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When it comes to losing weight in a healthy way, every meal you eat adds up to work towards your ultimate goal. However, breakfast is notably important as it is the first meal of the day and therefore sets the tone for the hours to come. If you eat a healthy, nutrient dense breakfast, it follows that you’ll be more likely to continue those habits throughout the rest of your day.
There are any number of healthy meals you can turn to for breakfast, and from eggs to oatmeal they all offer a variety of vitamins and minerals that can help to increase satiety and promote weight loss with ease. But just as it can be easy to create well-balanced meals, it’s just as easy to accidentally include ingredients in these dishes which don’t do much to help you reach your goals, and instead overload your breakfast with fat and calories, making weight loss that much more difficult. In order to create the best version of your eating plan, there’s one ingredient that health experts warn you should steer clear of when cooking up breakfast each morning.
Butter is often included in a variety of breakfast dishes from pancakes to toast, and while it can have a place in moderation in your diet, margarine, a butter alternative, should be avoided with care for an easier time losing weight. “Margarine is full of artificial ingredients and synthetic vitamins, which do nothing to boost your immune system,” explains family physician Dr. Waqas Ahmad Buttar. “The biggest disadvantage of margarine is the trans fat level. Trans-fatty acids increase the risk of a heart attack.” Putting your overall health at risk, margarine is also loaded with calories that can quickly add up when layered on toast in the morning. Dr. Buttar notes that most margarine options boast 717 calories per 100 grams, and it’s easy to accidentally exceed the serving size if you aren’t measuring your portions.
Fat is actually a vital part of your everyday diet even for weight loss, but the type of fat and amount you’re consuming is key for determining if it serves your body. According to RD Alexandra Soare, the processed fat from margarine is far from beneficial for your body, particularly as you work to better your health because it increases LDL, the bad cholesterol in your body, while decreasing the good cholesterol. “This processed fat is not only bad for weight loss and metabolism, but it can damage your body over time. The main problem comes from the trans fat that is a product of the industrial process. Because they don't occur naturally, the body has problems dealing with them.” Longterm, it can affect your metabolism and even your immune response, making margarine best left on the shelf and not in your diet.
Butter is not much better in terms of providing nutrients for weight loss, but you can hardly be expected to enjoy your morning toast plain. Thankfully, there are now a variety of healthier butter alternatives on the market that you can turn to, but it’s still best to use them sparingly and in moderation. Everyday Health suggests, “Consider the newer vegetable oil and olive oil spreads, as well as the plant stanol spreads that have been clinically proven to lower cholesterol while livening up your baked potato. While you won’t eliminate many calories with the switch, you’ll at least be eating healthy fats that are better for your heart.”
Weight loss comes down to so much more than the spread you choose to include in your breakfast, but making a variety of small changes in your diet over time will help make it easier to see visible weight loss results and spare unhealthy calories that may be standing in the way of your goals. At the end of the day, a diet that is conducive to long term weight loss will be one that you can stick to, so making small swaps is an easy way to improve your eating plan without much effort. You can still enjoy your buttered toast each morning to accompany your eggs, but consider leaving margarine out of the equation in favor of a vegetable or olive oil spread for slightly more nutritional benefit without overloading on trans fat.
