With the brown-bag season upon us, lunch-packers and sandwich-makers turn their attention to bread. Here’s a sandwich lover’s bread guide:

Ordinary white bread, the kind that goes with peanut butter and purple jelly, is 75 calories a slice. You can do better for less! For example: “light” wheat or white, the kind that looks and tastes like ordinary white bread (even the “wheat” tastes like white bread, but it looks healthier, and your lunch won’t embarrass you as much in front of fitness types) is only 45 calories a slice. That’s because most are made with less flour, fat and sugar. Part of the usual refined flour has been replaced with soy fiber flour, which has fewer calories but takes up the same space as the flour it replaces.

It used to be that the same-size-slice diet breads were made by replacing some flour with alpha cellulose (read: fiber from wood chips!) but the image was such a turn-off that the bread industry had to find another way. Fiber from soybeans is what they came up with.

Wheat and whole wheat (there’s a difference!) averages around 65 calories a slice, depending on the slice. What’s the difference? Bread labeled “wheat” (as opposed to “whole wheat”) may not be any different than ordinary white bread, except for its darker color. The healthy looking shade may be the result of caramel coloring added to enhance the bread’s image. Real whole-wheat bread, made from wheat flour that includes the outside as well as the inside of the wheat kernel, is higher in natural fiber.

Cracked-wheat bread gets its nutty taste and texture from the addition of chopped up (“cracked”) kernels of whole wheat. The bread part itself may be made from refined white flour, but as they say, half a loaf is better than none, nutritionally speaking. Which brings us to . . .

Slim slice “diet” breads, where half a loaf isn’t better because they charge you as if you were getting a full loaf. Which you’re not. What they do here is take an undersize loaf of bread and slice it into skinnier slices. Naturally, each slice is lower in calories than a full-size slice. Do they charge you less? C’mon!

French and Italian bread, nutritionally speaking, may be nothing more (or nothing less) than ordinary white bread with a crispy crust. Like ordinary white bread, most are made from refined white flour. However, true French and Italian breads are made without added fat or shortening, so the calorie count could be marginally lower than a same-size slice of white bread. You really need to read the label because many French or Italian loaves have been calorie-contaminated with untraditional additions of fat and sugar.

Pita pockets, skinny Middle Eastern flatbreads, form a pocket when they are cut into half-moons or split around the edges. Mini pita breads (1 ounce each) are only 80 calories. Pita bread is perfect for grownups: people who really prefer the outside rather than the inside of bread. If mother never had to tell you that bread crusts make your hair curl, then pita bread is for you. The dough for true Middle Eastern bread is similar to true Italian and French bread, mainly flour and water with no added fat or sugar. For better nutrition, look for whole wheat pita bread.

Hard and soft rolls can be anybody’s guess depending on their size and the baker’s formula. They average around 150 calories. One way to minimize the calories – especally if you’re a crust lover – is to pull out and discard the bready center, thereby tossing away about 50 calories. Then use the halved roll as a shell for your sandwich filling. Beware hamburger and hot dog rolls; many have added sugar to make them quick-browning.

Home-baked breads depend on the recipe, but a whole-grain dough made without added fat or sweetener (beyond the minimum amount needed to feed the yeast) is likely to provide better nutrition and taste for fewer calories than most commercial breads.

Some bread facts and fallacies: Toasting bread does not lower its calories. A 65-calorie slice of bread is still 65 calories when it pops out of your toaster. Where did this myth come from? Here’s my guess: Older nutrition manuals listed calorie counts by weight, and 100 grams of toast would have more calories than 100 grams of untoasted bread because some of the moisture (and water weight) would have evaporated in the toasting process. But it would take more slices of toast than bread to make 100 grams, so the count for each slice would be lower.

Bread dries out faster in the refrigerator than it does at room temperature. Half a loaf is better than none here, too! If bread goes stale before you can finish it, separate the loaf into halves and put the unused portion in the freezer, double wrapped in a second plastic bag. The only time you should keep bread in the refrigerator is in hot, humid environments where bread gets moldy.

No need to waste heels of bread, or bread that’s gone stale. Leave the slices to dry out completely, then cut into croutons or crush into crumbs. For low-fat croutons, cut dry bread into cubes. Put the cubes in a plastic bag with fresh or dried oregano, basil, thyme or other herbs, a mashed clove of garlic and a few drops of olive oil. Shake the bag to coat the cubes. Toss them on salad. For crumbs, put dried bread in a big plastic bag and roll over the bag with a rolling pin. Or put the cubes in a food processor or blender and process into crumbs. Season to taste and put in a plastic bag or covered jar. Use in place of outlandishly expensive oven-frying mixes (they have sugar and salt added!).

Write to Barbara Gibbons at United Features Syndicate, 200 Park Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017.

Top 15 how many calories in a slice of french bread edited by Top Chef

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