I had an argument with my brother about White bread. He claimed it was bad for you, that parts of it are indegestible, yadda yadda yadda. I think this is total bullshit. What I do know about white bread is that white flour consists only of the endosperm of the wheat grain, the fluffy white stuff, and since the germ is not present, lacks some nutrients wheat bread has. So they add some “Fortifying”. Now, if this is the case, how can it be any worse than wheat bread? Isn’t fiber more indegestible than endosperm?
Well I’m assuming that some of it is indigestible - notably the insoluable fibre we all like 
White flour is essentially different in that it has had the bran removed; wheatgerm is removed from brown and white flours because it spoils too quickly (although with flours like Hovis, the wheatgerm is treated and added back in)
White bread is generally lower in fibre than wholemeal, so it’s ‘less good’ for you (whatever that actually means), but everything that’s in white bread is also in wholemeal.
White bread does indeed have may of the nutrient stripped from it in its processing.
Bread can be said to be good or bad for you depending on your dietary goals (not as in losing weight diet, as in what you put in your gob every day). If you are trying to lose weight, skip bread alltogether. Bread is high in sugars, which causes an insulin spike that stops fat cell burning. Eating alot of bread can cause insulin resistance in the cells just as easily as eating alot of candy bars.
White bread is said to be bad because it has a low glycemic index, which means that the sugars are quickly digested causing an insulin spike. Whole wheat bread has a much higher glycemic index.
Does anyone know how big the effect is? A few months ago, I bought a loaf of essentially white bread (it was buttermilk or potato or something), and my wife had a cow. She tends to go overboard on the latest nutritional news.
So a couple of days later, we were taking a road trip, and she wanted to make peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for the kids. She was furious at me for getting that bread. I tried to defend myself, claiming that the sugar in the jelly has way more of an insulin spike effect that the difference between white and wheat bread, but she, having two X chromosomes, wouldn’t hear my out.
So wasn’t I basically right?
Enriched white bread has a glucose-based glycemic index of 73 (50 mg of glucose is 100). That is it raises your blood sugar level 73% of what a similar amount of glucose would. Strawberry jam (the only fruit spread I could find) has an index of 51. I would put grape jelly higher than that - but YMMV. From Sydney University Glycemic Index Research Service
Depending on what type of wheat bread you get, the index will be between 53 (stone-ground wholemeal) and 90 (gluten-free bread). So there may be no difference between the white bread and the wheat bread. Switch to oatmeal or a multi-grain.
So you both are wrong - white bread may have a higher GI than grape jelly, and wheat bread is not always significantly better.
The reason you care about the GI (glycemic index) is that it is an indication of what it will do to your blood sugar level, and thereby your insulin production. It is promoted as a way to control diabetes, and to lose weight (I’ve lost a few pounds by paying attention to it, and my wife has lost about 50 pounds through using this and breast-feeding.)