The Best Breads for Steady Blood Sugar

Good news, you don’t have to quit bread for steadier blood sugar.

Here’s some good news for anyone who’s been told to swear off the bread basket: you probably don’t have to. Finding the best bread for blood sugar mostly comes down to which loaf you choose. Some breads barely touch your glucose, while others — including a few marketed as wholesome — send it climbing. The difference comes down to how the bread is made.

What You Should Know About Bread and Blood Sugar

Many carb-conscious eaters think bread and blood sugar spikes go hand in hand, and that all breads are created equal. But the key player here is the glycemic index, or GI, which is a measure of how quickly a food raises your blood sugar. White bread lands pretty high on that scale, with a GI of around 71, but the type of bread and how it’s prepared change that number. A fermented sourdough loaf and a highly-processed white one sit in completely different places on the GI scale, even with the exact same number of carbs — which means the seemingly healthy “whole wheat” loaf made with finely milled flour could sky-rocket your blood sugar, while the right loaf leaves your glucose untouched.

Going Deeper on the Best Breads for Blood Sugar

Sprouted grain, whole wheat, sourdough, and rye breads rank at the top of the market for gentlest on your blood sugar, according to Lauren Panoff, MPH, RD, who built out a list for Verywell Health. But there are quite a few varieties you can swap in for your sugar-spiking white loaves:

• Sprouted-grain bread: Sprouting breaks down some of the starch before the bread is even baked, so there’s less starch remaining to convert to sugar.
• 100% whole wheat: The version of whole wheat that actually helps your blood sugar has visible oats, barley, or wheat berries. These intact grains take longer to break down, so glucose releases more gradually.
• Real sourdough: The long fermentation process here lowers the blood sugar response. Sourdough lands around a GI of 54 vs. white bread’s 71. The live bacteria create acids that slow down digestion regardless of the flour used.
• 100% rye (or dark rye): Dark rye (not light rye) is denser and higher in soluble fiber than wheat bread, so it digests slower than processed grains.
• Seeded multigrain: The fiber and fat in the seeds temper the rise in blood sugar.
• High-protein or grain-free: Breads made with almond, coconut, or chickpea flour (or with added pea or soy protein) have fewer digestible carbs and more protein per slice.
• Oat or barley: Both of these have lots of beta-glucans, which is a fiber that forms a gel in your gut and slows down sugar absorption.

Some grocery store “sourdough” skips actual fermentation and just adds vinegar for that tangy flavor though, so be careful if you’re looking for sourdough at your local market. To find sourdough with the blood-sugar benefit, look for “naturally leavened” on the label or buy from a traditional bakery.

The Takeaway

Experts say to reach for genuinely fermented breads like real sourdough, or a dense 100% whole-grain loaf. Pairing your slice with protein and fiber — like eggs or avocado, rather than jam alone — slows the rise even more. And portion still counts, no matter the quality of the bread.

When you’re reading bread labels, look for at least 3-5 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein per slice, make sure a 100% whole grain (oats, whole rye, sprouted grain, or whole wheat) is the first ingredient, and check that added sugars sit toward the end of the list. Also glance at the serving size — some labels are calculated per slice and others per two.

Bottom Line

Different types of bread affect your blood sugar in different ways. And continuous-glucose data shows people can even react differently to the very same loaf of bread. GI values are lab averages that won’t perfectly predict your personal response, and labels can be misleading. Bread can absolutely slot into a blood-sugar-friendly diet — it’s mostly a matter of which one ends up on your plate.