Fewer Carbs in Flatbread?

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Created on 01, August, 2009

In an online news article a dieting chef recommends making sandwiches on flatbread rather than regular bread to reduce carbohydrates. 

Just because something takes up less space doesn’t mean it has fewer calories or carbohydrates. Equal weight portions of pita, for example, and French bread have almost identical calorie and carbohydrate content (56 g carbohydrate per 100 g bread). This is because both are made mostly of flour and water. The only thing that would change the percentage of calories coming from carbohydrate would be use of whole grains (adds more fiber and protein, which would be replacing some digestible carbohydrate), or adding fat (which makes the bread heavier, increasing the percentage of calories from fat and decreasing that from carbs, but this would also increase total calories on a weight basis). A better “diet trick” is to simply use smaller pieces of bread, whether flat or not, and make sure they contain whole grains (and of course cut back on spreads and fatty meats/cheese, which also will decrease sodium significantly).