Turkish Bread

Food · Grain · Food, Typed Supps

Same fortification, more salt, and a piece is rarely 100 g.

Stage by stage

Open crumb (Perception): Large air pockets make it feel light, so portions run well above 100 g.
Real serve (Stomach): A bakery piece is often 150–200 g, which is one and a half to two serves.
Sodium (Circulation): 530 mg per 100 g — around 900 mg in a typical piece.
Fortification (Small intestine): Folate, iodine and thiamin from the same mandate as white bread.

Timing

Nothing to time. The lever is portion size, and the way to find it is to weigh a piece once.

Time to effect

2–4 weeks: Blood pressure response to a reduction in sodium.
Per bakery piece: Around 900 mg of sodium at a typical 170 g.

Allergens

Contains: Gluten. May contain: Eggs, Milk, Sesame, Soya. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.

Eating patterns

Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP.

Satiety

132 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — moderate. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.

Environmental footprint

1.6 kg CO2e and 648 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Wheat & rye" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.

Cost band

Cheap — roughly £3 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.

Key nutrients

Folate
Thiamin
Sodium

Nutrition per 100g

Calories: 247
Protein: 7.8g
Carbohydrate: 45.5g
of which sugars: 2.2g
Fat: 2.8g
of which saturated: 0.4g
Fibre: 3.6g
Sodium: 530mg

Food vs. supplement

Bread contributes more sodium to the Australian diet than any other single food, and none of it tastes salty. That is why it is the last place people look and often where the remaining sodium is.

Kitchen tip

Weigh one piece from your usual bakery. It is almost always heavier than it looks, and that is where the sodium is.

Common myth

“Turkish bread is light, so it’s not much bread.” In reality: Light describes the texture, not the weight. The open crumb makes a piece feel airy while a typical bakery portion is 150 to 200 g — one and a half to two standard serves — carrying around 900 mg of sodium. Bread is the largest single source of sodium in the Australian diet for exactly this reason: quantity, not saltiness.