You may think they are harmless, but they may not be quite what you think.

Scientific research is fundamental in order to improve our daily lives, and the lives of future generations. Sometimes, however, it can be just plain annoying.

News bulletins are all too frequently subject to bombardment about scare stories regarding foods. You open the paper and see, “Don’t ever eat bacon, not if you want to live.” I mean, come on! Why does it always have to be food and drink that is actually nice?

And the news is contradictory. “Why not wash that steak down with a nice glass of red wine, both are good for the heart.” Then, a few weeks later, “Anyone who regularly eats steak and drinks red wine, apologies, but you may only have minutes to live”. It’s ridiculous.

Having said that, there are some common misconceptions with regards to food that may appear healthy or harmless but, in fact, they are not as good for you as many people may perceive them to be.

The Department of Health recommends that the GDA of calories for men is approximately 2,550 per day and for women around 1,940. With that in mind, although I am a firm believer in eating whatever you like, here is a list of ten foods, often selected as breakfast or a light snack that you may perhaps think twice about before eating regularly.

Croissant

Love them or hate them, the French gave us the croissant. Plain ones, jam filled ones, strawberry—the possibilities really are endless. Yet, although they may only look small, and hardly filling, just one croissant contains:

224 kcals of calories
3.2 grams of sugars
11.8 grams of fat
5.9 grams of saturated fats
0.63 grams of salt

Bagel with margarine

The humble bagel, often seen as a healthier substitute to a greasy breakfast, but it is still packing plenty of calories for such an unassuming piece of dough. Even though the middle bit is missing, just one bagel with margarine contains:

226 kcals of calories
4.6 grams of sugars
9.5 grams of fat
1.7 grams of saturated fats
1.13 grams of salt

Crumpets with margarine

A very British breakfast offering, surely the crumpet could not be a health offender. Well, a serving of two crumpets with 20g of margarine contains:

315 kcals of calories
2.5 grams of sugars
17.4 grams of fat
3.4 grams of saturated fats
2.4 grams of salt

 
English muffin with margarine

Just one English muffin, with no filling, no juicy tasty bacon, just 20g of margarine contains:

326.7 kcals of calories
2.6 grams of sugars
18.4 grams of fat
3.7 grams of saturated fats
1.2 grams of salt

Blueberry muffin

An average sized blueberry muffin, the healthy alternative to a Sausage and Egg McMuffin, contains:

334 kcals of calories
23 grams of sugars
16.4 grams of fat
3 grams of saturated fats
0.74 grams of salt

 
Danish pastry

The Danish sure know how to make a pastry, but we should have known that they would contain a lot of calories because they taste so nice. Just one medium-sized Danish pastry contains:

376 kcals of calories
31.3 grams of sugars
15.5 grams of fat
9.5 grams of saturated fats
0.5 grams of salt

Jam and margarine on wholegrain toast

It’s the basic no fuss breakfast. Just two slices of wholegrain bread, with 20g of margarine and 20g of strawberry jam, unbelievably contains almost the same amount of calories as peanut butter on white bread:

386 kcals of calories
22.7 grams of sugars
18 grams of fat
3.7 grams of saturated fats
1.25 grams of salt

Peanut butter on toast

Getting a little hit of protein as a mid-day snack is great. But, just two slices of white toast with peanut butter contains:

387 kcals of calories
4.9 grams of sugars
21.8 grams of fat
5.3 grams of saturated fats
1.11 grams of salt

Honey on toast

Honey is good for you, right? And yet, just two slices of toast with 20g margarine and 40g of honey contain:

409 kcals of calories
32.9 grams of sugars
17.6 grams of fat
3.6 grams of saturated fats
1.11 grams of salt

Scrambled egg on toast

It is, by far, the worst offender, even though regarded as a healthier option to a fried egg. Just two slices of toasted white bread with margarine and scrambled eggs may surprise many people as it contains:

602 kcals of calories
3 grams of sugars
45.7 grams of fat
17.5 grams of saturated fats
1.03 grams of salt

While some of these choices might be better for you than other options, they aren’t the healthiest choices either. Removing them from your diet isn’t necessary, but it’s good to know how even a small meal, like these, might be impacting your daily intakes.

Yang Li, from London and proud to be a Londoner. Her daily job is to manage Chillisauce.co.uk website that features glamorous and leisure life in London. Contact her to learn more about cool and trendy events in London! You can follow her on twitter @Smiley_Yang or just drop her an email at [email protected]

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Editor: Lorin Arnold