Nature's Own Bread: My Own Favorite

I never thought that another bread could possibly supplant Roman Meal as my pick for a good, soft yet chewy, reasonably substantive, wheat-esque, store-bought bread. Sure enough, a new bread has emerged from the aisle where I tend to spend too much time pondering my choices. It's hard not to like Roman Meal, as it tends to be one of the cheaper loaves and each slice of the sandwich bread nets just seventy calories. But behold Nature's Own, which has just fifty calories per slice! The news gets even better: the bread contains no artificial preservatives or colors, or high fructose corn syrup!

I have sampled three types of Nature's Own: 100% Whole Wheat, Double Fiber Wheat, and Honey Wheat. The 100% Whole Wheat does, in fact, list stone ground whole wheat as its first ingredient, unlike many "wheat" breads which market the healthy title without the ingredients to back it up. Each slice of the Double Fiber contains five grams of fiber - as much, if not more, than a bowl of oatmeal. The Honey Wheat, as its name implies, is a sweeter alternative to the Whole Wheat. While the Double Fiber's crust is dusted with oats to compliment the noticeably coarser texture of this bread variety, the crusts of the other two have only an egg wash sheen. The crust is where I do find fault with this bread; I prefer Roman Meal's softer crust to the shell of Nature's Own. Nature's Own, however, has the advantage in overall texture, yielding a satisfyingly dense bread for just fifty or so calories a slice.

The company also produces a "white wheat" bread - in other words, a healthier bread existing under the guise of a Wonder Bread lookalike. In addition to the aforementioned bread varieties, Nature's Own sells hot dog rolls, buns, bagels, muffins, and light, lower-carb breads to accompany your prime rib. Interestingly, the trademark Whitewheat bread has its own website. Click the link on the Nature's Own company website, with its warm, wholesome orange and brown color scheme, and you are led to a new site dressed in cool, soothing blues. On the home page, you will find a young family clad in linen and white, strolling by the cattails, smiling, hungry - eager to whip together some bologna sandwiches back at the rental house with Whitewheat and Miracle Whip.

The company's website also delves into the bread baker's history. The site reveals that Nature's Own has had a stake in the bread business since 1977. Its bread is available primarily in the southern half of the United States, but reaches the shelves of stores as far north as southern Ohio. The company states that its product is too fresh to ship too far from the bake houses. In my shopping experiences, Nature's Own frequently is on sale at $2-2.50 a loaf - perhaps because its shelf life is lower than that of the more processed breads. That's all the more reason to snatch it up on your next shopping adventure.