Wholemeal bread

The Real Bread Campaign just defines Real Bread as made without additives. From this simple, accessible starting point, our mission is finding and sharing ways of making bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet. 

One of these ways is encouraging people to make and eat wholemeal, and other wholegrain, Real Bread

• What are wholegrain foods?
• Health and nutrition
• White bread vs. wholemeal UPF
• Flavour and aroma
• Using more of what we grow
• Composition and labelling
• Recipes
• See also

What are wholegrain foods?

Wholemeal bread is a type of wholegrain food. Grain is generally used to refer to the seeds of cereal plants, such as wheat, rye, oats, rice and. A seed/grain has three major parts: 

• Endosperm is the largest bit, consisting mainly of starches and proteins.
• The germ is relatively small but micronutritionally-dense: packed with vitamins and minerals.
• Bran is the protective coat in which the other two parts are wrapped. It is high in fibre and also contains micronutrients.

A true wholegrain ingredient is just that: all of the grain. Whether intact, chopped, rolled/flaked, or milled into flour, all parts of the de-hulled grain should be present in their original proportions. That's not to say that everything in a 'wholegrain' loaf is necessarily a whole grain ingredient, though. See below.

Health and nutrition

The combination of soluble and insoluble fibre, a range of micronutrients, and complex carbohydrates, means that wholegrains make a valuable contribution to a healthy diet.

According to the British Dietetic Association: ‘wholegrains can contain up to 75% more nutrients than refined cereals.’ Of course, the actual amounts of each specific nutrient in a particular type of grain will vary between varieties, and even crops, as will the differences between grains refined in different ways and to different extents.

In 2016, a review titled Health Benefits of Dietary Whole Grains: An Umbrella Review of Meta-analyses concluded ‘there is some evidence for dietary whole grain intake to be beneficial in the prevention of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and colorectal, pancreatic, and gastric cancers.’

Harvard University’s The Nutrition Source notes: 'Bran and fiber slow the breakdown of starch into glucose—thus maintaining a steady blood sugar rather than causing sharp spikes. Fiber helps lower cholesterol as well as move waste through the digestive tract. Fiber may also help prevent the formation of small blood clots that can trigger heart attacks or strokes. Phytochemicals and essential minerals such as magnesium, selenium and copper found in whole grains may protect against some cancers.'

Fibre can also help you feel fuller for longer, which can help reduce over-eating. A growing body of evidence suggests that wholegrain foods are higher in prebiotics. These compounds may be benficial to your gut microbiome (the communities of microorganisms that live there), which - and this is very much an emerging and evolving area of scientific research - might have huge implications for our physical and mental health. 

How much should I eat?

Government Dietary Recommendations from The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, previously Public Health England, published in 2016 (still current in 2024) young children should be eating at least 15g of dietary fibre at day, rising to 30g a day by the time we're adults. Time to read that nutritional information panel…

The British Dietetic Association’s wholegrains page notes: ‘there is currently no advice on what amount of wholegrains to eat in the UK…’ The Eatwell Plate guide says: ‘Eat plenty of starchy carbohydrates [...] Choose wholegrain varieties [...] for more fibre, vitamins and minerals.’ Despite this vagueness, the BDA page notes: ‘surveys show that 95% of adults don’t eat enough wholegrains and nearly one in three of us get none at all.’ 

The BDA continues: ‘many experts in other countries say to aim for three servings a day.’  Examples of a serving that the BDA gives include: half of either a wholemeal tortilla or pitta; and one piece of medium-sliced bread. For some reason, for the latter the BDA doesn’t specify wholemeal, but also includes: ‘granary [sic.], wheatgerm, wholemeal mixed/multi grain or seeded breads’.

Are there any downsides?

For the vast majority of us, eating wholemeal Real Bread is a good thing. ‘However people who suffer from digestive diseases sometimes have a tricky relationship with fibre,’ as the charity Guts UK points out. These conditions include Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and diverticular disease.

This isn’t medical advice, or a blanket ‘sourdough bread is more digestible’ type claim, but: some people who have conditions that are triggered or aggravated by FODMAPs and/or wholegrain foods, find that their symptoms are reduced (or do not occur) after they eat genuine sourdough bread. Read more.

Phytate

Phytate (a mineral salt of phytic acid) is a plant’s main storage of phosphate. It is mainly concentrated in the cases of grains, pulses and other seeds – such as bran. It is sometimes known as an ‘antinutrient’ because it has an affinity for chelating (bonding with) calcium, iron and zinc, which makes them less bioavailable; meaning it’s harder for your body to absorb them.

So, even though wholegrain foods are higher in these micronutrients, your body can’t make use of 100% of them. While the digestive systems of some animals produce high levels the enzyme phytase, which breaks down phytic acid, ours doesn’t. Research suggests that sourdough fermentation might lead to increased phytase activity, which can reduce levels of phytic acid and so. Read more.

Coeliac disease, allergy and intolerance

While people with coeliac disease need to eliminate gluten from their diets, and people with a wheat allergy/intolerance should avoid wheat, Real Bread can be made from other grains. (We'd love to publish more wheat / gluten free wholegrain Real Bread recipes, if you've created one you'd be happy for us to share!)

White bread vs. wholemeal UPF

How do the known health benefits of wholegrain foods play off against the known (and possible) health risks of HFSS (high in fat, salt or sugar) food and ultra processed food (UPF)?*

There is much evidence that excess salt, sugars and fats (particularly saturated) are not good for human health. More recently, a number of studies have linked UPF to a range of increased health risks. What we’ve been unable to find are any comparative studies of risks and benefits. For example, is a wholemeal loaf that’s high in salt more or less beneficial for you than a white loaf that’s low in salt? Is a wholemeal but additive-laced Chorleywood Process industrial dough product better or worse for you than long-fermented genuine sourdough bread made from white flour? To repeat one of our mantras: much more research is needed. (If you have conducted - or can direct us to - any, please drop us a line.)

*While many industrial food products fall into both categories, not all HFSS foods are ultra-processed and vice versa.

Flavour and aroma

Does bread made from wholemeal or white/refined flour taste and smell ‘better’? Objectively, the wholemeal has higher levels of flavour and aroma compounds – it smells and tastes more like the flour from which it was milled. Subjectively, some people prefer these deep, rich robust flavours, others prefer the flavour profile of bread made from non-wholemeal flours. The flavour will also be affected by variables in the bread making process, including how the dough is proved and at what temperature; as well as baking times and temperature.

Using more of what we grow

According to UK Flour Millers (a trade body that represents most of the industry), the extraction rate of roller-milled white flour is typically around the 75% mark. This would mean that 15% of each tonne of wheat milled ends up somewhere other than in a bag of flour. They say that in 2020/21, UK mills processed about 6 million tonnes of wheat, of which 15% would be 900,000 tonnes. They actually reported that 4.7 million tonnes of flour was produced, suggesting that even more wheat went walkies. Imagine all that artificial fertiliser, pesticide, fuel and other climate/environment damaging petrochemical inputs (not to mention human time and effort) for what?

Now, milling ‘by products’ can be used: bran in animal feed, germ/vitamin E in cosmetics and nutritional supplements, for example. The wheat usage figures UK Flour Millers give are: 80% flour, 18% animal feed, 1.6% bran and germ. They claim that their members’ actual wastage is around 0.3-0.4%, which would have been about 18,000-24,000 tonnes of wheat in 2020/21. Wouldn’t it be good to see more of the time, energy and other inputs that have been invested, going straight into our bellies, rather than pig nuts, facecream and compost, though?

The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and The Food Climate Research Network's joint 2016 report Plates, pyramids and planets, comments: ‘much of the advice offered in mainstream [food based dietary guidelines] - for example to increase consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, to limit red and processed meat consumption and to maintain energy balance – is also likely to lead to reduced environmental impacts.’ 

Composition and labelling

The term wholegrain doesn’t necessarily mean that a food is made from only 100% extraction rate flour, or other wholegrain ingredients. It might just mean that an amount of unrefined flour / grain has been added.

In some countries, use of the term whole grain / wholegrain in food labelling and marketing is regulated. For instance, in the USA 51% by weight of the dry ingredients must be unrefined grain. The European Food Information Council’s Switch to Whole Grains website lists other examples.

In the UK, however, it’s more or less a free-for-all. Though there’s official encouragement for us all to eat more wholegrain foods (and despite our ongoing Honest Crust Act lobbying) there isn’t a legal definition of wholegrain, or even governmental guidance on use of the term. As long as there are a few seeds or a bit of bran in a product. It seems that a manufacturer can slap the word on pretty much anything and it’s unlikely that consumer protection bodies will stop them profiting from appropriating the health halo of wholegrain. See our 2013 report A Wholegrain of Truth?

Always read the label

Unless clearly stated otherwise, it’s fairly safe to assume that bread or an industrial dough product sold in the UK is made from refined / non-wholemeal flour, meaning that some or all of the bran and germ has been stripped away. The the UK, none of the following terms necessarily means that a product was made from 100% wholemeal flour:

• wholegrain
• wheat flour
• multigrain
• whole wheat
• brown
• seeded
• ancient grain
• malthouse
• stone ground
• Granary (this is a H*vis trademark, by the way.)

Even when wholemeal flour, or another wholegrain ingredient, appears on the list, keep an eye on what else has been used and how much. Does it contain additives? What about levels of salt, and any added fats or sugars? As well as the ingredients list, take a look at the nutritional information panel, which will also tell you how much fibre there is.

Wholemeal

Brits are better protected from misuse of the word wholemeal, though we have concerns about enforcement of the law. While The Bread and Flour Regulations (1998) should prevent the word wholemeal being used to name and market a product unless all of the flour is wholemeal, they don't prevent manufacturers diluting that flour with added wheat gluten, which is about as highly refined as you can get. Refined soya flour can also be added because, for the purposes of the regulations, it isn’t considered to be flour as it’s not milled from wheat.* 

In June 2022, the Real Bread Campaign found eight well-known UK companies using the word wholemeal to market industrial dough products manufactured with up to 50% non-wholemeal flour. In July 2023, we discovered six companies using non-wholemeal flour in other products marketed using the word wholemeal.

In January 2024, Defra assured the Real Bread Campaign that the government would issue guidance sometime that year, though in October 2024, this became less certain.

*Which begs the question: if the law doesn’t consider powdered soy beans to be flour, then why is it legal to list it as ‘soya flour’ on the label…

QUIDs in

If an ingredient is included in a product name or label (including descriptions and images) then a quantitative ingredient declaration (QUID) is required. For example, the ingredients list of a ‘wholegrain rye bread’ would have to show the percentage (by weight) of wholegrain rye flour used to make it.

Flour additives

Another giveaway in the UK is that all non-wholemeal wheat flour sold here must have so-called fortificants added and they must be declared on the label. When wheat flour on an ingredients list is followed by brackets containing iron etc, it’s not wholemeal flour. That said, it can instead mean that the product was made outside the UK – a secret tip there for blowing the cover of imported loaf tanning salon white loaves marketed with claims like ‘freshly baked in store today’. 

Stone ground vs. roller milled

Most flour in the UK is roller milled. This process involves stripping grain down into many separate streams / fractions, which are then re-combined in varying proportions to create different flours. By law, wholemeal flour should be all of the fractions recombined in their original proportions. We have often heard that this isn't always the case, though have never seen any evidence to prove these claims. Brown and white flours will have little, if any, germ or bran in them.

Traditional stone milling involves crushing the grain between two circular stones - one fixed and one rotating. Wholemeal flour is what comes out of the other end - well, out of the side. To produce lighter-coloured flour, some of the bran is sifted out, but there will always be particles of fobrous bran and nutritious germ, even in the lowest extraction stoneground flour.

It has been suggested that stone milling is cooler and 'gentler' than roller milling, so preserves more / destroys less of the micronutrient value. We've not seen evidence that this is the reason. Roller mills tend to be chilled (while stones can run very warm, or even hot) and your oven is going to do more damage to anything heat sensitive than any mill will.

Why isn’t 100% wholemeal a Real Bread criterion?

We’ve always advocated making and enjoying Real Bread from wholemeal flour and other whole grain ingredients. The main reasons that we’ve not focused on this as much as we might’ve done is that there are other (much better funded) organisations – and governmental departments - flying that fibrous flag. Instead, we generally concentrate on issues that get far less attention. 

Recipes

Wholemeal and other wholegrain Real Bread.

• Easy wholemeal bread
• Wakelyns' wholemeal sourdough
• Wholemeal sourdough bread
• Seçkin Işik's sourdough rye
• Karaway’s seeded rye
• Ruisleipä
• Chickpea bread
• Staffordshire oatcakes
• Chris Stafferton's buckwheat and chia bread
• Andrew Whitley's Lammas Loaf (85% extraction plus whole grains)

Got a wholemeal recipe to share?
We’d love to add more Real Bread recipes made from / using whole grain ingredients. If you’ve created one (or your version of one) that you’d be happy for us to publish, please email the text and a photo (2:3 aspect ratio, at least 1200px wide by 800px high) to us. We’re particularly keen to add to our A to Z of Real Bread.

See also

• Wholemeal: better bred bread
• Why queue for YQ?
• Barley vous?
• Let's make Britain grain again!
• Grassroots grain Britain
• Wheat shortage? use more of it!
• Freeze!
• The flour of youth
• Fans of the daily grind
• Sprout, sprout, let it all out…

External links

• Oldways Whole Grains Council
• Whole Grains Initiative
• Grains & Legumes Nutrition Council