Toast isn’t just toast anymore. It’s merely just the bottom layer of a whole dish towards something color-rich, flavorful, satisfying, and packed with nutrition. It also doesn’t have to only be associated with breakfast. Toast can be a lunch, dinner, or snack idea, depending on how you want to build it.
Let’s take a look at how to make the best out of each tier of a carefully assembled toast to manage calorie intake, increase feelings of fullness, control your weight, and excite your taste buds.
Bread
When selecting the right bread as the base of your toast to accelerate weight loss efforts, we need to start with a whole grain choice. Whole grains are superior to refined grains because they contain all three parts of the seed or “kernel” of the plant: bran, endosperm, and germ. These three components hold key nutrition contributions, including fiber, protein, folate, B-vitamins, and even healthy fat. A refined bread only contains the endosperm, which is mostly just starch. Refined breads could have us hungry quicker than whole grains.
Look for “whole grain” or “whole wheat” as the first ingredient in the ingredient list (or second only if it’s behind water) and two grams or more of fiber per serving.
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Spreads
Next up is the schmear. A good guideline is to stick to one tablespoon of any spread per toast slice. This is a great opportunity to use healthy fat like hummus, peanut butter, or almond butter.
And we can’t talk toast without mentioning avocados! Spread on guacamole or lightly smashed slices of avocado (1/3 of an avocado is a serving) for creaminess and a boost of monounsaturated fats and fiber.
If you’re more into jams and jellies this would work here too: try to find ones that contain no more than five grams added sugar per one tablespoon serving.
Lastly, if you’re into cream cheese (dairy or non-dairy), seek out products with three grams of total fat or less per serving, which cuts down on the calories of this ingredient.
Toppings
Hopefully, your first idea for toppings is featuring nature’s candy: fruit. Fruit delivers a nice dose of fiber (mostly as soluble fiber which is shown to increase feelings of fullness and likely offset excess calorie intake), vitamins and minerals, and phytonutrients (healthy plant compounds inherent to fruits and other plants). Top picks include apple or pear slices, pomegranate, figs, raspberries, blueberries, or banana slices.
If you’d rather not have something sweet on your toast, switch to vegetables as a topping. You can give sliced cherry tomatoes, fresh onion, cucumber, or some pieces of arugula a try.
Other terrific additions to keep hunger at bay are fiber-filled seeds and nuts. Sprinkle on one to two tablespoons of chia seeds, sesame seeds, chopped walnuts, or almonds.
Last up, consider crumbling dairy or non-dairy feta cheese to pull the whole thing together.
Find more toast inspiration at Quick and Easy Sweet Potato Toasts Recipe or 15 Toast Recipe Ideas That Go Beyond Basic Avocado.