Posts Tagged ‘vs’

Surprise: White bread isn’t good!

Taste

For a start there is a difference in taste – after all if brown bread and white bread tasted the same then we’d probably all choose the healthier option for breakfast.  Brown bread can be quite an interesting taste experience if you’ve spent the last 3 decades chewing on the white stuff.

A good idea if you are thinking of making the exchange from white to brown is to take it slowly.  If you make a sudden move for the brown you might be put off but if you work your way through the steps, stopping at all the breads in between white and brown, then you should find that brown bread is actually the way forward.  Give light rye a try and work from there…

No Nutritional Value

White bread is made from wheat flour and is bran and germ free – as you can imagine these are the nutritional bits that you won’t be getting with your morning egg soldiers.

White bread falls short when it comes to the likes of zinc, thiamine, fibre, niacin, and trace elements and not to mention our old favourites the “good” fats and oils that we need in our daily diet.

Bleached

So what’s left in the white bread?  Flour of course…but don’t get on your high horse just yet!  The flour that’s left in the bread is bleached using oxidising agents that could actually kill you if you were to swallow them, inhale them or rub them on your skin – you’re eating it!

The people at the bakery will be throwing in anything from Potassium Salt, Bromic Acid, Potassium Bromate, Benzoyl Peroxide or Chlorine Dioxide – a cocktail of hazardous chemicals that you would stick your nose up at if you saw at your local Asda.

Brown doesn’t mean brown!

So you might be thinking that you are one of the good guys munching on your ‘brown bread’ – well don’t be tricked…just because it says ‘brown bread’ doesn’t necessarily mean it is any different to white bread!

Real brown bread is whole wheat or wholemeal.  Check out the ingredients on the side of the packet and make sure you know exactly what you’re putting into your mouth.  If you see enriched/wheat flour then forget it – this is exactly the same stuff they chuck into white bread so you won’t be getting all the added benefits of the wholemeal goodness!

As a basic rule of thumb the few ingredients the better so keep that in mind the next time you’re out shopping for bread.

White or Brown?

What do you choose when you have a sandwich?  Do you reach for the white or do you go down the healthier route and go wholemeal?  Leave us a comment and let us know…

Yesterday we sparked the debate that is raging on through the streets of all the major cities around the world – paper books vs Ebooks!  We looked at the paper book’s argument and although it had some good points it’s time to give Ebooks a chance to speak out…

Ebook argument;

Pros

•    Easy to read – you can zoom about, move the page about and do a lot of funky stuff with the electronic page.  It’s basically a tool to help you to read so you can imagine that you can do pretty much anything with it to do with reading…they do say that technology is supposed to make our lives easier.

•    Even more portable than a book – if you thought a book was portable then you really have no idea how much you will love carrying an Ebook around.  An Ebook is made up of 1s and 0s and you can fit hundreds in your pocket – obviously there’s no way to know what size reader you have but if you have a relatively small one then you could be carrying all the books you could want in your pocket!

•    Think about the trees! – there are no poor trees being knocked down to provide the paper for you to read off…by backing Ebooks you will be doing something great for the environment which could save you getting a cup of green “custard” thrown in your face…

•    Make note – unlike paper books you can make notes on Ebooks and you don’t have to worry about ruining the book for the rest of time.

Cons

•    My eyes… - Did your mum ever tell you that watching television for too long will make your eyes go square?  Reading an Ebook can be quite difficult on the eyes – you may find you will  need to take breaks to rest your eyes and that isn’t something that you want to factor into your reading time.

•    Where’s the power? – with a paper book there isn’t that nagging issue of battery usage.  With an Ebook you will be constantly worried about how much longer your battery will last and if you will reach page 314 in time – STRESS!

•    Portability is an issue again – Some people read Ebooks on their laptops…would you rather carry around a paper book or a laptop?  Spilling coffee onto a book can be annoying…spilling coffee onto your laptop can ruin your week!

•    Where are they – There is always the issue that they aren’t readily available, unlike paper books.  Where are they being sold?  Ebooks aren’t exactly taking off like the mighty DVD so for the Ebook to be successful they need to start appearing in more places otherwise just forget it!

So what shall we do? I vote that we should stick with our traditional paper books and leave Ebooks to the bargain bin of the Internet – I don’t think anything can beat reading a book by an open fire with a cup of hot chocolate – technology can’t really make up for tradition in this case.

Maybe you don’t agree – I’m sure not everyone does!  Let us know what you think about the debate and which format you are backing…

There is a war raging on between books and Ebooks – who do you think is going to win?  Each format allows you to do pretty much the same thing – read.  However which one do you think will be the one that will be picked up by popular demand over the next few years: paper vs binary…

Paper argument;

Pros

•    They can be picked up anywhere, from Borders to WHSmiths – we know where to get books from.  How many places could you name that sell Ebooks?
•    Books aren’t exactly heavy – sure if you have about 10 huge library books that you need to cart across a 3 mile journey then maybe books aren’t your best friend.  But say you have one book that you want to read – slip it in your bag and you can forget about it until you arrive at Starbucks, then you can open it in seconds and be immersed in the story.
•    There’s no eye strain involved – when you spend all day in front of a computer screen do you really want to spend the night sat in front of another computer screen containing your book?  Don’t you think a nice paper book would be able to provide a bit of relief?
•    Check the battery – you won’t need to with a book.  You don’t have to plug it in, worry about updating the software or thinking that if might break if you drop it…it’s just a book, plain and simple!

Cons

•    Books can be heavy – As I say above books aren’t exactly heavy, but actually they are if you have more than 3.  We’re all used to gigabytes now and we all know that we’d rather carry a USB pen compared to 10 large books.
•    I can’t see – if you’re in a dark room then forget trying to read your book.  You need a light to read a paper book and when there isn’t one there isn’t much you can do – have you ever tried to read a book in a car at night and you’re constantly trying to catch the light from the lampposts but it’s whooshing past and you’re basically not reading anything?
•    Don’t bend that spine – if you want to write in your book, bend a page or crack the spine then you have made a decision that you won’t be able to go back and change.  You won’t be un-creasing that page or rubbing out that pen scribbling.  You’ll be stuck with it!

Paper books have provided their argument…but what do you think?  If you want to hear Ebook’s argument then stay tuned to the site because we’re going to deal with the other side of the battle tomorrow…

Are you pro-paper or do you think that you want to bring Ebooks to the masses?  Let us know…