Are breads, crackers and cookies a good alternative to bread?

In the pursuit of a trim figure, many people give up certain foods, trying to find them a healthier and less caloric alternative. Perhaps the most popular flour product and a source of fast carbohydrates remains bread. Trying to eliminate it from the diet, people switch to other alternatives. But are they all useful and harmless, as is commonly believed? Let’s find out together with nutritiologists Alla Chekanova a Lidia Kvashnina.

Breads

Many believe that bread is a full-fledged replacement for bread. In 100 g of this product on average contains about 350 kcal – this is about 12-13 pieces. Before buying bread, it is worth carefully studying the composition. The most common is the following: ground rice groats, fructose, sprouted oat flakes, coconut powder, natural flavoring, sweetener sucralose, table salt. Of this list, only salt will be a useful element.

In good breads should not be “unfolded” composition. Ideally, there should be only groats (preferably buckwheat and rice), from which they are made, without yeast and flavorings. It is also recommended to exclude glutenous cereals, as gluten is a gluten that interferes with nutrients and vitamins and can provoke inflammation in the intestines.

Buckwheat breads can be eaten with pate, butter and red fish, while guacamole goes well with rice breads.

It is important to realize that breads can not be the basis of a snack, because they contain a large amount of simple carbohydrates. Therefore, they should be consumed during the main meal with vegetable soup or hummus from legumes and vegetables.

Crackers

In terms of calories, crackers are superior to breads. In 100 g contains about 470 kcal. But many people eat much more at one time.

Unlike breads (you can find them with a good and clean composition), things are different with crackers. The composition of a standard pack of cookies is difficult to understand for the untrained person: whey powder, vegetable oils, yeast, ammonium bicarbonate, lactic acid, and sugar and its substitutes (such as fructose and maltose). They carry no benefit and only put additional strain on the pancreas and liver.

There are salty and sweet crackers, but in terms of benefits between them there is no fundamental difference. It is worth excluding both from the diet. Or replace them with gluten-free bread crumbs or vegetable and algae crackers. In addition, you can give preference to nuts, but they must be pre-soaked.

Cookies

In terms of composition, cookies do not differ much from crackers. Carbohydrates, gluten, sugar, trans fats, lectins and preservatives are the basis of purchased sweets. However, their calories are slightly less: in 100 g about 417 kcal. Just as with crackers, it is quite difficult to stop at one cookie.

Nutritionists recommend preparing cookies on their own, for example, from nut flour (coconut, almond) or berry (for example, cherry) with fruits and vegetables that are rich in polyphenols and fiber. It is better to eat them in the first half of the day after the main meal to minimize the negative effects.

Is it possible to lose weight by switching to alternatives to bread?

In everything, you need a measure. You can not bring the body to a state of hunger. So he gets into a stressful situation and after leaving the diet will stock up everything that is possible.

First of all, it is necessary to carefully monitor that in the composition of crackers, breads and cookies were not:

• gluten, which interferes with the normal functioning of the intestines;
• sugar – this is a carbohydrate, the amount of which should be limited, it is already too much in hidden form in purchased products;
• trans fats, once in the body, create favorable conditions for the development of certain types of cancer, lead to high cholesterol, blood vessel diseases, heart disease;
• yeast and wheat flour.