I've definitly been looking at the nutrition labels of the food I buy, and comparing ingredients and nutritional stuff.

Lately it's been white vs. whole wheat pasta / brown rice.
The brands I have, there isn't much difference as far as calories and carbs - the difference lays in fiber from what I see.

With breads I see a difference in Light/Whole Wheat breads compared to white - but that tends to be "specialty" wheat/light breads. When I looked at regular Whole Wheat vs. white -not much again.

I googled it - and it seems as if Fiber is the major player in making the decision??? That most white products are "fortified" and are almost as nutritional or more so than wheat.

So - the question is - is Whole Wheat that much of a better decision??? Will it make or break a person?? What do ya'll think / know?

(PS - I don't mind whole wheat pasta or bread - but brown rice... yuk)

Doesn't white bread have a lot more sugar in it?

Brown rice is good once you get used to it.

fortified bread is a sneaky way of saying we smashed up all the fiber and so the nutrients are gone so we fortify it with a little bit to make it look better
by the way I am new HI EVERYONE

Exactly what I was going to say!

Welcome.

I was going to explain the technical aspects but I like the above explanation! Here's one that goes a little bit further:

Milling is the process that creates the difference between brown and white rice. The variety of rice may be identical, but milling removes the husk from the grain and turns the brown rice to white. This is why milling is often called "whitening".

By removing the outer layer, which is also known as the bran layer, milling alters the nutritional value of the rice. It is in this bran layer where most of the nutrients are stored. The white rice that most of us eat comprises of mostly carbohydrates, with the nutrients stripped off in the milling process.

Carbohydrates are broken down into sugar inside the body. While carbohydrates are a good source of energy (yielding 4 calories per gram), excessive carbohydrate intake leads to sugar imbalance and adult onset diabetes mellitus. Carbohydrate consuming is also addictive. White rice is a large part of the world's diet , and reduction is not a easy process. One way is to consume brown rice instead.

Here's what I can tell ya:

My information comes from the South Beach Diet book(starting on page 52). "The faster the sugars and starches (carbs) are processed and absorbed into your bloodstream, the fatter you get. Anything that speeds the process by which your body digests carbohydrates is bad for your diet, and anything that slows it down is good....Example: Raw broccoli is crunchy, hard, cold and covered with nutritious fiber. If you eat it that way, your stomach has really got to work in order to get at the carbs." Compare that to the work your stomach does to process boil or steamed to a mush broccoli.

pg. 53
In the case of processed foods, digestion begins before it reaches the store shelf. With white bread, first the wheat is stripped of bran and fier. The it's pulverized into the finest white flour. The baking process puffs it up into light, airy slices of bread. No wonder your stomach makes such quick work of it. A slice of white bread hits your bloodstream with the same jolt you'd get by eating a tablespoon of table sugar right from the bowl! .... Real old-fashioned bread - the coarse, chewy kind with a thick crust and visible pieces of grain... puts your stomach to work."

Read the bread label carefully. Wheat doesn't always mean Whole Wheat. See if one of the first ingredients says Enriched wheat. If it does, stay away! If should not say enriched... the enriched part means the digestion process has already taken place when the bread was made... eat a spoon full of sugar (just kidding) LOL!

This is where the glycemic index comes in. In a nutshell, the glycemic index gives foods a number. The lower the number the slower the sugar is absorbed into the bloodstream and vice versa.

If you can get your hands on a the South Beach Diet book, read the chapter entitled, It's Not Just What You Eat, It's How You Eat It. That chapter taught me more about foods than I learn in my undergraduate program....Home Economics!