Something strange is happening to bagels. So strange, in fact, that when a client I'm counseling says, "All I had for breakfast was a bagel, and it held me till lunch," I start asking a lot of questions.
Where did you buy it? What brand was it? How big was it? What kind was it? What did you put on it? The answers to those questions shed light on its nutritional quality and explain how it's working for you in your overall healthy eating plan.
In its most primitive form, a bagel is a very simple, nearly fat-free yeast bread that fits comfortably in even the strictest diets. Essential ingredients include flour, water, yeast and a dash of salt. Some are made with milk, and a few are made with whole egg. But the amounts of milk and egg are so small they don't significantly affect the fat or cholesterol level. In fact, all bagels contain less than 1 gram of fat per ounce.
In an unusual, fat-free cooking process, bagels are first boiled in water, then baked in the oven, producing their unique, chewy quality. Warmed for just a few seconds in the microwave, they become moist and self-sufficient. Split and toasted, they become slightly dry and beg for a high-flavor topping to make them more palatable.
A tablespoon of jam, jelly or apple butter will add about 50 fat-free calories.
Classic toppings like cream cheese and lox add protein, a little calcium and some fat, and that's not all bad, especially if you control the portions.
Start with a small frozen bagel (160 calories, 1 gram fat), add an ounce of real cream cheese (50 calories, 5 grams fat) and 1 ounce of lox (33 calories, 1 gram fat) and you end up with a breakfast sandwich (243 calories, 7 grams fat) that fits within the strict labeling guidelines for a low-fat food (3 grams of fat or less, per 100 calories).
Include a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice (80 calories, no fat), and you have a healthy, well-balanced, low-calorie, low-fat breakfast (323 calories, 7 grams fat) that will satisfy your longing for a taste of the real thing and carry you happily till lunch time.
But this strange thing is happening to bagels. They're getting bigger.
Tufts University Diet & Nutrition Letter recently collected data on bagels from several sources and found that bagels are growing. A standard Lender's frozen bagel weighs 2 ounces, providing 160 calories and 1 gram of fat. But a Bagel Shop plain bagel weighs in at 2.9 ounces, 220 calories and 2.5 grams fat. Others got even bigger. Compare Bruegger's (3.6 ounces, 287 calories, 0.6 gram fat) and Au Bon Pain (5.5 ounces, 380 calories, 2 grams fat). Dunkin' Donuts provides information on its plain bagels (3 ounces, 210 calories, 1 gram fat), but Tufts weighed some of Dunkin' Donuts' bagels. They came in at 4.2 ounces, not 3, making their calorie count closer to 300.
Eating a larger bagel can be a very good thing. It can help tip the overall balance of your diet toward more complex carbohydrates from grains. If you're a big man, or an endurance athlete, you need a lot more fuel from carbs than other folks.
But it can present a bit of a problem to smaller, or less active, or older people who are working at weight control, because too much of even a good thing can pack on the pounds. A double-sized bagel requires twice as much topping. You could easily get an extra 200 calories that way. And an extra 200 calories a day will add a pound of body fat every 18 days.
By doubling up, you could gain 10 pounds in six months. That's a whole dress size!
But if you really want that bigger bagel, go ahead and enjoy it. Just make sure you cut back somewhere else.
Colleen Pierre, a registered dietitian, is the nutrition consultant to the Union Memorial Sports Medicine Center and Vanderhorst & Associates in Baltimore.