[andor]

Bread with sugar in it is problematic, but that doesn't mean all bread is bad. That would be like saying that boiled potatos are as unhealthy as french fries. Or rolled oats vs. sugary industrial cereals. Whole grains are actually really healthy.

Bread and pasta are staples in France and Italy, and still they are much healthier than the US. In France, there's nothing wrong with a baguette from a bakery (or even from a supermarket). You'll also find industrially produced white bread if you really want to, but people aren't buying that as much, because of their food culture. On average, they have a better understanding of what's good and healthy.

One of the key issues is understanding food as products rather than produce. By outsourcing your food to large companies, you are giving them an opportunity for cutting costs by reducing the quality of the production process (e.g. reduced fermentation time of the dough) or the ingredients (e.g. adding sugar for better browning or to make the product more addictive). It's a result of the financialization of everything and the need for growth.

Rather than buying branded products and going to chain restaurants, buy from smaller places or cook your own food, from scratch.

[aldarion]

Staples, but eaten in very small quantity, at least in France. As for Italy, Italians actually have massive problems with obesity, especially in children, precisely due to their consumption of bread and pasta. Traditional Italian diet is massive on vegetables, fruit and meat (fish and pork in particular), with bread and pasta being basically side dishes. But that is not what Italians are eating now, and so they've gotten sick as well.