains high fructose corn syrup. I say let’s make our own bread crumbs using
the bread we choose. How do we choose? Come with me. Hey guys, we’re at my favorite market in
New York City so let’s go inside and check out the bread. Okay so we’re in the bread crumb section
and you really only need one ingredient to make bread crumbs, and that’s bread. But if you start with an unhealthy ingredient,
you’re going to end up with an unhealthy ingredient. So we want to make sure that we start with
the healthiest bread we can. Most store bought bread crumbs have high fructose
corn syrup in them. It’s not necessary because you don’t need
high fructose corn syrup in bread but, here it is, right there, it’s like the third
ingredient and all of these variations have them and if you don’t know, our manufacturers
are required by law to list the ingredients in order of how prevalent the ingredient is
by weight. So if it’s the third ingredient to the top,
it’s…it’s a pretty prominent ingredient in the bread crumbs. So we want to make our own cleaner bread crumbs
by starting with a healthy bread. So how do we chose the bread we want to use? Okay so before it’s processed a wheat kernel
is a whole grain made up of three parts, the bran, the germ and the endosperm. Now in white bread, the bran and the germ
which are pretty much the healthiest part of the kernel, are removed. And the endosperm is ground up really fine
into your refined white flour. In the whole wheat bread, you keep all three
parts of the kernel, the bran, the germ and the endosperm. The entire kernel is ground up to make whole
wheat flour which preserves all of the nutrition, the fiber, the micro nutrients and the protein. So how do you know which bread to choose? You’ve got tons of bread choices, tons of
health claims, this one’s health nut, this one’s got 12 grams, oh my God it must be
the healthiest bread because it has so many grains. Every bread wants you to think it is the healthiest. So the best way to decide which bread is best
is to actually ignore the front and just look at the nutrition label. So to make sure that you’re actually getting
100 percent whole wheat flour, you first look at the package, you’ve got 100 percent whole
wheat. The important thing is that in the ingredients
it says, whole wheat flour as the first and only type of flour. So it’s the only type of flour and it’s
the first ingredient. This is 100 percent whole wheat bread. So now there are other breads like we talked
about this 12 grain, it makes a health claim but when you look at the ingredients and you
see the first ingredient is, unbleached, enriched wheat flour. So that is just another name for white flour
and also in the description put some other words, multi grain, anything that says enriched
or bleached, unbleached is just an excuse, a sneaky way to say white flour. And the same goes for this health nut, it
says whole grains, and they’re health nuts. So you think it’s really healthy and the
first ingredient actually is whole wheat flour but it’s followed up with unbleached, enriched,
so that means it also uses white flour. So it has some whole grains but not all. And then here’s one example, this is a really
sneaky example, it says 100 percent whole wheat on the package and then when you look
at the ingredients, it says whole wheat flour. So that is the only ingredient that is flour
but the second ingredient water, the third ingredient high fructose corn syrup. So it’s definitely important to read the
label so you know what you’re getting because this, and this, very different. So the only things that you need to make bread
are flour, water, yeast, salt and a little bit of sugar to activate the yeast. So why is it that most of these breads have
nutrition labels where the ingredients are a mile long? So most of these, very few of them are actually
used for the bread making process, the rest are there to make it taste better, to preserve
it, to give it the color, you’ll see molasses in there a lot of times to give it color. So it’s important to keep in mind that just
because it is brown and it says whole wheat on the package doesn’t mean that it’s
the healthiest choice, now that’s a relative term. This is making a health claim that it is healthier
because it is lower carb, but think about it, wheat…wheat contains carbs, it is a
carbohydrate. So how do you get lower carb bread? You put a bunch of chemicals in it. So it’s up to you, do you want to digest
something that is lower carb but you don’t know what those chemicals or ingredients are? Or do you want to make a healthier choice
and understand that those carbs are good for you and are going to give you energy. So another thing to keep in mind is that even
though you want that ingredients list to be shorter, less isn’t always more. So here I’ve got a really healthy choice
of bread, I’ve bought this bread before. And it contains a lot of added ingredients
like rolled oats and quinoa flour, some buckwheat flour, cotton seed or processed oat. Those are all things that are going to make
it more nutritious but, I look at the ingredients label and I can understand, I know what all
those ingredients are. So this is one of the breads I’m going to
use for my bread crumbs. So 45 calorie bread, it is the new sort of
fad for low carb lovers. Breads, bread is…is a carbohydrate so naturally
it’s going to have carbs. So the only way that they can make it have
less carbs, well there’s two ways, one of them is by putting some chemicals in there. So whenever you look at these breads, you
see that the nutrition labels are usually a mile long and most of the ones I’ve seen
have high fructose corn syrup in there somewhere, and a lot of other stuff that I don’t know
what it is. So this one’s soft wheat, it makes you think
it’s wheat, but it’s got some unbleached, enriched flours in there. This one has extra fiber in it which makes
it healthy right, but look it’s got six grams of fiber in three slices. So if you’re only eating two, you’re really
only getting four grams of fiber, so that’s kind of a cheat near there and again also
not whole wheat. Here, this one, I think this one does not
use high fructose corn syrup, yep usually the Arnold brand doesn’t but it does use
sucralose, all those use sucralose which is just Splenda. So…so if you’re trying to avoid Splenda
or if you’re someone who is afraid of that chemical or prefers to not include it in their
diet, don’t think you’re getting away from it by using this low calorie breads. Another thing to keep in mind, when you look
at these, the grams per slice. You’ve got two slices is 42 grams, so that’s
the weight of the bread. When you look at a normal slice of whole grain,
true whole wheat bread, one slice is 43 grams. So pretty much you’re getting two slices
of this for one slice of this and some of you are thinking well that’s great because
I can eat a whole sandwich for…for half of the…half of the grams and the carbs and
the calories. Which is true, but you’re doing it at the
expense of the chemicals and the ingredients that you don’t know and really is it worth
it, when I could if I really just wanted to eat 42 grams, eat one slice of the more nutritious
bread? So does that mean that there is no place in
a healthy diet for this lower calorie bread? No, it…it could fit into your lifestyle,
sure if you’re on a weight loss journey and you’re struggling to get enough food,
if you feel like you’re really hungry all the time because you are at an extreme calorie
deficit, maybe…maybe the 40-45 calorie bread is good for you. But if you’re trying to gain muscle or just
eat the cleanest diet possible, then you’re probably better going with some kind of true
whole grain goodness bread or something that offers even more nutrition. Even though it is a little bit higher in calories
or carbs, you know it’s coming from a good place, a healthy place. Okay so it’s up to you to read the nutrition
label, decide what kind of ingredients you want in your bread, how many you want there
to be. But if you have no idea where to start there
are some guidelines people follow. One of those is having under a 100 calories
a slice and the other is having at least two grams of fiber. Now I agree and disagree with those things,
I think bread is nutrient dense, at least if you’re buying the healthy kind it should
have more than two grams of fiber, I’d say four to five. Mine, I think mine has five grams of fiber,
five yeah. And even some of these more common brands,
this one whole whole grain, this is 100 percent whole wheat, has four grams of fiber. So really aim for higher than…than two to
three grams per slice and as far as the calories go, yeah if you can get 100, 100 calories
or less per slice that’s great but I’ve seen plenty of varieties that are 110, 120
calories and they are nutrient dense and they have great ingredients. And if you find a bread that is a 110, 120
calories and you love those ingredients, then eat that bread. For my bread crumbs, I am going with my ultimate
whole grain goodness, whole wheat bread, its wheat and flax fiber by The Baker, if you
can find it, you should…you should try it. It’s just as good as any other whole wheat
bread, but more nutritious. And for the taste I’m also going to go with
a dark pumpernickel. Now there is some enriched flour in this,
but you know what? I’m okay with that because I like the way
it tastes, I think it adds an extra element to my bread crumbs. So in your bread crumbs you can use all this,
you can use all this, you can use none of it, it’s up to you, but make sure you chose
something that works for your lifestyle. So one kind of fun thing to do is if you’re
trying to decide if your bread is a healthier one or not, you know this is a little more
abstract but if you take a loaf of bread and you kind of just lightly squeeze it, you don’t
want to squeeze it so hard that you kill the bread and then no one can ever buy it again,
but just slightly squeeze it and feel it compressing, kind of push back and it’s really fluffy
and it makes you want to eat it because it’s so nice and fluffy, it’s probably not very
healthy. And that’s because manufacturers put all
that stuff in there to make it fluffy and nice and it’s really hard for them to keep
the nutrition when they do that. So when you pick up a denser bread and you,
you feel it and it’s not so fluffy, it’s probably the healthier bread. So I know it’s a bummer, I’m a white bread
lover, but when it comes to your everyday sandwich making, I recommend going the nutritious
route so that when you do go out to eat you can enjoy the bread basket or get the white
pasta. Make the healthy choices at home. The last bread I want to talk about is Ezekiel
bread or any sprouted whole grain bread. So it’s pretty much just when the seeds
sprout, they grind it up and make it into a bread and that process retains almost all
of the nutrients. Sprouted grains are one of the healthiest
things you can eat, they’re pretty much like a vegetable and here it’s put into
bread form. Now it is really dense but there are a lot
of benefits to this bread if you want to try it out. It’s got almost no sugar, it’s made with
a bunch of different whole grains and legumes, it’s almost, it’s…it’s not gluten
free but it has very little gluten and it’s got a lot less fat and a lot more protein
than other breads. But it is in the refrigerated section so make
sure you don’t look in your normal bread aisle. For your homemade bread crumbs, start by cutting
your slices of bread into quarter pieces. This helps them crisp up evenly. Place on a baking sheet. Feel free to cut a few into some smaller cubes
for croutons. Bake in an oven preheated to 300 degrees Fahrenheit
for about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, flip each slice and
return to the oven for another 10 minutes until browned and crisped. You know it’s done when you’re able to
snap the pieces in half with a nice crunch. Place them in a food processor and blend until
ground. If you like chunky bread crumbs blend for
a little less time and more time if you want finer crumbs. Store in the freezer, you do not need to thaw
before using. And there you have it, homemade bread crumbs
made with no high fructose corn syrup, with healthy bread that you choose for your delicious
recipes. For this and all my other great recipes, be
sure to check out mindovermunch.com. Don’t forget to subscribe and please share
this video if you enjoyed it that helps spread the word more than anything. And remember, it’s all a matter of Mind
Over Munch. Be sure to subscribe and stay tuned for the
next episode of Mind Over Munch. Okay, so…sorry now I’m like feeling worked
out. Bread crum… Bread crumbs. Bread crumbs. Bread crumbs, I can’t. Christian: No it’s, oh yeah it worked. This week am going to talk to you about bread… About bread crumbs. Christian: We have to edit that out. Raisin bread. Try my faux fried recipes, the possibilities
are…you’re laughing at me. Christian: I’m sorry.