7 Low-Calorie Breads You Can Buy, According to a Nutritionist
Between 40 to 60 calories per slice, these are the healthiest low-calorie breads you can buy.
Lower-calorie foods and breads are popping up on supermarket shelves. However, not all lower-calorie breads are good for you. Find out what low-calorie bread really means, how to select lower-calorie breads and some of our favorite loaves to buy now.
What Is Low-Calorie Bread?
The term "low calorie" is defined by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as 40 calories or less per reference amount customarily consumed. In layman's terms, low calorie means 40 calories or less per serving. For most brands on the market, packaging indicates that one slice is a serving.
Keep in mind, low-calorie bread does not automatically mean the bread is low-carb. When the nutrition facts panel on bread indicates that it's low in calories, that doesn't mean it's necessarily low in carbs. The same is true if the bread is low in carbs; that doesn't mean that the bread is low in calories, as it can be made with ingredients other than carbs. When looking for low-calorie bread, always read the label to make sure you're getting what you're looking for.
How to Choose Healthy Lower-Calorie Bread
A typical slice of store-bought bread has about 100 to 110 calories. It's tough to find low-calorie bread that’s 40 calories or less per slice, so it's reasonable to opt for a lower-calorie bread with around 60 calories per slice.
Fiber is an under-consumed nutrient by all Americans in every life stage. It's recommended to look for 100-percent whole-grain bread in order to meet fiber needs. According to The Nutrition Source at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, dietary fiber intake among US adults is, on average, 15 grams per day. This is about half the amount of the recommended 25 to 30 grams per day from food, not supplements.
You can also find lower-calorie refined bread that is enriched and fortified with B vitamins, iron and folate. This is also important to add to your diet, as these nutrients have been added to refined breads in order to prevent deficiencies. As such, we haven't seen B-vitamin deficiencies in the US since they were added to flour and breads in the 1940s. In addition, in 1998, the FDA implemented mandatory folic acid fortification of enriched cereal grain products, including refined bread. Post-fortification analysis found a 28 percent reduction in neural tube disorder birth prevalence, which is caused by a lack of folate in the diet.
Taste is certainly something you should consider when purchasing lower-calorie breads. Your best bet is to give several brands a try to see which you like best. You can even rotate between several favorites.
7 Lower-Calorie Breads to Try
Below are seven lower-calorie breads that we love. Give one or all a try!
Dave's Killer Bread has a line of thin-sliced bread, a personal favorite of mine. The Powerseed thin-sliced contains per slice 60 calories, four grams of protein, three grams of fiber and two grams of sugar, as it's sweetened with organic fruit juice.
Pepperidge Farm offers a very thin sliced white bread with 40 calories, 1.3 grams of protein, 0 grams of fiber and 0.67 grams of sugar per slice. The white bread uses enriched wheat flour, which means you're getting important B vitamins, iron and folic acid. This line of very thin slices of bread also has a whole wheat option. The nutrition facts panel provides the nutrition information for three slices of bread, so be aware of that when reading the label.
Rudi's Rocky Mountain Bakery has thin-sliced breads, including good old whole-wheat bread with 55 calories, 2.5 grams of protein, two grams of fiber and one gram of sugar per slice. Other thin-sliced options they carry include Rocky Mountain Sourdough, Country Morning White and Honey Sweet 100-Percent Whole Wheat. All of Rudi's thin-sliced breads are USDA organic, vegan, non-GMO and free of preservatives.
This low-calorie, low-carb wheat bread provides 40 calories, two grams of protein, eight grams of fiber and one gram of sugar per slice. Fiber is added as an ingredient, which ups the fiber count per slice and also decreases the net carbs to about six grams per slice. (Net carbs are calculated by subtracting the grams of fiber from the total grams of carbs.) You can also find Schmidt Old Tyme 647 line in white, Italian, multigrain and potato.
Hero Seeded Bread provides 60 calories, six grams of protein, 12 grams of fiber and zero grams of added sugar per slice. It also provides one gram of net carbs. It's a fluffy wheat bread baked with pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and flax seeds that has a hearty, flavorful bite.
This bread provides 50 calories, five grams of protein, eight grams of fiber and zero grams of sugar per slice, with three grams of net carbs. It has a soft, mild flavor similar to traditional white bread, but with a slightly denser texture and distinct nutty, seedy notes. Other options in the keto line include regular keto bread, buns, rolls and sandwich thins.
This lower-calorie bread provides 45 calories, 2.5 grams of protein, 3.5 grams of fiber and 0 grams of sugar per slice. Note that the nutrition facts panel provides information for two slices. The bread is soft and smooth with a mild, nutty flavor. The Delightful line also has multi-grain, honey whole wheat and white with whole grain options available.
Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN, is a registered dietitian and consultant who specializes in food safety and culinary nutrition. She is the author of 10 published cookbooks.
