The Telegraph analysed 15 wholemeal and brown loaves offered by significant supermarkets, as effectively as their equivalent white products.
All of the loaves contain sugars which naturally happen in the bread. Even so, extra sugar was integrated in the components of 10 of the brown and wholemeal loaves.
In five instances the brown or wholemeal loaves contained a type of extra sugar, whilst the white equivalent loaf did not.
Makers said the sugar was required to “mask” the “bitter” taste of wholemeal flour, insisting the ingredient appeared only in “negligible” amounts.
However, Dr Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist and science director of Action on Sugar, a campaign group, stated: “There is that there is definitely no necessity for extra sugar and it must not be incorporated as any component of a balanced diet regime – just an occasional treat which we can all get pleasure from.”
He extra: “Brown bread is believed to be more healthy than white bread due to the fact of the fibre but the amounts of sugar in some of these products is alarming.
“The principal aim of Action On Sugar is to get the foods sector to reduce added sugar by forty per cent in the up coming 4 many years which will halt the weight problems epidemic. As this investigation has revealed brown bread is undoubtedly no exception.”
Ian Marber, a nutritionist, mentioned: “It is notably surprising to locate added sugar in wholemeal loaves as they have a ‘healthier’ aura.
“As sugar looks to be added to mainly brown wholemeal loaves I can not help asking yourself if it is been added to sell more. Wholemeal includes a little far more fibre than white bread and so it is considered superior from a nutritional viewpoint. To some extent the addition of sugar counteracts that.”
The findings come soon after a separate evaluation by The Telegraph earlier this month located that a lot of reduced excess fat meals promoted as healthier-eating choices contained more sugar than their “full fat” equivalents – in some circumstances more than five times as considerably. A research of 100 popular reduced or non-body fat grocery items from main supermarkets discovered that dozens contained at least two teaspoons of total sugar in a single serving.
In total 31 sorts of bread were surveyed as element of the new examination. Of the 15 white loaves which were analysed, only four contained added sugar, with the remainder only containing sugar that occurs naturally in the bread.
The 5 wholemeal loaves which contained extra sugar when their white equivalents did not included Hovis’ wholemeal bread, which includes added caramelised sugar, Warburtons’ wholemeal, which consists of dextrose, and Kingsmill “great everyday” wholemeal, which appears to contain much more sugar than yeast.
Some bread ranges incorporated extra sugar in each the wholemeal and white varieties, such as Jackson’s “Yorkshire’s champion” farmhouse loaves and Asda’s wheat-free of charge bread.
A spokesman for Hovis said: “Sugar is only additional to component of our variety, and it is only extra to counteract the bitterness from the bran and to make the product far more palatable.
“The tips from nutritionists is to eat wholemeal bread, due to the benefits of wholegrain consumption and fibre ranges in wholemeal bread. Including a small sugar indicates that much more men and women are most likely to make the move to wholemeal. This is why we do it.”
A spokesman for Warburtons explained: “Wholemeal bread recipes, be it for baking at residence or in a massive bakery, include a tiny sugar to mask the bitter taste of the wholemeal flour. It is a negligible volume.
“In reality, the average individual would have to consume about a hundred slices of bread or 5 loaves a day to get anywhere close to consuming the Guideline Every day Volume of sugar. All Warburtons breads are low in sugar and supply customers with distinct nutrients this kind of as fibre, calcium, iron and B nutritional vitamins which are all vital in our diet plans.”
A spokesman for Kingsmill explained: “Our Kingsmill Tasty Wholemeal bread does have a quite tiny sum of additional sugar in the recipe to assist round out the more bitter notes in wholemeal – but with just four.3g of sugar per 100g of bread, this is still a minimal-sugar meals.
“We are aware that as a nation we need to have to minimize back on our sugar consumption but bread is not a major source of sugar in the Uk diet program. Kingsmill has adopted the Government’s front-of-pack colour coding scheme and all of our breads are rated as ‘green’ for sugars.”
How much sugar is in your "healthy" brown and wholemeal bread?
