Cut down on breads laden with fat, calories and salt

Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun 

Cut down on breads laden with fat, calories and salt

Grr angry bread

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If it came down to a hunk of garlic cheese bread at the Keg or a few low-fat bread sticks before dinner, what would you choose?

Nutritionists say it’s no contest: if diners want to have a healthy diet, they have to cut down on the breads laden with fat, calories and salt served in many restaurants.

The Keg’s garlic cheese bread, for instance, has 965 calories, 51 grams of fat and 2,250 milligrams of sodium. Over at Boston Pizza, a full order of Twist Bread will stuff your stomach with 1,140 calories, 2,810 mg of sodium and 39 grams of fat.

The average person should not have more than 2,400 mg of sodium a day.

“Whole-grain breads are healthier choices than the ones coated in oil or cooked in fat,” said Kathleen Quinn, a nutritionist with HealthLink B.C.

“If you go out a lot more frequently, you have to pay attention to making choices that are more healthful. It’s a matter of how much you have and how often.”

Nutritionists say diners can make healthy choices simply by reducing bread portions, choosing whole wheat more often, avoiding fried breads and limiting spreads slathered on top.

Diners can also ask for lower-fat choices at restaurants, such as not having their roti fried as part of their Indian meal, asking for half-sized bread baskets and choosing oven-baked bread with no fat over garlic toast.

“In Italian restaurants, they may offer you garlic bread, so you might want to ask if they have bread sticks, which are low-fat, while you wait, or vegetable sticks,” Quinn said.

Diana Steele, who owns nutrition consulting company Eating for Energy, noted breads that look shiny or have grease dripping out of them should be avoided. This includes garlic toast and focaccia bread drenched in oil and vinegar.

“Anything that leaves grease on your fingers when eating it is not probably a low-fat choice,” she said.

Quinn said many restaurants offer low-fat choices and breads with fewer trans fats — hydrogenated oils — which can increase the risk of coronary heart disease and cholesterol.

When in doubt, whole-grain breads with nuts, seeds, herbs or vegetables, or whole wheat pancakes with low-fat yogurt and berries are a healthier option to breads made from white flour, butter, lard and margarine, and pancakes slathered with butter and syrup.

Quinn noted focaccia can already be high in oil without adding to it. Croissants are also higher in fat than a whole wheat bagel depending on what spreads are added, and thin crust pizzas don’t have the same bulk as the cheese-filled ones.

Joey’s Tandoori Flat Bread, for instance, weighs in at 1,130 calories, 1,950 mg of sodium and just 50 grams of fat.

Quinn added pita bread with hummus is a healthy snack, but it depends on what’s in the spread and how much of it you eat. The same goes for tzatziki, which can be made from high-fat yogurt and mayonnaise.

And if you’re dining in a Mexican restaurant, she said, it’s better to choose a soft tortilla than a taco shell.

“The whole thing with breads is portion control and not having oil to dip it into,” she said. “If they use a lot of oil or mayonnaise or butter or cream, then just be careful.”