Doctor shares simple hack to make white bread healthier: ‘This is the life advice I need!’
Get a loaf of this.
Dr. Karan Raj, a UK National Health Service surgeon and author, has shocked his TikTok followers by revealing a hack to make white bread healthier.
While dietitians usually recommend axing white bread because it contains additives that cause large blood sugar spikes, Raj says freezing, thawing and then toasting a slice transforms its make-up — and its effect on your body.
“If you take a slice of white bread and toast it, you end up lowering the Glycemic Index of the bread,” Raj explained in a viral clip on his TikTok account @dr.karanr, with over 812,000 views. “This means it’s broken down more slowly, causing a more gradual rise in blood sugar levels.
The Glycemic Index (GI) is a measure used to determine how much a food can affect your blood sugar levels, described Healthline.
Foods with high GI, including white bread, white rice and potatoes, cause an unhealthy spike in blood sugar levels.
In his clip, posted on Mar. 31, Raj explained in a step-by-step fashion how to lower the GI level of white bread.
“If you take a slice of white bread and then freeze it, and then defrost it and toast it again, you could lower the Glycemic Index of the bread by almost double,” Raj said.
Food such as white bread, white rice, bagels, doughnuts and packaged breakfast cereals have a high GI, according to Harvard Health Publishing.
“This all happens because more retrograded starch is formed, and retrograded starch is a type of resistant starch which is beneficial for your gut health because it acts more like a fiber,” Raj said.
The TikTok doc’s hack had many viewers wondering whether they could add white bread back into their diet.
“Wait, frozen bread—[are you] saying as a diabetic I can eat bread again?” one woman wondered.
“I always freeze my bread for toasting, so there’s no waste. Didn’t realize it was beneficial,” another TikTok user declared.
“This is the life advice I need!” a third viewer cheered.
While other watchers were fascinated by the bread hack, one viewer wondered whether freezing, thawing and reheating other food items would have a similar effect.
“Refrigerating pasta and rice and reheating it the next day reduces sugars?????? True or false,” one asked.
“Pasta absolutely, heated again has way better glycemic index,” one responded. “I’m guessing rice too, but make sure you cool and store it fast, never let it sit long in room temp.”
And The New York Times would agree.
In an article published last year, the publication claimed that letting cooked pasta or rice cool in the refrigerator overnight transform natural starches into resistant starches.
Those starches are linked to lower blood sugar, better gut health, and reduced cancer risk.
Since resistant starches aren’t easily digested, they don’t increase your blood sugar as much as regular starch does, one expert told The Times.
