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Table 3 Comparisons of the nutrient levels of the “heart healthy bread” loafs with commercial breads (nutrients and costs, all values per 100 g unless indicated otherwise)

From: Designing low-cost “heart healthy bread”: optimization using linear programing and 15-country comparison

Nutrient/cost component White breads (n = 15 countries) HHB$1.5 Rank of HHB$1.5a Breads with seeds/nuts (n = 6 countries) HHB$3 Rank of HHB$3a
  Median IQR    Median IQR   
Eight heart health relevant characteristics b
 Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) 0.10 0.05 – 0.17 0.08 6/8 1.19 0.64 – 1.44 2.62 1/3
 Total polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) (g) 0.66 0.51 – 1.33 0.52 10=/14 4.52 2.98 – 5.73 4.19 4/6
 Total saturated fatty acids (SFA) (g) 0.40 0.29 – 0.70 0.14 2/13 1.25 0.89 – 1.83 0.62 5/6
 Ratio PUFA/SFA 2.1 1.7 – 2.5 3.7 3/13 4.4 3.0 – 4.7 6.8 1/6
 Sodium (mg) 498 457 – 528 309 1/15 464 437 – 472 231 1/6
 Potassium (mg) 130 115 – 157 561 1/15 220 195 – 277 647 1/6
 Ratio of potassium to sodium 0.3 0.2 – 0.3 1.8 1/15 0.5 0.4 – 0.6 2.8 1/6
 Dietary fiber (g) 3.1 2.6 – 4.3 4.8 4/15 5.2 4.3 – 5.4 8.1 1/6
Other micronutrients         
 Calcium (mg) 97 54 – 110 23 14/15 40 37 – 43 51 2/6
 Folate (mcg) (including synthetic forms in some fortified white breads) 30 27 – 41 65 3/12 52 44 – 57 83 2/6
 Iodide (mcg) 3.8 1.2 – 6.0 40.0 1/8 5.3 3.1 – 16.2 29.6 2/6
 Iron (mg) 1.6 1.1 – 2.5 2.2 5/14 1.7 1.4 – 2.7 2.8 2/6
 Selenium (mcg) 5.8 2.6 – 14.3 3.0 8/10 5.2 4.1 – 8.0 6.4 3/6
 Zinc (mg) 0.8 0.7 – 1.0 1.4 1=/13 1.4 1.1 – 1.9 1.9 3/6
Selected other macronutrients
 Dietary energy (kJ) 1047 1026 – 1169 951 2/14 (if low is best) 1188 1168 – 1291 1036 2/5 (if low is best)
 Protein (g) 8.4 8.3 – 9.1 7.4 14/15 10.6 9.5 – 11.6 8.8 6/6
 Sugars (total) (g) 3.5 1.7 – 4.8 0.5 2/10 2.2 1.45 – 3.4 0.6 2/5
Cost (relevant to food security) c
 Cost per 100 g of loaf (US$) 0.28 0.21 – 0.34 0.10 2/15 0.73 0.64 – 0.95 0.17 1/5
 Cost per 1000 kJ of food energy (US$) 0.17 0.12 – 0.20 0.11 4=/14 0.34 0.33 – 0.38 0.20 2/5
  1. aIndicative rank in terms of the best values from a health perspective and food security perspective (some of these ranks could change with a larger sample of comparison breads). From an energy security perspective, low cost per kJ is best. But in terms of weight control, low kJ per 100 g (low energy density) is probably best. Of note is that the nutrient data in some of the national databases had some gaps e.g., for ALA and iodide (both only 8 of the 15 databases for white bread)
  2. bSome of these nutrient characteristics overlap to some extent (e.g., the two ratios reflect the amounts of the two relevant components)
  3. cHHB costing based on supermarket prices for ingredients and no other production costs. See Table 4 for more details on possible mass production costs
  4. For specific nutrient and price methods details for each country see Supplementary Information
  5. IQR interquartile range
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BMC Nutrition

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