I’m just going to throw it out there; I love bread. Yep that may be a weird thing to say, but over the past couple of years, we’ve seen lots of bad press towards carbs and in particular bread. It’s not something I paid much attention to, but as I’ve started to get more into fitness and looking at what I ate, I often came across food plans or diets that were either low carb or no carbs. Bread was almost like a naughty word, and I could never quite understand why.
I was invited down to a special pop up cafe last week in London which was held by the nation’s bakers to celebrate bread and why bread should be eaten as part of a balanced diet. I was intrigued to find out more, and to see if bread was really good for us.
The Toast or Hands cafe was situated in Shoreditch, and was giving away free unicorn toast (more on this later) and it was pretty busy full of other toast lovers like myself (you just can’t beat a good old slice of toast can you?)
As well as enjoying unicorn toast at the cafe, I got the chance to speak to Lily Soutter, a nutritionist who was on hand to talk all things bread. I took this opportunity to ask her some questions about bread, and why there is such a misconception about it. When I asked her ‘was bread good for us?’ Her answer was yes, and said how bread is a great source of fibre, especially wholemeal bread. She explained that fibre is essential for us to be eating, and many of us aren’t eating enough, she said on average most people are eating 15-18g of fibre a day, when you should be having 30g. So bread is a good way to get more fibre into your diet.
The benefits of eating fibre are that; it keeps you fuller for longer, helps to control blood sugar levels, and helps to aid a healthy digestive system.
I personally tend to eat mainly wholemeal carbs such as bread, mainly because I feel it’s ‘better’ for me and keeps me fuller for longer, so I was intrigued to ask Lily whether this was the case. She said that wholemeal bread does have more fibre so it will keep you fuller for longer, but she said that refined white bread shouldn’t be overlooked as it still has essentials vitamins, is still high in fibre and is low in sugar and fat. So it’s down to a personal preference but bread isn’t bad for you at all!
Part of the misconception with bread is that it seems to not be great if you’re trying to lose weight, but Lily explained that when ate as part of a balanced diet, there was no reason why you can’t lose weight and enjoy bread. She said to take into account with what you have with your bread, she gave some good examples such as avocado on toast (which is good fat and will keep you fuller for longer) and unicorn toast which is cream cheese which is again good fat. A slice of bread is only 80 calories too!
So speaking of what to have with your toast, today I thought I’d show you how you can recreate unicorn toast at home, trust me it does taste good!
For unicorn toast, all you’re going to need is :
Bread (totally depends which type on your preference)
Cream Cheese
Food colouring (see here for a way to use natural food dyes)
Optional Extras: Marshmallows, sprinkles, glitter…
Now it’s very easy, all you need to do is; mix your food colouring with your cream cheese for your desired colours, I think that pastel colours look especially unicorn-like, then toast your bread, then spread on and voila!
You can get creative and spread your topping however you like, and then if you’re perhaps fancying this for more of an Instagram post, you can add toppings such as marshmallows, sprinkles or even edible glitter.
Ultimately this tastes like cream cheese on toast, so perfect for a breakfast, lunch or snack! I wouldn’t have it every day, but it’s a fun thing to make especially as the kids are on their summer holidays right now!
So there we go, bread is good for you; it’s low in calories, high in fibre and also a cheap and accessible way form of carbohydrates. To find out more about bread, follow @WeHeartBread on twitter.
I found visiting the cafe really interesting, almost a little relieved that I was right that one of my fave foods isn’t bad for me! Unicorn toast all round!
Do you love bread? What’s your fave topping for toast?
* This post was sponsored by We Heart Bread, however all opinions are 100% my own and honest as always. To find out more about how I work on sponsored posts, read my disclaimer here.
