Whole wheat bagels get a thumbs-up

Nutritionists have been on bagels' case for years. They're a popular breakfast food, but they're also loaded with flour, sugar and stuff that, eaten every day, isn't so good for the waistline.

A recent discovery on the local shelves is a whole wheat bagel from Thomas. It's 270 calories, has 2 grams of fat and 8 grams of fiber. It's an actual whole wheat bagel (meaning that whole wheat flour is the main ingredient) and is pretty good.

Now, its texture isn't New York chewy bagel. It's rather bread-like, but it tastes really good. Very filling, not real sweet and its good plain or with a little low-fat cream cheese.

Also getting good reviews in our house: organic whole wheat bread from Cobblestone Mill. I happened upon a few loaves at the Flowers Bakery Outlet (Monday was double-punch day, by the way). The 8-year-old had a few sandwiches with it, then was disappointed when the supply ran dry.

"It tasted really fresh," was his review. Not bad, considering that it came from an outlet store.