Reconciling whole grain bread and caloric content

Earlier this fall, having had some success losing weight with the Southbeach diet, I decided that I needed more whole grain in my diet. I do really well on it health-wise, and it often helps to balance me when I feel like the body is wigging out on me again. Recognizing it as a medicinal food for me, I decided to alter the diet to include more whole grain.

Further, having studied sourdough a little during 2009, I decided that it was nutritionally superior and decided to double-punch that change and use more whole grain via sourdough bread.

That seemed to work, though weight loss slowed. Then later, I abandoned the diet — can’t recall why, probably illness — and now on Christmas Day 2009, I’ve regained what I lost during 2009. No, not because I wasn’t following the diet, but because I wasn’t following any reasonable diet at all. Oh, yeah, I’ve had fun in the last couple of months. Time to pay the fiddler.  I plan now to resume the proper diet the 2nd week of January.

So, I was intrigued when I ran across Mike Avery’s recent blog posting about the caloric content of bread. Mike blogs at www.sourdoughhome .com and is the source of much of the successful sourdough practices I’ve adopted. (No affiliate links here; I just really like Mike’s stuff.)

Here’s an excerpt:

So, I decided to analzye my 100% Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread since she said she mostly baked whole wheat and rye recipes. . . . At 80 calories per slice, this isn’t a caloric landmine, however . . . if you eat four slices a day, you’re looking at 320 calories. In the context of an inadviseable 1,000 calorie per day weight loss diet, there aren’t enough other nutrients in bread to make that a reasonable dietary choice. In the context of a factory worker’s 3,000+ calorie per day diet, it’s no problem. We all have to make our own caloric choices. In the end, I don’t think there are bad foods and good foods so much as bad choices and good choices. [Via Sourdough Home - Mike's Breadblog (28 Nov 2009).]

So, where does that leave me? I still need the grain; that I’ve learned. But as I resume both the specific diet and the generally better diet habits, I’ll need to remember to limit the amount of whole grain sourdough bread I consume. I’ll liberalize that during body crisis, but restrain it when things are well. I think that’ll be successful. Proof will be in the pudding, or rather, on the scale.