Butter the toast of the nation

AUSTRALIANS love toast the most for breakfast — but, surprisingly, the iconic Vegemite is not the king of spreads on top.

Butter is now the nation’s preferred spread in NSW, Victoria and Queensland, followed by Vegemite and peanut butter in second and third place. Honey and jam didn’t even get a look-in.

While the three eastern states equally love plain butter on toast, leading order-ahead app Hey You has revealed to News Corp each state prefers different gourmet toppings.

Based on its customer database of 650,000 people who order on-the-go, users in NSW prefer eggs, while Victorians and Queenslanders prefer their toast with avocado.

As for our favourite way to carb load, NSW users of the app love Turkish bread the most, while Victorians order multigrain bread just ahead of raisin toast.

In Queensland, artisan sourdough bread dominates most orders.

Other popular breakfast choices were banana bread in NSW, bacon and egg rolls in Victoria and breakfast wraps in Queensland.

Australia’s favourite coffee is still the flat white, which dominated orders in NSW and Queensland for a second year, followed by the humble cappuccino.

But Victorians prefer to order a latte.

Accredited practising dietitian Anika Rouf told News Corp toast orders with butter, Vegemite, peanut butter or avocado “can be made healthy”, so long as the amount of spread is kept thin, and the right bread is chosen.

“A thin spread would be about 10g of peanut butter but a thick spread (around 25g) gives you almost 100 more calories,” she said.

“Peanut butter is a great source of protein and good fat. It also has high levels of fibre, vitamin E and potassium, which makes it a great source of vitamins and minerals.

“Vegemite can certainly be included as part of a healthy diet, including for children at breakfast — especially if served on wholegrain, wholemeal or other higher fibre bread.”

Ms Rouf said sourdough and multigrain toast were better breads to eat.

“But you really have to be careful because often multigrain is simply white bread with grains added. Even so, generally the added grains makes it slower to digest,” she said. “Wholegrain sourdough would be a better option due to the higher fibre content.”

She said Turkish and raisin bread were all right to eat in moderation, but recommends more “fibre rich foods” including toast toppers like mushrooms, tomatoes, baked beans, banana or berries.