Baking Your Own Bread: Healthier Than the Bakery? What the Numbers Really Say
A question that always comes up at birthday parties: is that home-baked bread of yours really healthier than a regular brown loaf from the supermarket? The short answer is more nuanced than a simple yes or no. You can read the full answer, with the numbers, below. We look at salt, fiber, ingredients, additives and freshness, and put home-baked bread honestly side by side with bread from the baker and from the supermarket.
Why this question keeps coming up
Anyone who bakes their own bread will sooner or later hear the claim that home baking is not by definition healthier than buying bread. That is partly true: a white loaf is a white loaf, whether you make it yourself or not. But there are four points on which home-baked bread usually does have an edge: you decide the salt content yourself, you choose the type of flour yourself, you do not need any bread improvers or preservatives, and you eat your bread fresh instead of out of a bag.
Those four points are exactly what this article is about. We build it up step by step, so that by the end you can give a well-founded answer yourself.
Point 1: the salt content
Salt in bread has been a topic of discussion in the Netherlands for years. Between 1991 and 2020 the Dutch bread sector gradually lowered the average salt content, from around 2.5 grams to about 1.7 grams of salt per 100 grams of bread. That is a serious reduction and bakers have put a lot of work into it. But it is still above the guideline the Voedingscentrum uses for daily salt intake of a maximum of 6 grams per day for adults.
In the Netherlands, bread is the single largest source of salt in the diet. The Voedingscentrum estimates that about a quarter of daily salt intake comes from bread. So anyone who eats a lot of sandwiches quickly takes in a good part of those 6 grams before the evening meal is even on the table.
How much salt in your home-baked bread?
The red booklet of the Korenmolenaarsgilde gives the rule of thumb: 6 grams of salt per loaf of around 750 grams, or 0.8 grams per 100 grams of bread. That is less than half of what is in an average supermarket loaf. You can keep the salt content in your own recipe even a little lower, as long as you still add enough to temper the yeast and keep the flavor up to par. In dough, salt plays a double role: flavor carrier and yeast brake. Leaving it out entirely is possible, but then your dough rises uncontrollably and the bread tastes flat.
Want to know why salt is so precise in your dough? Read our article Which flour do you choose for your bread maker, where we explain the basic balance.
Point 2: fiber and flour choice
White, brown and wholegrain bread look alike, but differ considerably in fiber content. According to figures from the RIVM food composition database, wholegrain bread contains on average about 7 grams of fiber per 100 grams, brown bread around 5 grams, and white bread roughly 2.5 to 3 grams. Among other things, fiber helps with healthy bowel function, a fuller stomach, and a slower rise in blood sugar.
The Voedingscentrum advises adults to eat at least 30 to 40 grams of fiber daily. A few slices of wholegrain bread per day contribute seriously to that. Four slices of wholegrain bread quickly provide 10 to 12 grams of fiber, a third to almost half of the daily recommendation.
Why home baking wins here
The difference between brown and wholegrain is not always clear in the store. Brown bread is usually a mix of white flour and some wholegrain flour, and may only call itself brown bread if it consists of at least 50% wholegrain flour. Real wholegrain bread is a minority in the supermarket and generally costs more than a regular brown loaf.
At home you decide the flour mix yourself. Want a full wholegrain bread? Then you fill your baking pan with 100% wholegrain flour. Prefer a milder version? Then you choose 60% wholegrain and 40% white wheat flour. Our tip: start with a mix of 70% wholegrain and 30% white flour if you are used to supermarket bread. That tastes pleasant to most people, and you already take in plenty of fiber.
A second improvement you can make at home: grain variety. Rye flour, spelt flour, oats, and buckwheat all have their own nutritional profile. Buckwheat and oats, for example, provide extra minerals and protein. At the bakery this kind of variety is often only found on the specialty breads, in a higher price bracket.
Point 3: ingredients and additives
An industrial bread and a home-baked bread look the same. On the label they start to differ. A typical supermarket loaf, besides flour, water, yeast and salt, often contains a number of aids that make large-scale production possible: bakers' salt, dextrose or malt, vegetable oil, emulsifiers (such as mono- and diglycerides, E471), bread improvers with enzymes, ascorbic acid (E300), and sometimes a preservative like calcium propionate (E282) to prevent mold.
Those additives are permitted under the Commodities Act and are not harmful in the quantities used. But they are characteristic of what the NOVA classification calls "processed" or "ultra-processed" food. For anyone who wants as many natural products on the table as possible, that is an argument to bake your own.
A home-baked bread in the bread maker usually contains four ingredients: flour, water, yeast and salt. Sometimes you add a spoon of oil or a small amount of sugar, but that is it. No enzymes, no emulsifiers, no preservatives. The red booklet of the Korenmolenaarsgilde puts it sharply: "By using fresh, honestly milled flour, you do not need bread improvers."
The freshness argument
Another advantage that is often underestimated: fresh bread keeps better without any aids. A factory bread has to sit on the shelf for four to seven days without going moldy. A home-baked bread you ideally eat within three days, or you freeze it. That removes the need for preservatives, and you have a bread that simply tastes better because it came out of the machine that same day.
How best to store your home-baked bread, we described earlier in our article Storing bread: how to keep it fresh the longest.
Point 4: the artisan baker as an in-between option
Not every baker is a factory. A good artisan baker works with long proofing times, whole grains, sometimes their own sourdough, and little to no bread improvers. In terms of ingredients, that bread is close to what you bake at home. The advantage of the artisan baker is craftsmanship and consistency. The downside: price, availability in your neighborhood, and that you are still dependent on what they happened to bake that day.
Honestly, artisan bakery bread and home-baked bread are close to each other. The real difference is between those two on the one hand and standard supermarket bread on the other. Anyone who only buys artisan bakery bread is nutritionally at roughly the same level as the home baker, but pays two to three times as much per loaf.
What does practice say?
In the groups where we read along, many home bakers made the switch for health reasons. A frequently heard motive is a confirmed digestion problem with supermarket bread that disappeared when switching to home-baked bread. That is not proof that one bread is better than the other, but it is a signal that the label matters for those who are sensitive to it.
We also see many bakers who bake without salt or with very little salt, on the advice of a doctor or dietitian. With supermarket bread, a truly low-salt version is hard to find. With home baking you can go down to zero grams, as long as you reduce the yeast dosage and keep a close eye on the proofing phase. Four to five grams of salt on a loaf of 750 grams is a good lower limit for most tastes and yeasts.
What should you realistically expect?
Baking your own bread is no miracle cure. A loaf of 100% white flour that you bake yourself scores about the same on fiber content as a white supermarket loaf. What you gain is in the other three points: less salt (if you choose to), no additives, and better freshness. So anyone who bakes white without further adjustments does not automatically win on everything.
The full health gain lies in the combination:
- Choose 60 to 100% wholegrain flour
- Keep the salt at 6 to 8 grams per loaf of 750 grams
- Only bake what you eat within three days or freeze
- Rotate flour types (wheat, rye, spelt, oats)
That is a different menu than four slices of white a day. But it is also exactly what the Voedingscentrum means by "vary and choose brown or wholegrain above all".
A level-headed cost-benefit analysis
A kilo of wholegrain flour costs about €1.40 to €2. With that you bake a good loaf of 750 grams and then some. Add the yeast and the salt, and you come to around €1.50 per loaf. The electricity for one hour and three quarters of baking amounts to a few cents. A comparable wholegrain loaf at the baker costs on average €3.50 to €4.50.
The bread maker itself pays for itself, if you bake an average of three loaves per week, within one year to a year and a half. After that you effectively bake for free, and every time you get a bread of which you know exactly what is in it.
The short conclusion
Baking your own bread is generally healthier than supermarket bread, provided you actually make use of the four advantages: less salt, full fibrous flour, no additives, and fresh consumption. If you bake the same recipe as the factory, you mainly win on freshness and processing, but not on fiber or salt.
Compared with a good artisan baker, you are almost on a par. The biggest gain lies in your wallet and in the fact that you have a fresh bread every day without traipsing to the baker.
Want to start home baking and not sure exactly where to begin? Read our Tips for beginning bread bakers or dive straight into our Wholegrain bread recipe.
Is something not right? Let us know at support@fornello.eu
Ready to get started? Check out the Fornello bread makers.