Why wholegrain pasta often feels different to wholegrain bread

One of the things we hear most often is some version of: “I’m fine with pasta, but wholegrain bread doesn’t really agree with me.” And usually, people are talking about modern, highly refined wholemeal loaves, often made to behave quickly and predictably.

 

For a long time, we were told this didn’t really make sense. Same wheat, same fibre, same basic ingredients. Surely the issue must be the grain itself. But there’s a detail that often gets missed in that comparison: how the wheat was milled in the first place.

 

Many modern “wholemeal” breads are made with roller-milled flour. In this system, the grain is taken apart early on. The bran and the germ are separated from the starchy centre, then added back later in measured amounts. On paper, the flour is wholegrain. In practice, the grain’s original structure has already been dismantled. Stone-milled wholegrain flour behaves differently. The grain is ground whole, in one pass, and the bran, germ and endosperm remain physically connected. Fibre stays integrated within the flour, rather than scattered back in afterwards. That difference matters long before bread or pasta even enters the picture.

 

Bread and pasta then take things in very different directions.

Bread dough is wet, stretchy and full of air. It needs to expand, trap gases and rise. Fibre doesn’t naturally love that environment. It absorbs water quickly, interferes with the gluten network and makes the dough work harder to hold itself together. By the time the bread is baked, those fibre particles are already fully hydrated and ready to ferment as soon as digestion begins.

Pasta is the opposite. Pasta dough is dry, dense and compact. It’s never meant to rise or stretch. During extrusion, the flour, water and fibre are pressed together under pressure, forming a tight, ordered structure. The fibre doesn’t float freely through the dough. It becomes part of the body of the pasta itself. That one difference changes everything.

 

In pasta, fibre hydrates slowly. It doesn’t swell all at once, and it doesn’t rush into fermentation. Digestion happens later, more gradually, and with far less intensity. For many people, that translates into less bloating, less discomfort, and a steadier feeling afterwards.

This doesn’t mean bread is the problem. A well-made stoneground wholegrain sourdough, fermented slowly, can be a wonderful thing. It simply behaves differently. Pasta offers another route, one where the same grain is organised in a calmer, more contained way. It’s one of the reasons we gravitate towards pasta as a format when working with wholegrain flours.

 

When you add slow drying into the picture, that structure is preserved all the way to the plate. The pasta stays dense, the fibre stays embedded, and nothing is pushed to move faster than it should.

 

So when someone says they “can’t eat wholegrain”, what they often mean is that they’ve struggled with disassembled wheat. Wheat where fibre is exposed, rushed, or fragmented, rather than held within a stable structure. Wholegrain pasta keeps everything in its place. And when that happens, the body often responds with a quiet sense of ease, rather than a loud objection.

 

In the next article, we take a closer look at the grains themselves, and why ancient wheats like einkorn, emmer and spelt tend to feel gentler on the body.

 

*Sources:

               • Fardet, A. (2014) Food structure, digestion and health

               • Monro, J.A. & Mishra, S. (2010) Glycaemic impact of foods is determined by food form

               • Delcour & Hoseney (2010) Principles of Cereal Science and Technology

               • Carcea et al. (2022) Stone milling vs roller milling: effects on nutritional and structural quality

               • Albergamo et al. (2018) Effect of milling on phenolic compounds and fibre-bound components

               • Cauvain & Young (2007) Technology of Breadmaking

               • Pomeranz et al. (1977) Effect of bran on bread dough properties

               • Noort et al. (2010) Bran properties and bread quality

               • Petitot et al. (2009) Impact of pasta structure on starch digestion

               • Fardet et al. (2014) Structure–digestibility relationships of cereal foods

               • Bruneel et al. (2010) The impact of pasta processing on microstructure

               • Stephen et al. (2017) Dietary fibre and fermentation patterns

               • Makki et al. (2018) The impact of dietary fibre on the gut microbiota

               • Jenkins et al. (1988) Low glycaemic index foods and digestion

               • Parada & Aguilera (2011) Food microstructure affects nutrient bioavailability

               • De Noni & Pagani (2010) Effect of drying temperature on pasta quality

               • Petitot et al. (2010) Low-temperature dried pasta and digestion kinetics

 

*Notes:

The information shared in this article is intended for general educational purposes and reflects current food science research on grains and pasta making. It is not intended as medical or nutritional advice.

Individual responses to foods can vary. If you have specific dietary or medical concerns, please seek advice from a qualified professional.

 

*Further reading

If you’re interested in how milling, structure and processing affect the way wheat foods behave in the body, these sources are widely used in cereal science and food research:

               • Delcour, J.A. & Hoseney, R.C. Principles of Cereal Science and Technology

               • Cauvain, S.P. & Young, L.S. Technology of Breadmaking

               • Fardet, A. (2014). Food structure, digestion and health

               • Petitot, M. et al. (2009). Impact of pasta structure on starch digestion

               • Monro, J.A. & Mishra, S. (2010). Food form and postprandial response

These references explore how milling, hydration, and food structure influence digestion, rather than focusing on dietary rules or exclusions.