Written by Catherine Saxelby
on Thursday, 19 June 2014.
Tagged: bread, carbohydrates, carbs, healthy cooking, healthy eating, Product Snapshot, seeds
Bread has been under attack in recent times thanks to the grain-free diets beloveded by “Paleo passionates” as well as the ever-increasing popular trend away from gluten, the main protein of the two basic grain flours used in bread – wheat and rye. So when I spotted new “lower-carb” loaves at my supermarket, I could see how one company, Helga’s, had decided to counter these attacks. I decided to tuck in and check them out.
I love bread so am always happy to try a fresh loaf especially when it’s a hearty grainy type with chunks of grains or seeds peeping out. I bought Helga’s Sunflower and Golden Linseed and then the Soy and Toasted Sesame and am happy to say I liked them both. The third variant is Lower Carb 5 Seeds, a soft beige loaf studded with tiny bits of poppy seeds, brown linseeds, golden linseeds, sunflower seeds and psyllium seeds.
The Sunflower and Linseed was my preferred loaf. It was pre-sliced, slightly smaller in size, not a huge slice (which is good) with an appetising aroma and pleasant bite. It toasted nicely and kept well in its plastic bag.
As a side, I must mention that the Soy and Sesame bread while smoother has the most divine aroma – if you love sesame oil, you’ll love this bread. The toasted sesame just wafts out at you!
It’s simple! They use less flour and more seeds! A regular grainy bread would boast some 40 per cent total carbs while these lower carb breads come in at only 29 grams which works out to be 70 per cent of the carb content in the grain bread. Or turn it around, as marketing-speak does, this means 25 to 30 per cent less. The bakers are covering themselves by claiming a conservative reduction of 25 per cent (wise) which allows for variations in flours and final water content after baking.
Remember: you can't eat twice as much. If you wanted to lower your carb intake, you'd be better off by:
Here is the list of ingredients in the Helga’s Sunflower and Linseed bread 700 g loaf:
Water, wheat flour, sunflower seeds 7.5%, linseeds 7.5%, wheat gluten, wheat bran, defatted soy flour, yeast, vinegar, canola oil, iodised salt, cultured wheat flour, soy flour, vegetable emulsifiers 481, 471, 472e, vitamins (thiamin, folic acid). |
The three emulsifiers are all safe and are derivatives of fatty substances. They work to keep the dough mixed nicely during manufacture and retain the moistness of the crumb:
Per 100 g |
Helga's Sunflower |
Helga's Soy |
Helga's |
Regular Mixed Grain |
kJ | 1170 | 1130 | 1170 | 990 |
Protein | 13.9 | 15.8 | 13.8 | 8.8 |
Fat | 10.7 | 8.3 | 10.9 | 2.9 |
Carb | 28.5 | 29.3 | 27.7 | 41.0 |
Sugars | 3.0 | 3.9 | 2.5 | 2.7 |
Fibre | 6.8 | 6.6 | 7.7 | 4.8 |
Sodium | 400 | 400 | 400 | 474 |
A pleasant soft, family-friendly, loaf with nutritional bonuses from the added seeds. Delicious and satisfying to eat, it looks and tastes just like any other. Fewer carbs but don’t think you can eat more of it! You'll still get carbs from rice, cereals, potatoes, muffins and fruits.
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