carbs

My 90 days of eating healthy bread
 by Heber Miguel

My 90 Days of Bread: Heber Miguel

Bread was a large part of my diet until I hit my late teens and early twenties. At this time, I started to workout obsessively with my friends at our local gym. The gym became a social place for us to bond; it became a place to escape our pains, stress, and frustrations. Since our fitness goals during those days were to gain muscle, protein was king. This is all I had known for the first years of my twenties with regards to food intake.

Meeting Dr. Carson

A few months ago, I found out Dr. Carson was doing a 90 Days of Bread project. This sparked an interest, mainly because for the last few years I’ve been attempting to avoid bread due to its high level of carbs. I asked Dr. Carson to give me more information about it and what her goals were with the project. After hearing her out (being the early adopter that I am) I decided to try this out.

90 Days of Bread

I started my own 90 Days of Bread in April. Here are some of my experiences:

  • Eating bread has kept me filled throughout the day.
  • Prior to this, I was accustomed to eating two large meals per day. This helped me transition to smaller portions throughout the day.
  • Which has resulted to less crash and burns, and more energy. I do have to admit, the first few days were tough since I felt heavy and bloated due to the bread,but after a week that feeling went away. My clothes now feel looser; and I have lost 3 pounds to date.
  • The biggest challenge to date has not been the eating (I love eating). Its been getting in the habit of recording each days food intake via MyFitnessPal.

Stay tuned for more updates!

 

Heber Miguel is the by product of two hardworking immigrants that came to United States in search of the American Dream, a first-generation college graduate, and a role model in his community. After completing his Undergraduate Economic Thesis regarding The High Economic Costs of Healthcare in Developed Countries; he discovered various solutions to alleviate with these costs. At the point he launched Eber Health, with one simple idea to make healthcare/wellness visits more convenient by leveraging technology. His ultimate goal is to accelerate society’s transition from treatment care towards wellness care.

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Eating healthy bread to lose weight: week 1
 by Lin Carson

Week 1: Eating to Lose Weight is Hard. Bread Helps.

How did the first 7 days go eating to lose weight?

Tough, but worth it. I lost about one pound.

The toughest part? It is educating everyone around me on my bread diet. They bring me food and ask me to go out to lunch. And cooking meals for my family that is non-bread based is all very challenging.

What’s different this time around?

I used My Fitness Pal app to track all my caloric intake. 50% of my calories came from bread. My target caloric count for losing weight is about 1,500 calories per day. If I stick to this, 750 calories should come from bread, and that would mean about 6-7 slices per day!  Come to think about it, 2 in the morning, 2 at lunch and 2 for snacks in the afternoon, and if I spread it out, voila! I should be able to cover all my hunger pangs. Sounds super easy yeah?

franz organic nine grain bread to lose weight

Wrong. It was hard to stick to that eating schedule. You know what they say about dieting: calorie deficiency isn’t the easiest thing.

Why is it so easy to put on, and yet so difficult to loose weight!

So my first week was plagued by me snacking on other things other than bread. Chips here, dumplings there, and that muffin’s calling my name!

klosterman organic 100 whole wheat bread

So all in all, I tried to keep as close to my caloric intake goal as I can on bread to lose weight. The result? I didn’t feel hungry all the time, but the weight is not falling off as much as I thought it would. I feel this is because of all the eating I do other than bread. So I’m going to do something different next week. I’m going to really streamline what I put in my mouth and be really disciplined about it.

This week I ate bread from two wonderful bakeries: Franz and Klosterman’s. Both of these products are organic, made with quality ingredients, and to top it all off, taste delicious! It’s loaves like this that will make eating bread to lose weight possible. Stop by my bread gallery to see all the breads I’ve eaten during my 90 days projects.

This is what a typical day looks like:

Food/Portion/Calories

Franz The Great Sprouted / 4 slices  /  440

Klosterman’s Homestyle Wheat Bread  /  4 slices  /  320

Butter  /  1 Tbsp  /  100

Garlic and Herb cheese Spread  /  2 Tbsp  /  110

Clementines  /  190

Coconut Water  /  8.5 oz   / 45

Strawberry yogurt  /  113g  /  90

Perogies  /  3pc  /   45

Roasted Chicken Thigh  /  2.5 oz  /  108

Buttered Broccoli  /  1C  /  50

Strawberries  /  1C  /  49

Chocolate Eggs*  /  6 pcs  /  160

Total Calories:1607

*chocolate eggs are not part of a healthy diet. However, it’s Easter egg season, and I need my easter eggs! No wonder losing weight is so HARD!

Before the start of my 90 days, this was my weight:

My weight at the start of the 90 days.

The first weigh-in: 147.4 lbs.

 

Week 1 weigh in

Week 1 weigh-in: 146.2 lbs.

 

1 pound down, 9 more to go!

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My weight during Eat Bread 90
 by Lin Carson

Why I Revealed My Weight on Stage

Standing in front of hundreds of baking professionals this week, I was sharing about my EatBread90 journey. Many of them were there to see if I really ate a loaf a day.

Did you actually do it? What happened? Did you eat white bread as well? There’s no way you’re that weight! How can you not gain weight with this much bread? You must be really young to not gain all this weight.

The questions after the presentation were endless. This is what I wanted. I secretly planned the aftermath of this experiment. Which is, to get bread to be the topic of healthy eating again. And I did it. I sparked the idea in people’s minds that bread could possibly be healthy!

So why did I really reveal my weight in journey on stage?

Well, because I wanted to answer the varied questions about how bread can be healthy with just pictures. You see, if bread is the villain that everyone paints it to be, I would have gained a lot of weight. At 1 lb of bread a day, about 1,400 calories, I would have at least gained at least 30 lbs in 90 days right? These pictures pretty much said it all. The idea that eating bread makes you gain weight is a myth.

Now it’s time to take this experiment to the next level. Can you lose weight with bread in your diet? For the next 90 days tune in and read my blogs to see if I get lucky with this experiment.

As for the rest of you that consistently insist that bread still makes you gain weight, and that only a low carb and high protein diet works for you: understand that I will be using lipid catabolism, a well known fat burning technique, to use bread to loose weight. Wanna learn more? Go to eatbread90.com

 

My weight during Eat Bread 90

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bread crumbs
 by Lin Carson

Is This the End of My Bread Diet? What a Journey it’s Been!

“Aren’t you glad you’re not on your bread diet anymore?”

Honestly, it’s with a heavy heart that I agree with that statement. Mainly because I am sad I’ve come to the end of this bread diet. I’ve indulged in eating a loaf a day, and It’s been 90 days of non-stop eating for me to get all that bread down.

I’ve eaten bread from far-away places, and more bread than anyone I know. I’m so honored to the bakers from around America, across the sea to Germany and Switzerland and all the way south from Brazil. Thank you for sending in your bread, thank you for supporting me on this journey. Thank you for assisting me in my message that BREAD IS NOT BAD.

Throughout my bread diet, so many people have pulled me aside to warn me. And here are what many of them said to me:

  1. Bread is bad for you, it will make you put on weight.
  2. Do you know gluten causes inflammation in your body?
  3. Man was not designed to digest grains, eating all that bread would cause you to become intolerant to gluten.
  4. Bread is a processed food that you need to avoid.
  5. White bread is so bad for you, avoid at all cost.

Guess what? None of that is true.

I have not gained a single pound eating a loaf a day and my energy levels, are through the roof.

The whole purpose of my journey was to disprove these biased, non-science based information on bread. I’ve eaten bread all my life, I play with it, I research it. I know the science behind it. That is why I started this journey—to eat so much bread so that I can prove that it is safe to consume bread.

Is a Bread Diet for Everyone?

If you suffer from diabetes, absolutely not. But don’t discount the low GI breads that I experienced on my journey. You should check those out my blog on Days 19 and 31. For people with Celiac disease, you can consume gluten-free breads and they can be found on my blogs on Days 30 and 73. For the majority of the American population, bread is a nutritious portable food that is safe for consumption.

You know, I’ve received a lot of criticism concerning how I carried out my journey. One of them was, “Hey Lin, you are only one data point, that doesn’t prove anything.” Just let me be clear. I was not carrying out an experiment. I was using data and science-based information that has been generated from decades of research, to show that those experiments and nutritional information on bread work. And I’ve proven it.

king street station - eat bread 90, places - bread diet- healthy - bread myths

I want people to use the info on EatBread90.com to fight the common misconception of bread.

Know that all the information we have collected here is based on science. Thus information will be great to share with your families and friends that have all of a sudden developed a disliking for bread. They somehow become this way because some website selling new age remedies has turned them away from grains and wheat.

If you’re a baker, I hope you use our EatBread90 blogs to help you in your bread journey. I’ve created enough information for you to help you in your business. As you know, I have a soft spot for bakers. Check out my blogs on Days 12, 58, 62, 75, and 90 for innovative ideas.

For the Love of Bread

Because of you, I am working on our next project: Body by Bread. I can’t talk too much about it right now, but it does involve a community that supports bread and whose lifestyles are bread centric. So stay tuned.

It’s been an awesome and life-changing journey. Thank you for reading this blog, thank you for your tremendous support. Thank you for loving bread. This couldn’t be possible without you. Thank you.

Lin EB90cpodcast 2, pitching a loaf, podcast-bread diet- bread myths-whole grains healthy diet

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bread basket low carbs
 by Katie Jones

Is Avoiding Carbs in Your Diet Smart?

In 1972 Atkins came out with a diet that would dramatically change our love affair with bread: low carbs! The low-carbohydrate diet promotes reducing carbohydrates and increasing protein-based calories. Bread was suddenly on the do not consume list.

Along with the diet came a marketing media fest. Diets focused on low carbs are still the first suggestion many of us hear when we want to shed belly fat and lose the spare tire. So there must be something to low-carb eating and weight loss, since the story is still going strong 40 some years later, right?

Sure, you might lose weight on a low-carb diet. If you are very diligent you will lose weight, initially.  But what happens over time? By 2004 it was clear that the Atkins diet was falling out of favor. Avoiding carbs on a daily basis takes a lot of work, and reading all those labels is time consuming.

While most people following the low-carb diets did have initial weight loss, many could not maintain the diet as a lifestyle.

The issue with low carbs

Did you know there are actually some risks associated with eliminating carbohydrates from your diet? According to the Mayo Clinic:

If you cut carbs suddenly from your diet, you may experience the following:

  • Headache
  • Bad breath
  • Weakness
  • Fatigue
  • Constipation or diarrhea

The risks are side effects of a process called ketosis. Ketosis occurs when your body does not have enough carbs from food to burn for energy. In order to provide the energy needed for daily functions, your body begins to burn stored fat. The liver converts fatty acids to ketones and releases them into the bloodstream to use as energy. The body is burning its own stored fat — this is great!

Though you will see weight loss, ketosis can be very dangerous for people with type 1 diabetes. The body converts to ketosis when it does not have enough glucose to burn as energy. Glucose levels are of major importance to people with diabetes. A high level of ketones in the blood indicates that insulin levels are off, and the blood becomes acidic, leading to a condition known as ketoacidosis. Ketoacidosis can lead to a diabetic coma or even death in those with type 1 diabetes.

low carbs bread diet

Can I still eat carbs and lose weight?

Foods rich in carbohydrates, such as bread, provide the body with vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber. Studies have shown that long-term restriction of carbohydrates can result in vitamin and mineral deficiencies, bone loss, and gastrointestinal disturbances. Eating protein and fat for the long haul can also increase the risk of heart disease. In fact, the American Heart Association strongly recommends a diet with whole grains.

Going low-carb is the most popular fad diet to date. The initial weight reduction of 5 pounds many experience is due to water loss. After a few days on the diet, ketosis kicks in and the weight keeps melting off. Tricking the body into thinking it is starving in order to shed pounds, eating like an early hunter-gatherer, or even eating a pound of bread a day are not sustainable.

Most lifestyles that promote long-term health and optimal weight share a few things in common: realistic portions, balanced diets (including vegetables, grains, and proteins), and plenty of exercise.

Avoiding bread may help you shed a few pounds initially. But isn’t life more enjoyable when you don’t have to? Our own study here at EB90 has shown you can eat bread every day and not gain weight. Just take a look at Dr. Carson’s weekly weigh-in if you don’t think it is possible.

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heart bread carbs weight loss good
 by Katie Jones

Are Carbs Good or Bad for Your Weight?

We all have heard that carbs are bad when it comes to weight loss. It is no secret that eliminating  ALL carbs from your diet will show weight loss in the short term. But, do you know how important carbohydrates are to keep your body functioning? Let’s take a look at this BAD molecule so you can see why it is really BAD ASS!

Can I eat a lot of carbs and still lose weight?

Carbohydrates are nutrients whose main role is to provide energy to the body. Carbohydrates are classified into various groups, the main ones being fibers, starches and sugars which are found in foods. Being one of the basic nutrients of the body, carbohydrates are important to your health. They are found in various foods such as bread, milk products, vegetable products, fruit and grains.

The nervous system and the muscles are involved in all of your daily activities. They require higher amounts of energy to function properly. This energy is obtained from carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates also prevent proteins from being used as alternative sources of energy and aid in metabolizing fat.

In general, carbohydrates provide energy to the body through oxidation, they supply the body with carbon which is essential in the synthesis of cell components, serves as a form of stored chemical energy, and they are  part of the structures of some cells and tissues. Carbohydrates are classified into simple and complex carbohydrates.

Simple vs. complex carbs

Simple carbohydrates are those that that have only one or two sugars such as galactose which is found in milk products and fructose which is found in fruits. Those with single sugars are called monosaccharides while those with two sugars are called disaccharides. Simple carbohydrates are digested and absorbed quickly and easily. They have a huge impact on your blood sugar levels.

Complex carbohydrates  are polysaccharides and have three or more sugars. They are commonly called starchy foods and they include cereals, whole grains, bread, corn, potatoes, and peas among others.

carbs, weight, bread, simple carbs, complex carbs, diet

Health benefits

Carbohydrates have various health benefits according to an article by the Poliquin Group.4 Some health benefits of consuming foods rich in carbohydrates include faster loss of fat from the body, easy maintenance of the body weight, faster muscle recovery, reduced risks of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, reduced risks of type 2 diabetes when consumed as whole grains, and improved  overall well being.

Bread, especially when it is made with 100% whole grains, are very important because they provide fiber to the body.

These fibers improve the movements in the gastrointestinal tract by softening and increasing the bulkiness of stool. Fiber also provides relief from irritable bowel syndrome.

As Lin’s “Eat Bread 90” continues you can see that eating bread has helped her stay fuller, maintain her weight, and hopefully have regular GI movements! For all these reasons we believe carbs are not BAD. We believe carbs are BAD ASS especially in the form of bread!

References

  1. Shea, Lisa.  Carb Charts: Low Carb Reference.Kindle ed., Minerva Webworks, 2015.
  2. Ruud, Jaime S. Nutrition and the Female Athlete. Boca Raton, CRC Press, 1996.
  3. Owusu-Apenten, Richard K. Introduction to Food Chemistry. Boca Raton, Fla: CRC Press, 2014.
  4. “Seven Reasons To Eat Carbohydrates.” Poliquin Group. 16 Jan. 2014. 2017. http://main.poliquingroup.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/1100/Seven_Reasons_To_Eat_Carbohydrates.aspx Accessed 11 May 2017.
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