Eating Pita Bread Every Day Has An Unexpected Effect On Your Cholesterol (But There's A Catch)

Sliced bread, deli rolls, and thin tortilla wraps aren't your only choices when you're craving thin bread. Pita bread (with its handy pocket and foldability) can be a wonderful alternative. In fact, swapping out other breads for pita bread each day could possibly offer you some positive cholesterol results. That's good news if you're one of the 10% of adults with high cholesterol (per U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). 

However, you can't expect to see lower cholesterol with just any type of pita bread. To leverage the potential cholesterol management power of pita bread, you need to pick a high-fiber variety. Otherwise, you'll be left without fiber, which is an essential ingredient if you want your "good" high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol to be strong and your "bad" low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol to stay low. Ideally, try to purchase a pita bread that contains both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber. By eating a pita bread packed with both, you may gain an advantage when it comes to controlling your cholesterol.

What's the difference between soluble and insoluble fiber? Soluble fiber breaks down in water and becomes thick (like a gel) once in the digestive tract, according to reporting from the Mayo Clinic. Since soluble fiber becomes so bulky, it moves slowly through the intestines. Along the way, it helps usher excess cholesterol out of the body.

In contrast to soluble fiber, insoluble fiber doesn't change its form when it's mixed with a liquid. Therefore, though it aids in digestion and can help keep your system "moving," it doesn't have the same cholesterol-lowering ability as soluble fiber.

This doesn't mean insoluble fiber isn't vital to cardiovascular health, though. A 2019 study that was published in Nutrients examined the outcomes of consuming two types of bread made from two primarily insoluble fibers. At the end of the study, subjects lowered their cholesterol regardless of which insoluble fiber was contained in the bread they ate. That said, the researchers concluded that both soluble and insoluble fibers belong in a healthy diet.

The problem is that many commercially made pita bread products are high in overall dietary fiber but not necessarily soluble fiber. For example, whole wheat flour has plenty of insoluble fiber but not soluble fiber. However, if the pita is also made from oat flour (oats are strong sources of soluble fiber,) you could see a difference in your cholesterol readings over time. Consequently, you may have to look for a pita bread made from two or more flours.

What should you do if you can only find pita made from flour that offers insoluble fiber? It may still be worth eating every day because it will enable you to get closer to your desired daily dietary fiber intake. Case in point: Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that a medium-sized whole wheat pita contains 3.48 grams of fiber. Since the recommended daily value for the average person is anywhere from 21 to 38 grams (depending upon your gender and age, as outlined by the Mayo Clinic), the whole wheat pita could help you achieve your fiber goals.

Even if it's difficult to find the exact type of pita bread that will change your cholesterol for the better, don't give up. Instead, consider baking some yourself. Like all breads, pita bread can be made at home. And if you're making it yourself, you can control the kind of flour you use.

For instance, if a pita bread recipe calls for regular white flour, you could switch to oat flour to increase the soluble fiber content. As a cardiovascular health bonus, you could end up with a celiac disease-friendly (and cholesterol-lowering) pita bread if you pair oat flour with other gluten-free ingredients.