<story><title>Irish Court Says Subway Bread Is Too Sugary to Be Called &apos;Bread&apos;</title><url>https://www.foodandwine.com/news/subway-bread-sugar-content-ireland-court-ruling</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>samatman</author><text>Alright, time to be contrarian: so what.&lt;p&gt;Ok, it&amp;#x27;s interesting that the law in Ireland requires a 2% or less baker&amp;#x27;s weight of sugar.  And I do enjoy a good sourdough, which isn&amp;#x27;t made with any sugar, or just a pinch.&lt;p&gt;But my favourite sandwich bread is Japanese milk bread, it&amp;#x27;s soft, lovely crumb, and it browns beautifully in the pan.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s got a lot of sugar in it, that&amp;#x27;s the secret. A random recipe I found says 18% baker&amp;#x27;s weight, which seems accurate.&lt;p&gt;Are we pretending that polysaccharides are the staff of life, but when you get down to disaccharides they become the Devil? The glycemic index of white flour is dire, I doubt adding sugar is going to move the needle.&lt;p&gt;Sugar in dough makes it soft, with a giving crumb, and a crust which can be brown without becoming hard.&lt;p&gt;Exactly what you want in a sandwich filled with toppings, so that they don&amp;#x27;t shoot out the back when you bite into it.&lt;p&gt;Clutch your pearls all you want about &amp;#x27;Subway misrepresenting healthy food&amp;#x27;!  They publish the macros of their sandwiches. It&amp;#x27;s not nearly so healthy as eggs scrambled in butter, there&amp;#x27;s a ton of carbs and not nearly enough fat.&lt;p&gt;Unless you think it&amp;#x27;s the other way around that&amp;#x27;s healthy. It&amp;#x27;s your stomach, you get to pick.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>usrusr</author><text>&amp;gt; Are we pretending that polysaccharides are the staff of life, but when you get down to disaccharides they become the Devil?&lt;p&gt;Devil or not devil is off topic: it&amp;#x27;s not about not-devil or devil, it&amp;#x27;s about the difference between bread and cake. Which isn&amp;#x27;t a value judgement at all. But that is a line that will unsurprisingly be drawn differently in different cultures.&lt;p&gt;The legal issue isn&amp;#x27;t putting too much sugar in a product, it&amp;#x27;s putting much sugar in there and then labeling that product in a way that is deceptive in the local language (and in this case a tax angle, but it could be a court issue even without that).</text></comment>
<story><title>Irish Court Says Subway Bread Is Too Sugary to Be Called &apos;Bread&apos;</title><url>https://www.foodandwine.com/news/subway-bread-sugar-content-ireland-court-ruling</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>samatman</author><text>Alright, time to be contrarian: so what.&lt;p&gt;Ok, it&amp;#x27;s interesting that the law in Ireland requires a 2% or less baker&amp;#x27;s weight of sugar.  And I do enjoy a good sourdough, which isn&amp;#x27;t made with any sugar, or just a pinch.&lt;p&gt;But my favourite sandwich bread is Japanese milk bread, it&amp;#x27;s soft, lovely crumb, and it browns beautifully in the pan.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s got a lot of sugar in it, that&amp;#x27;s the secret. A random recipe I found says 18% baker&amp;#x27;s weight, which seems accurate.&lt;p&gt;Are we pretending that polysaccharides are the staff of life, but when you get down to disaccharides they become the Devil? The glycemic index of white flour is dire, I doubt adding sugar is going to move the needle.&lt;p&gt;Sugar in dough makes it soft, with a giving crumb, and a crust which can be brown without becoming hard.&lt;p&gt;Exactly what you want in a sandwich filled with toppings, so that they don&amp;#x27;t shoot out the back when you bite into it.&lt;p&gt;Clutch your pearls all you want about &amp;#x27;Subway misrepresenting healthy food&amp;#x27;!  They publish the macros of their sandwiches. It&amp;#x27;s not nearly so healthy as eggs scrambled in butter, there&amp;#x27;s a ton of carbs and not nearly enough fat.&lt;p&gt;Unless you think it&amp;#x27;s the other way around that&amp;#x27;s healthy. It&amp;#x27;s your stomach, you get to pick.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>connectsnk</author><text>Very well constructed argument. Please see here that the court is preventing subway from claiming tax breaks by classifying their product as staple food (bread). They are not preventing people from eating it.</text></comment>