11. White bread and margarine
Who doesn’t love some crunchy white toast dripping with melted spread? The problem with eating this regularly as a breakfast though, is twofold.
First up, white bread. White bread is made using white flour, which is flour that has been processed to remove the wholegrain, brown part. In doing so, along with the wholegrain, the beneficial vitamins, specifically B vitamins, are also removed. A better option is brown bread, that’s made with non or minimally processed wholegrain wheat, complete with its beneficial nutrients.
Secondly, if our spread of choice is margarine, we could be getting more fat than we bargained for. All spreads contain some level of fat, even low fat ones. Margarine is no different, but margarine has also been processed in order to make it easy to spread straight from the fridge. It’s during this process that trans fats can be added, also known as partially hydrogenated oil.
There are calls to ban trans fats since they’ve been called into question over their potential links to certain health issues such as problems with blood pressure and high blood sugar. In the UK, their use is being phased out but they may still be present in imported foods. Butter, although higher in fat, is a better option since it isn’t as processed and doesn’t contain trans fats. But either way, keep your bread brown and your spreads to a minimum.