White bread ‘is good for kids’

New research by Irish scientists has shown that white bread is good for children.

According to the study by the Irish Universities Nutrition Alliance (IUNA) despite many parents believing that white bread is nutritionally poor, white bread contains fibre, calcium, iron and folic acid – all essential parts of a child’s diet.

In fact, white bread is one of the top three main sources of fibre in the diets of young children, accounting for one-fifth of a child’s daily intake. The rest comes from rice/grain/cereals (28%) and fruit and vegetables (24%).

The study also found that eating white bread could account for 10% of a child’s recommended calcium intake.

Dr Louise Sullivan, spokesperson for the Irish Bread Bakers Association said the IUNA study proves that ordinary white bread actually makes an important contribution to the overall quality of children’s diets, providing a range of B vitamins, calcium, iron, fibre and a good source of carbohydrate - vital for growing, active bodies.

“In addition to all of the positive nutrients that white bread provides, it is one of the lowest fat products that children consume, contributing only 1% of their total dietary fat intake. It’s therefore perhaps unsurprising that there is no link between body weight and increased white bread consumption in children,” Dr Sullivan said.

“While it’s true that brown or wholemeal bread offers some extra fibre, parents can be confident that white bread still contributes significant amounts of this nutrient, while giving their kids just as much calcium, iron and folic acid,” she added.

Irish Health