Great Harvest Bread Company of Denver - BreadHead Blog

Fighting an Uphill Battle

July 25, 2013 Matt Salis - Owner, Great Harvest Bread Co. of Denver

The scene repeats itself daily in our bakery. A smart, healthy looking woman in her 30’s or 40’s dressed in exercise gear and still sweating from a vigorous workout steps up to our cash register and politely asks for a couple of loaves of Honey Whole Wheat. All outward appearances point to her education in general, and now by ordering our top selling 100% whole grain bread with only five ingredients (wheat, honey, yeast, water and salt), she confirms her intelligence at least in the area of nutrition. She has ordered a product that provides nutritious vitamins, plenty of the fiber that our bodies require and is free of processed ingredients. She wants 100% natural, authentic, crap-free bread. This woman is clearly as smart as she looks. This bread combined with her obvious devotion to exercise means she has got it figured out. She is a champion of personal preservation.

Then we offer her a slice of warm, delicious, 100% whole grain bread from our breadboard. “The Whole Grain Sourdough has just come out of the oven,” our smiling bread-head enthusiastically suggests. Our Whole Grain Sourdough has five grams of fiber per slice, is sugar free, is our lowest salt bread, and has fat that comes only from seeds (a great source of fat). And did we mention it is hot right out of the oven? This woman who clearly cares about taking care of herself as is blatantly obvious by both her purchase and her physical activity will be sure to eagerly devour a slice of this natural and nutritious piece of bread heaven.

Then it comes…the reply we most fear for both its shattering of this perfect moment of customer and crew mutual bread fondness and its crushing of our assumption that this woman knows her stuff. Our whole grain bread buying customer says, “No thanks…this bread is for my kids. I never eat bread. Bread and carbs are so fattening. I do not touch the stuff.” No! Not another undereducated, hype believing, ridiculous trend following, fountain of youth grasping, nutritionally mistaken worshiper at the gospel of Atkins and all of his less famous and equally destructive wannabe copycats that are slowing winning the battle against nutritionists, doctors, the FDA and other whole food good doers with their mind warping dribble.

Carbs are bad for you?!? That is like saying air, water and sunshine are bad for your garden. It is exactly like trying to drive your car without any fuel. Gasoline, natural gas, electric – whatever…your car needs one of them to move anywhere except downhill. And downhill is exactly where we are headed with this very popular misconception about carbs in general and our 100% whole grain bread specifically.

Anyone reading this message knows enough about carbs to know not all carbs are created equally. After all, you showed enough interest in the Great Harvest Bread Co. of Denver somewhere along the lines to get on our e-mail list. Anyone who knows anything about us knows that we are a 100% whole grain bakery. In fact, we are pretty sure we are still the only 100% whole grain bakery in the Great Harvest franchise system and the only 100% whole grain bread bakery in Denver. Anyone who has an interest in a 100% whole grain bakery knows that there is a nutritional benefit to whole grains. Maybe your primary interest lies in the great tastes of our bread and sandwiches derived largely from our freshly stone ground whole grains. Maybe you just like our people. Maybe you love to fight traffic and spend all your free time driving up and down South Colorado Boulevard. Whatever the reason that you have an interest in our bakery, we are thankful and honored that you do. We are also pretty confident that you have at least some idea that all carbs are not created equally and that our 100% whole grains have a nutritional competitive advantage over processed carbs and white flour baked goods. I have rambled enough on this subject already and do not need to bore you at this time with metabolic processing rates and the glycemic index and how it relates to complex carbs found in 100% whole grain products versus simple carbs found in nutritionless food junk white bread and processed food garbage. For now, let’s go with the fact that whole grains are good and processed carbs are killing us slowly in a variety of ways…more on this another day (I bet you can’t wait).

Back to our disappointing scene at the bakery. Sometimes people eat a meal before coming to our bakery. Some people take care of themselves by not snacking between meals. Some of our customers have a legitimate allergy to gluten (while many others do not but are grasping for something and think the new trend and craze of avoiding gluten will be a panacea) and therefore cannot eat our bread. These are among the legitimate reasons to decline our offer for a warm, delicious and nutritious slice of bread at our breadboard. “Bread makes you fat,” however, is like fingernails on the chalkboard of the nutritionally aware. You know better. You are a fan of the Great Harvest Bread Co. of Denver. Why am I bothering you with this sad story of the uniformed among us?

Because we need your help. Nutritionists, doctors, the FDA and little old us do not seem to be able to do this ourselves. We need you to help us spread the word to your family, friends, coworkers and neighbors that all carbs are not alike and there is a nutritious and delicious difference in our 100% whole grain breads. If you have read all the way down to this part of my soapbox rant, surely you have enough interest in this stuff to be willing to help. Please share this e-mail with your network of e-mail buddies. As a reward to you and anyone who reads this message, you will receive triple marks on your bread card for any loaves of bread purchased through the end of July, 2013. You have a whole week to take advantage of this offer as many times as you like. There is just one catch. In order to collect your extra bread card marks, you have to say loud and proud to our crew and our customers, “I love whole grains because they are good for my body!” The louder and prouder the better. If you do not yet have a bread card, this week is the perfect time to start one.

The Great Harvest Bread Co. of Denver thanks you. Your healthcare providers, insurance companies, nutritionists, obesity therapists, family and friends also thank you. Big companies who process foods and diet book writers who profit from general carb hysteria probably do not thank you. Doesn’t if feel good to be a part of the solution instead of the problem already! Your feedback on this essay or any of our products and services is, as always, warmly welcomed. Thanks for your interest in the Great Harvest Bread Co. of Denver!

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