How healthy are bagels? I love them, but I'm worried they are filled with empty calories.

I'm afraid not very, though most people feel otherwise. It is nearly impossible to find 100 percent whole-grain (of any type) flour in bagels. Even "whole wheat" bagels are mostly white flour with a little whole wheat thrown in.

Refined flour converts to SUGAR as soon as it hits the ptyalin enzymes in your saliva. Whole-grain flour does too, but the difference is that it is loaded with fiber. That does two things: It slows the breakdown from starch to sugar, and it is too heavy for you to eat as much, even though that heaviness has NO additional calories. So you eat fewer calories and the slower-releasing sugar satisfies you longer.

I'm afraid the health concept of bagels has been a bit perverted by the flour industry ... the shelf life (not your life) is the primary concern, and fresh, whole-grain flour is poor in that respect.

Good health,
A.N. Spreen, M.D.