This Takes the Cake…I Mean Bread!! I Say EAT Bread!... It’s A Great Diet!

I’m tired of hearing people say that bread is not good for you, especially someone overweight, sitting next to me in a restaurant, lecturing me about how bread is fattening, while I watch them ingest a 300g steak, baked potato with butter and sour cream, and anticipating dessert …but they would not touch the bread!

I like to remind such people—who say, “bread is not good for you, how can you eat it when you’re a beauty/diet/anti-aging expert,” - that, at age 78, having eaten lots of bread - at almost every meal - I still weigh the same as I did back then, and I’m extremely healthy and agile, with normal blood pressure without a bit of medication…and with the bone density of someone in their 20’s, according to my doctor, not to mention how young I feel and how young people say I look. Forget about Atkins, No Carb, South Beach, and all the other many diets. I say, try The Bread Diet!

I love bread, and I really have eaten it all my life almost every meal. One of the biggest mysteries to me is why people on a diet will pass on the bread, or rolls, because they are on a diet…yet order food heavy with tons of calories and fat and eat it all. 

It’s simple. Bread is not fattening. An average slice contains 70 calories; an average roll is 113 calories. Bread is filling, helping to reduce the craving for higher calorie foods during the meal. A baked potato, for example, (104 calories) with butter (100 calories) and sour cream (150 calories). It’s easy to see how a roll or 2 slices of bread, with just a little butter (or, better, none) can replace many calories (and fat) during a meal; in the baked potato example, as many as 200.

An 8 oz Porterhouse Steak has 450 calories! Yes, one dinner roll has 20.1 carbohydrates and the steak has none but the “fat” content is more dangerous and certainly more fattening in the long run. When the No Carb diet became very popular, doctors saw how unhealthy many of their patients became…some developing heart problems…they were told to get off the No Carb diet. It’s a terrible diet to be on for more than a short time.

So the next time you go to a restaurant, eat more tasty bread and less fattening food…you will lose weight… and even save money! My favorite meal? One or two rolls or bread, two appetizers, one of which I take as a main course, and then sometimes a dessert, which I often share with my tablemates. Once in a while, if I decide to have an appetizer and a main course, I will steal a bite of someone else’s dessert...but I always eat my bread.


For family dinner dieting buy the best rolls or bread…maybe it’s worth it to find a good bakery. Choose your bread as carefully as you would linger over a piece of meat to serve for dinner, or pick over the vegetables to get the best. Encourage your family to eat a roll or two or one or two slices of bread and, at the same time, cook and serve less meat and other high calorie foods at the table. It’s healthier and you’ll save money. Americans are not losing weight; we’re getting fatter by the day. So let’s use some logic…what do we have to lose…but weight? Bread is a good diet aid.

For lunch have a sandwich. Choose nutritious bread. Whenever possible, I choose breads for extra nutrition, as well as its stomach filling qualities. Be careful though if you are on a strict diet, some bread products are higher in calories, such as a 2 oz. muffin, 165 calories, and a 2 oz. croissant, 240 calories.

One slice of whole wheat has 56, one slice of white enriched has 62, and pumpernickel has 79 calories. Put a little fresh cold cuts in between the bread…keep the butter and mayo low…use a little mustard for added flavor if/when appropriate and put some lettuce and tomato on it…yum, yum…and look at the low calories…take that, diet! Compare that, calorie and health wise, to a Big Mac (590 calories) or a Double Whopper w/cheese (1010 calories)… no, no’s for health and weight.


The texture, flavor and the taste of bread should be savored, eaten slowly…enjoyed. I’m sure you know that a great restaurant is known for and by its breads…not so tasty bread probably means it’s not the greatest of restaurants.

Don’t underestimate bread…it is more than just a bread. If you feel deprived, or it isn’t the best of breads being served, then put a little “flavor” of butter on it…believe me it will taste just as good, even better, once you become accustomed to NOT piling on the butter.