Updated on Sep 25, 2018, 11:59 IST

Why Choosing To Eat Brown Bread Over Roti Dosen't Make Any Sense

Why Choosing To Eat Brown Bread Over Roti Dosen\'t Make Any Sense
Photo: © YouTube (Main Image)

To start with, almost every western website calls Roti as the Indian Flat Bread. Nope, it's not an Indian Flat Bread. It's a Roti or a Chapati, and that's how it is addressed and should be addressed. We don't call bread as the American roti or the Canadian Chapati, or Australian Naan. Let's stop distorting the terms, as these simple distortions create confusions in a lot of senses. A Westerner who has never had a roti, just because he thinks it's a kind of bread made in India, he starts thinking that a roti is made the same way a bread is made, using the same ingredients, which it isn't, except for a few of the ingredients. 

A Little History Of Our Roti

Why Choosing To Eat Brown Bread Over Roti Dosen't Make Any Sense© Pixabay

Acc. to the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) research, people have been making flat breads for over 6,000 years, and today about 80 to 85% of the total wheat produced in the country is used for the preparation of chapatti.

Paranthas Aren't Unhealthy! 

Why Choosing To Eat Brown Bread Over Roti Dosen't Make Any Sense© YouTube

This is one of the biggest myths in conjunction with the topic at discussion. Often people tell me that they have brown bread sandwich or cornflakes for breakfast and I ask them why not paranthas? The answer is common. It is fattening. And this is the same case with most Indian foods today. 

- What is a parantha made of? Whole wheat or different grains mixed together like jowar, bajra, soy, chana and ragi. There is no maida or sugar added, until and unless there is a specific reason to do so.

- What do you add in a parantha? Generally, vegetables or spices.

- What do you apply on a parantha? Little ghee or butter, not a toxic refined cooking oil. 

Can you tell me what is unhealthy in the above list of ingredients? The answer often is ghee and butter. If you didn't know, ghee is one of the healthiest fats you can consume. 

What is bread made of? 

- Maida or refined carbohydrates as the base, with added sugar (that's why it tastes sweet)

- toxic low grade refined oil (that's why when you press a bread, you have oil on your fingers)

- salt (to preserve it and make it taste better, when you combine it with sugar and refined oils)

- caramel color to make it brown

- and yeast to make it fluffy

- and may be some wheat and other grains if it is labelled whole wheat. 

What Actually Is Wheat Bread? 

Firstly, there is nothing called Brown Bread. It's simply white bread coloured brown. The colour is industrial caramel colour added to it, about which we will discuss later in the text. Now, there are other forms of breads like whole wheat, multi grain, ragi, bran, etc. But at the end of the day, they have a larger percentage as refined carbs or maida along with the other ingredients. 

Roti Vs Bread: How Fresh?  

If you prepare a roti/parantha at home, how long can you keep it outside before consuming? May be half a day, or a bit more! Why? Because, there is no ingredients added to it to preserve it. On the other hand, breads are kept for over weeks on the shelves of your supermarket. Why? Because they need to be preserved to be kept in open.

A Stupid Comparison

A lot of articles and dieticians compare roti and breads on the basis of calories. This is just for the sake of comparison, because there are many stronger views against bread and for roti, than mere calories. This is a stupid comparison. A slice of bread has approx 60cal, and a roti has around 70-80cal, depending on the size and thickness of the roti and bread. This does not make it a point of comparison. 

Breads Aren't Better Than Rotis


Another big and most misunderstood point is that whole wheat breads are better. Which country are you living in? Firstly, high quality breads are made at very few places in the world, which use the traditional methods of baking which they have been using since centuries, using locally produced ingredients, without the use of preservatives and other toxic refined oils. Such breads are consumed fresh on the same day, as you cannot preserve them for long, just like rotis. Breads are not bad, but the really good quality breads are rare, and very rare in India.

One Of The Longest Living Human Group Eats Roti

Some of the best and the most extensive research is on the longest living people in the world, people who live over a hundred (centenarians) and are still in the best of their health. One of the such population is the Hunza, which resides in the mountainous region of North Pakistan. Roti is one of the most consumed foods by the Hunza, and they have it in almost all their meals.

Akshay Chopra, is a graduate of the National Defence Academy & the Air Force Academy, and a former IAF pilot. He is one of the most qualified health, fitness & nutrition consultants in the country, and an author of multiple books & ebooks. He is among the few in the country to have a background of competitive athletics, military training and bodybuilding. He is the co-founder of the Body Mechanics chain of gyms, and India's first research based channel We R Stupid. You can check out his Youtube here.

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