Because Waitrose didn't have the normal bog-standard wholemeal, I grabbed the Hovis wholemeal next to it.
What the actual fuck, it's like eating cake. The same shock you get when you eat bread in the US. Yup, there it is, fourth ingredient after flour, water, and yeast: caramelized sugar. I made the dangerous assumption that wholemeal bread would be like, you know, flour, water, yeast, bit of salt and a few 'improvers.'
It's foul. And another example of something masquerading as something healthy (wholemeal, innit) while being anything but.