L’Oven Fresh Whole Grains 12 Grain Bread

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In recent years, I’ve been on a search for better bread.

As a kid, I loved white bread. I’ve learned that white bread isn’t good for you. My family also ate wheat bread. I’ve learned that wheat bread isn’t all that good for you, either.

In adulthood, I tried to improve my bread by buying whole grain white bread. Aldi sells this, in fact. It does get credit for being better than white or wheat bread, but it’s still not the best bread for you.

Instead, I’ve discovered a growing body of evidence that bread that is higher in dietary fiber is a good bread to eat. The fiber helps the body metabolize the regular carbs in the bread. Some researchers have noted that the ratio of carbs to fiber — dividing the carbs by the fiber — is a useful measure. The lower that number, the better the bread is for you.

My search for better bread has taken me to some breads that are good, some that are very good, and some that you would think would be very good but are only just so-so.

That’s why I decided to pluck an Aldi bread off the shelf when I saw it claimed to be high in whole grains, the grains associated with higher fiber.

L’Oven Fresh Whole Grains 12 Grain Bread is an Aldi Regular Buy. You can find it in stores every day. It’s in the bread aisle along with the grocer’s many other bread offerings.

At the time of this post, the bread comes in a 24-ounce loaf and costs $2.49. That comes out to 10 cents an ounce. You can get a plain Aldi bread for less, but as 12-grain breads go this is pretty cheap.

Each 1-slice serving has 110 calories, 2 grams of fat, and 200 milligrams of sodium. These are all par for the course compared to most other breads we’ve tested.

In addition, each slice has 19 grams of carbs and 3 grams of dietary fiber. Dividing the carbs by the fiber gives us 6.3, or a ratio of 6.3:1. (If the decimal hurts your head, we can round down to 6:1.) Some researches peg the magic ratio as being less than 10:1, and this bread accomplishes that.

For comparison, L’Oven Fresh Whole Grain White Bread has a ratio of 13:1 and Simply Nature Organic Seedtastic Bread has a ratio of 7:1. The current champ of Aldi fibered bread, Simply Nature Organic Graintastic Bread, comes in at 5.25:1, while the bread it imitates, Dave’s Killer Bread, has a ratio of 4.4:1. (Dave’s, it should be noted, is an organic bread that currently costs 22.1 cents an ounce.)

This bread, then, is not the best ratio out there, but it’s pretty good, actually.

A word about ingredients before we continue. There are a number of them, including unbleached enriched wheat flour, whole wheat flour, whole grain mix, sugar, and wheat gluten. There are also a handful of other additives and preservatives.

Soy and wheat are listed as allergens, and eggs, tree nuts, and milk are listed as potential allergens.

Taste-wise, our testers liked it. It’s smoother than some high-fiber breads and has a good flavor that does just fine as toast or as part of a sandwich. It’s a sturdy bread, too, making it versatile for most normal bread uses.

The Verdict:

L’Oven Fresh Whole Grains 12 Grain Bread packs a good amount of fiber in a pretty reasonable price. While it’s not as whole foods as, say, Aldi Organic Graintastic bread, it comes out ahead in some key categories over more standard breads, including whole grain white. If upping your fiber intake is a goal, this is one of the less expensive ways to get there.