This slice of bread looks grainy and healthy, doesn’t it? It’s brown, contains various seeds and kernels, and even has oats sprinkled into the top of the loaf.

But if you read the ingredients, you see that the bread is not actually 100% whole grain. Whole wheat flour is the first ingredient – a good start – but the next ingredient after water is “unbleached wheat flour” a.k.a. white refined flour.

The fact that the bread contains some white flour doesn’t necessarily make it a bad choice, and in fact this particular bread boasts pretty good nutritionals:

(110 calories, 3 grams of fiber, and even a few grams of protein – meets my own bread criteria)

So why am I bringing this up?

Because many breads labeled “multi-grain” or “Now with whole grains” contain primarily white refined flour with a just few whole grains or coloring added to make them seem healthier. They don’t have much fiber – or if they do it’s synthetic fiber, not naturally occurring fiber from grains – or protein, or the vitamins and minerals that are naturally present in whole grain kernels.

When you buy bread, read the ingredients list to make sure that whole grains comprise the majority of the list, so you can maximize the nutrients in the bread you eat.