Is spelt healthier than wheat?
You stay well away from wheat. After all, it makes you ridiculously fat and it’s so unhealthy. At lunchtime, you only eat spelt crackers. Is that really the healthiest choice?
All the fit boys and girls stopped eating wheat ages ago. No, spelt is the way to go. Like wheat, spelt is a type of grain. A few years ago, it was ‘discovered’ by all the healthy bitches because it contains less gluten than wheat. However, that doesn’t mean spelt is completely gluten-free. But does that mean spelt is healthier? I asked health coach Mara van Gameren.
Hardly any nutritional value
“Whether it’s wheat or spelt, it all comes from a grain plant. So when it comes to health, it makes absolutely no difference. The most important thing is to eat whole-grain products, and most spelt products in the supermarket aren’t whole grain. In most cases, the outer layer containing all the vitamins and minerals has been removed, which means they also contain hardly any nutritional value. For example, you can get spelt pitas, but they’re completely white. Not a bit healthier than their white wheat brother.”
Supermarkets picked up spelt as a buzzword long ago, so the shelves are packed with it. Spelt to mix into your yogurt, spelt bread or spelt cake. At Appie and Dirk, they sell spelt twists: a kind of greasy cheese croissant, but made with spelt dough. So you might as well just get a regular cheese croissant, guys.
Take a critical look
“People should simply look critically at all the ingredients in a product, rather than blindly assuming that spelt is the healthier option. If it says the product is made from whole-spelt flour, you’re good, but whole-wheat flour, rice or another whole-grain product is just as healthy. They all contain complex carbohydrates, which means your body has to work hard to digest them. As a result, you feel full for longer and don’t experience an energy spike or crash.”
Above all, just eat what you enjoy, but if you’re doing it for your health, you absolutely don’t need to choose spelt. Next time, take a little longer to consider your ‘conscious’ choice by checking the ingredients list. That way, you won’t end up rolling through life as round as a barrel, thinking you were dieting.
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