'Bread in India is a big joke': Brown, multigrain varieties aren't healthy, says Food Pharmer

Screengrabs from the video shared by Food Pharmar.

Revant Himatsingka aka Food Pharma, the social media influencer who highlighted the high sugar content in Bournvita prompting a legal notice against him by Cadbury, has now taken to put the spotlight on whether brown and multigrain bread is indeed a healthier option as compared to white bread.

"Bread in India is a big joke!" Himatsingka said. "There are two types of bread in India. One which is openly unhealthy (white bread), and the second type (brown, multigrain, wholewheat) which pretend to be healthy when they are not!"

Taking to Twitter, Himatsingka added that consumption of bread has increased significantly over the last few decades which aggravates the problems created by eating bread.

"Till a few decades ago, bread wasn't as common in India. But now it is commonly used by Indians for breakfast sandwiches, school tiffins, and snacks!" the Food Pharma tweeted. "If you have 2 slices of bread a day, you have more than 700 slices in a year. Make sure you pick the right one!"

Explaining white bread is made up of maida or refined flour which has very little nutritional value, he said, "The maida is created by polishing the wheat which removes its layers of fiber."

Bread in India is a big joke! There are two types of bread in India. One which is openly unhealthy (white bread), and the second type (brown, multigrain, wholewheat) which pretend to be healthy when they are not!

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Till a few decades ago, bread wasn't as common in India. But now… pic.twitter.com/8yOQsG7jKn

— Revant Himatsingka “Food Pharmer” (@thefoodpharmer) July 22, 2023

"Brown bread in India is also not healthy," Himatsingka said in his video showing how the brown colour of the bread is achieved through colour and not because it is made up of wheat flour. "They are brown because of a caramel colour 150A. This caramel colour is similar to the colour in Coca Cola and Bournvita."

Speaking about the third variety -- multigrain bread -- the food influencer said that it too was not made of only wheat flour. "According to FSSAI, ingredients are listed in order of weight. Most whole-wheat breads have maida as the first ingredient and use very less whole wheat." He then pointed out that a particular variety of whole-wheat bread had only 20 percent whole wheat.

"They just add a little bit of whole wheat so they can call themselves whole wheat bread," Revant Himatsingka said. "Multigrain bread also does not mean it's healthy. It just means that it has more than one grain. Most multigrain breads in India are also mainly made up of maida," he added pointing to a particular brand of bread that has more maida than wheat flour since the refined flour was mentioned first in its list of ingredients.

Advising people to opt for wheat flour rotis instead of bread, the Food Pharmer added that if people still want to continue eating processed bread, they should check the ingredients listed on the packet and avoid varieties that have maida, palm oil and preservatives such as those available from local bakers.

Read more: Influencer deletes video on Bournvita’s high sugar content after legal notice from Cadbury