White bread is perhaps the most commonly eaten carbohydrate source in the United States today. Nearly every sandwich ordered from a self-serve scoreboard contains white bread, just like the sides at any fancy restaurant. Americans love their white bread and consume a lot of it without a second thought. Bodybuilders, on the other hand, have a responsibility to examine common, everyday foods to determine if these carbohydrate sources have a place, or a limited place, on the bodybuilding menu.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to white bread as a bodybuilding food. The first opinion is that white bread is excellent for bodybuilding goals. It digests quickly, providing quick calories for trainers looking to gain mass. These fast-digesting carbohydrates, eaten post-workout with a good source of protein, create the desired hormonal environment, resulting in higher insulin levels and increased testosterone uptake into tissues. White bread is readily available, either sliced or, more commonly, in a roll format at restaurants. Perhaps a chicken breast on a bun is the quickest and easiest way to put protein and quick carbs in your body after a workout? The carbs are there, the calories are there, the taste is there, the speed is there, and the convenience is certainly there. The perfect carbohydrate?
The other school of thought is that white bread has no place in the bodybuilding diet. The rapid delivery of your calories results in an insulin spike that contributes to creating an anabolic environment, but also creates a greater likelihood of adding body fat. The enrichment process removes most of the valuable vitamins and minerals from the bread. White bread also contains processed complex starchy carbohydrates, which are not used efficiently by the body. One could also consume a bag of flour. While bread packaging may claim good micronutrient content, up to half of these are removed during fortification and processing. Also, the lack of fiber means that the bread’s journey through the body will be slow at best.
The answer, as with many things in life, probably lies in the middle. If the trainer does not have access to another carbohydrate source, white bread provides a quick insulin spike and necessary calories. After all, bad calories are better than no calories, when you lose valuable muscle tissue. For trainers looking to gain mass, any carbohydrate calorie source can be good at a time. However, optimal gains will be achieved with liberal use of white bread and more frequent use of quality carbohydrate sources such as brown rice, oatmeal, oat bran, oat bran cereal (IE Cheerios), whole wheat pasta , baked potato chips, low fat potato chips. popcorn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, whole wheat bread, some fruits (berries are best), and vegetables. Bodybuilders looking to gain mass should eat white bread occasionally, and bodybuilders watching body fat levels should eat white bread rarely.
