alternatives to bread

NicheG

Just a quick question on what seems to be the best alternative to bread for a lunch snack?
I work in an industrial estate and the local garage (a Spar) has a reasonably good Deli counter. My normal lunch would be:
A plain white wrap, with a handful (or whatever portion size they use) of cold chicken, peppers, tomato and onion.
The important thing is that I don't ask for Mayo or any other condiments with it. You might think that it turns out ultra dry, but the juice from the tomato actually makes it bearable.
Is there an even healthier alternative to a wrap (which I started using as an alternative to bread) that I could use, such as pitta bread or whatever?.
Also, roughly how many calories would I expect in what I currently ask for?

Cheers.

mack1

Wraps generally aren't very good, you'd be better off with some wholegrain bread. Just coz the wrap seems small dont let that fool you, most are worse than bread.

Pitta bread is good tho, get the wholegrain ones.

rubadub

I use iceberg lettuce leaves in place of a wrap. If you take them off carefully they form a nice scoop. Regular lettuce would not break as easily and might make a better wrap, but I am not too fond of it.

Pittas are good, wholemeal as mentioned. I like pitta as it doesn't go stale as fast as regular bread, also pitta comes in smaller packets. My problem with sliced pans is I eat the whole lot too fast, fooling myself that it will be stale if I don't!

I get cooked chicken in my centra near work. Usually these shops will have a scales so you can weigh it, even if you do not need to. e.g. I get stuff at the salad bar, it is charged per container size, but I can stick it on the scales, so I know 400g of cooked chicken is around 500kcal, the drier it is higher the kcals. The wrap you have has probably got more calories than the filling.

Ryvitas are low in cals per slice, due to the low weight. 3 ryvitas is around the same calories as a slice of mc cambridges bread, but looks more substantial. Per weight they have around the same calories or more than bread, since they are drier they obviously have less proportion of water in them, so this "no calorie" water is not factored into the per 100g calorie info.

EileenG

I'd ditch the bread altogether and eat your lunch with an extra salad or other veggies instead. My husband uses celery or red peppers as a base for his meat/cheese/hummous at lunch.

If you really love bread, then eat a slice of a good wholegrain one like McCambridges, but eat it on it's own so you'll appreciate it. Don't waste it on sandwiches.

agentgreen

How many grams of carbs are in your typical wrap? Would you be better with a normal brown bread sandwich, if wholegrain was not an option?

How Strange

IMO, if you're looking for alternatives to bread then you have to plan in advance and not leave yourself stuck during the week. I haven't eaten bread for years and I find it ok. It's a bit of a pain if I'm at a training course or at a meeting where you have to go to lunch and if totally stuck I'll eat a wrap. They're fine and I usually have chicken, lettuce, tomato and cucumber but I know the wraps aren't nutritionally good. I might try Rubadub's iceberg lettuce suggestion.

I buy spelt crackers - you can get them in health food shops or superquinn. Aldi do a really good 100% rye bread which is an acquired taste but once you get used to it its lovely especially with some ham or cheese and mustard . Ryvita is good especially the multigrain one and I'd have 4 of them with some edam cheese.

Now that the summer is coming I'll start eating salads again but for the winter I alternate between soup and a spelt cracker (they're quite big), 2 crackers with hummus or cheese.