*REVIEW* The Village Bakery 'Try Rye Challenge'

I was kindly sent some Rye Bread to use as part of the 'Great British Summer Try Rye Challenge' - the 14 day eating plan which requires you to swap your usual bread with rye bread.

Swapping your normal wheat based bread, for Village
Bakery rye bread, can assist in reducing bloating and can
help make you feel more energetic. This is because rye
bread helps to increase satiety, suppressing your hunger
and the desire to snack. Rye bread contains 4x fibre and 20% less calories than that of standard white sliced bread too.

Village Bakery Rye Bread contains just 3 natural and simple ingredients: Rye Flour, Salt and Water. Organic as organic can be! Just beware of best before dates, both of my seeded loaves went mouldy at least one day before the best before date. The Village Bakery Melmerby have been making Rye Bread for 30 years, including the seeded, coriander and rossisky (original) variety. They are available from stores such as Ocado, Sainsbury's and Waitrose from £1.10 -£1.80 a loaf.

The loaves themselves are very heavy/dense and it's hard to see how it's possible to lose weight by eating this! I couldn't believe the weight of them.

L-R: Rossisky (Original), Coriander, Seeded.

At first I wondered how I was supposed to incorporate this into any usual meal I would eat, as it doesn't make nice sandwiches due to it's strong taste overpowering any filling. However I soon found the Coriander loaf made a great alternative to naan bread with a low fat curry by simply toasting, the Seeded was fantastic as 'croutons' with my cuppa soups by slicing a thick piece - toasting and dicing. With trial and error it was noted that it flash fries quite well in Fry-Light - adding to the crunch of the crouton after toasting. The Rossisky was tasty on it's own, not toasted, with  low fat spread. It's 'tar-like' taste reminded me of a less-sweet malt loaf and was even appealing to my hubby and 4yr old son (papped below!)

Hubby caught in the act munching Rye!

It's important to note that my husband has IBS so he was intrigued as to how this Rye Challenge would assist in his usual bloatedness. He wasn't the only one to benefit from this throughout the challenge either. I noticed a dramatic difference, especially towards the end of the challenge when, let's just say the time of the month would usually counteract any reduced bloatedness I had previously achieved. No more sluggish carb slumps when you eat this, I tell you!

The fact it has 4x the fibre than standard white sliced could explain the flatter than usual stomach and the less uncomfortable feeling. It does call for the need of a loo to be within close proximity some hour or so after ingesting though - please bear this in mind!

I'm not sure whether this is why I failed to lose weight by swapping the Rye for normal bread. I don't usually eat a huge amount of bread anyway, but decided that as I received 6 loaves in total, I needed to make the most of having it so incorporated a more 'bread heavy' diet.  I found that it would 'speed things up' after eating, and ultimately noticed I was hungrier sooner than I would normally be. I think this means I'm backwards :-( as surely this is supposed to be the benefit and whole point of the challenge?!

Carson loved this bread, which really surprised me.

From the 2 week diet plan I was provided, as an example, I particularly loved the home-made soup with toasted (flash fried) croutons. You just can't get tastier than using The Village Melmerby Rye! I tried the original and seeded for this and preferred the seeded as it added to the crunch factor, but both were tasty.

The future of Rye bread in my home?

I would buy the coriander loaf definitely, as it will forever replace our naan breads for sure. The original can make a malt loaf alternative in any given weekly shop and although the seeded was fab as croutons - my favourite - the loaf goes off far too quickly and although the loaf appears small it is too large for just my family of three and it means there is a lot to waste. The loaf is also so jam packed with seeded/nuts that it is difficult to eat as a slice on it's own. Perhaps for someone who usually eats that kind of bread - yes, but it wasn't for me.

I put 1.2lbs on throughout my 2 week challenge, but can noticeably feel the different in my mid-riff despite the 'date'! My husband gives great credit in this department too as his IBS has dramatically improved these past 2 weeks.

My score: 8/10.
Marked down for the speed of going off, no weight loss and the inability to completely cut out normal bread due to the difficulty in making pleasant sandwiches. The pro's of a less prominant stomach and healthy alternatives for meals such as curry definately do outweigh the negatives in the long run.

For more information on the Try Rye Challenge you can click the Try Rye badge or visit their Facebook Page

I was sent the plan and loaves free of charge for the purpose of this review, my views and opinions are my own. 

Leave a Comment Tags: bloated, review, rye, rye bread, village bakery, weightloss

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