Goodbye bread? Why giving up your favourite staple food seems so tempting - and what's really behind it

It crunches, it smells, it warms - hardly any other food is as deeply rooted in everyday life in Central Europe as bread. In the morning with honey, at lunchtime as a sandwich, in the evening with soup. And yet there has been an astonishing change in the image of this traditional staple food. More and more people are saying: "I'm ditching bread."
Is this a justified step towards a healthier diet - or just another hype in the endless jungle of food trends?

The most common reason for giving up bread is obvious: carbohydrates. They drive blood sugar levels up quickly, especially in white flour products - and cause them to plummet again just as quickly. The result: cravings, tiredness and a sluggish metabolism. Those who opt for protein-rich or fat-emphasised alternatives instead often stay full for longer and feel more stable.

Added to this is the concern about gluten, the gluten protein in cereals. Although only around one per cent of the population actually suffers from coeliac disease, many people report feeling better when they avoid bread - or at least wheat. Studies show: Even without genuine gluten intolerance, a so-called non-celiac wheat sensitivity can be accompanied by symptoms such as bloating, headaches or sluggishness.

In fact, there is a simple truth: not all bread is the same. Industrially produced baked goods with additives, enzymes, short dough cycles and low-quality flour are more harmful to our bodies than we think. This is not so much due to the bread itself - but to the way it is produced.

Genuine sourdough bread made from whole grains, fermented for a long time and baked in the traditional way, contains valuable fibre, phytochemicals, B vitamins and a stable structure that keeps blood sugar levels from rising so rapidly. This is about quality, not demonisation.

Many people who consciously cut out bread - at least for a while - report positive effects: less bloating, more constant energy levels, fewer cravings. Eliminating bread also plays a central role in reductive diets such as intermittent fasting, low carb, paleo or the ketogenic diet. The principle is to move the body away from sugar metabolism and towards fat burning. And this is only possible if simple carbohydrates are reduced.

Giving up bread can therefore also be an introduction to a more reflective approach to food - especially if it is not accompanied by dogmatic renunciation but by a curious openness.

Consciously giving up bread can be a real opportunity for greater body awareness - especially if it is done without prohibitions but with clarity. The decisive factor is not whether you give up bread "forever", but whether you understand your own body better. If you use giving up as a reset, you can return later with even more awareness - perhaps not to cheap toast, but to real, good bread.