Healthy Food Choices: Breads

Breads and grains are the foundation of a healthy diet, according to the food pyramid. Try these tips for buying breads in this healthy shopping video.

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Good sources of B vitamins, iron
Do not judge bread by color
Check ingredients
Go for highest fiber per slice

About this Author

Michelle Cooper has been a registered dietician for more than 10 years. She currently works for the state of North Carolina for the New Hanover County School District in the Child Nutrition Department as the supervising registered dietician on staff. She specializes in child nutrition, child fitness and overall child health. She enjoys her job because it allows her to be a pivotal piece of child development.

MICHELLE COOPER: Next, we are going to talk about bread. Bread can be a great low-fat, high-carbohydrate source of energy that provides us with much needed B vitamins and some iron. The most important thing when purchasing your bread is to check the ingredient list. The number one ingredient you want to find is whole grains or whole wheat. You can not judge the bread by the color, because sometimes the bread may be darkened or you may find white bread that is actually made with whole grain and has been lightened, so the children who do not like dark bread will--it will be more acceptable to them. Also, you want to try to get the highest fiber per slice that you can. Now, you can also find whole grain hotdog buns and hamburger buns as well. When purchasing or eating prepared breads, you want to eat breads that have not been prepared with fat. So instead of getting something like corn bread that has added fat or biscuits that have added fat, opt for a dinner roll or a slice of Italian bread without adding any additional margarine or butter to it. So when shopping for a sandwich bread, number one, you want to read the ingredient list to make sure the number one ingredient is whole grain or whole wheat. Number two, look for one that has high fiber at least one gram per slice. And number three, when eating out, opt for dinner rolls or breads that are made without fat like Italian bread rather than biscuits or corn bread.

Healthy Food Choices: Breads Video

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