Do you love eating French toast for breakfast? This is a breakfast meal that’s loved by many for how sweet and tasty it is.
You likely enjoy eating it as often as you can, but you might wish to avoid eating it too often because it contains a lot of calories.
French toast is delectable, but it’s not something you could consider to be a healthy breakfast food. If you’re looking to start your day with something nutritious, eating French toast surely won’t be your first thought.
What can you do to make French toast better for you? Keep reading for some simple ideas.
Is French Toast Bad for You?
French toast certainly isn’t the healthiest breakfast meal that you can make. It contains quite a bit of sugar, calories, and fat.
Of course, this depends on the ingredients that you use to make the dish. Some recipes are going to be worse than others when it comes to being unhealthy.
There are recipes out there that make French toast a bit healthier. So there are things you can do to modify standard recipes to make them a little better for you to eat.
Keep reading to learn about several ways you can make French toast healthy. This should make it easier to enjoy having this meal for breakfast without having to worry too much about consuming copious amounts of calories.
1 – Use a Healthier Recipe
There are all sorts of French toast recipes out there that you can try. Some of them are going to utilize healthier ingredients than others.
It’s wise to specifically seek out a healthy French toast recipe. These recipes are made in such a way to make the French toast a bit healthier.
Instead of using common ingredients they will replace some things with healthier alternatives. There are many ways to approach doing this.
For example, some recipes decide not to use heavy cream or dairy milk. Instead, they choose to utilize non-dairy milk options such as soy milk or almond milk.
2 – Consider Vegan French Toast
There are also many vegan French toast recipes that you can turn to. Generally, vegan French toast recipes are far healthier than standard French toast recipes.
This doesn’t mean that vegan French toast is a healthy food that you can eat all the time, though. These recipes simply allow you to make a version that contains healthier ingredients.
The breakfast dish might contain fewer calories and it’ll use less sugar. Such recipes use alternative ingredients to replace eggs, milk, and other ingredients.
For some, this will be an ideal way to enjoy French toast without having to worry so much about it being unhealthy. Not everyone is going to like the changes that are made to the traditional French toast recipes, though.
This is worth trying once to see how you like it. Many people adore vegan French toast recipes, but you can decide if this is something you enjoy or not once you try it for yourself.
3 – Avoid the Sugar
Sugar is something that adds unnecessary calories to French toast. People often put powdered sugar on top of French toast.
It’s true that the powdered sugar adds some sweetness and flavor to the dish. However, you can avoid using it to make French toast a little healthier.
You might also choose to avoid using white sugar. Some healthy recipes avoid sweetening the dish using standard sugar and will opt for other ingredients.
One alternative that can help to sweeten your French toast is honey. Honey isn’t necessarily a healthy ingredient, but it’s better than using sugar.
So you could use a bit of honey on the French toast to give it the sweetness that you desire. Many people love enjoying it with a little bit of honey.
4 – Use Healthier Toppings
Often, the toppings that people use wind up being very unhealthy. French toast is much unhealthier when you’re topping it with whipped cream and other such things.
Instead of using whipped cream, it might be wise to use other ingredients. Above, you learned that honey is a good choice.
Perhaps using a bit of honey as a topping instead of whipped cream will be helpful. You could also try using maple syrup in moderation.
Maple syrup isn’t healthy either, but it’s not so bad if you use just enough of it. Avoid the temptation of drowning your French toast in maple syrup.
Fresh Fruit Is Great
One great topping that you should consider is fruit. Fresh fruit can be used to top French toast and it can add so much to the dish.
There are many types of fresh fruit that you can use for this. Many people love topping French toast with strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.
You can even cut slices of bananas and use them as toppings. It’s okay to use whatever fresh fruit you think sounds good.
Some serve the fresh fruit directly on top of the French toast. You could use a bit of honey as well.
It’s also fine to serve the fruit on the side if you’d prefer to enjoy it that way. Either way, this is a natural way to add sweetness to the dish.
Only Enjoy French Toast in Moderation
Understand that French toast isn’t something you should eat too often. Even healthy French toast recipes aren’t truly healthy enough for you to enjoy all the time.
French toast is a breakfast food, but it’s also something that you should look at as a dessert. It’s not something you can indulge in too often for health purposes.
As such, it’s fine to enjoy standard French toast if you don’t like the idea of changing up how you make it. Perhaps the healthy French toast recipes or the vegan options don’t appeal to you.
This is perfectly fine because you get to decide what your preferences are. Just be careful and don’t eat it more often than you should.
If you keep French toast as only an occasional indulgence it won’t be a big problem. You can enjoy eating it with your family once or twice per month without it being that bad for you.
When you eat French toast try not to go overboard. Don’t consume too much of it so you don’t accidentally eat more calories than you should.
If you discover that you like some of the healthier recipes, it’ll be easier to enjoy French toast a little more often. You won’t have to worry as much about how many calories you’re taking in when the recipe is a bit healthier.
You might even want to try some things out just to see if you enjoy them. If you don’t, you don’t have to eat French toast that way again.
Trying new things just gives you an opportunity to see what you like. Many people have discovered that they like the healthy French toast options, but you can also just enjoy standard French toast in moderation if that’s more your speed.
Final Thoughts
Do your best to make good choices so you can stay healthy. French toast is indeed a great breakfast dish that many people enjoy, but it’s also not very healthy.
This isn’t a breakfast dish that you should eat all the time. You can make it a bit healthier by changing how you make the dish, though.
There are healthy recipes and vegan recipes that change things up substantially. You can replace many ingredients to make the dish healthier, but this will alter the way that it tastes.
It’s also possible to avoid using too much sugar. You might want to change the toppings that you use to save yourself from consuming too many calories, too.
If you like having French toast the usual way, it’s fine to enjoy it in moderation. Otherwise, you can try to make it as healthy as possible so you won’t feel guilty about eating it a bit more often.
Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.