Are there health benefits to bagel scooping?

A scooped bagel is exactly what it sounds like: The inside of the bagel is carved out, and you’re left with the shell of a bagel. How you eat your food is your own business, but if you scoop your bagel, expect controversy to ensue.

On Oct. 26, Los Angeles native Taylor Offer was visiting New York City when he decided to get a bagel for breakfast, according to Today. Offer posted to TikTok that he was denied a gluten-free scooped bagel, causing the video to go viral and an uproar on social media about whether or not it was OK.

Where did the bagel scooping trend come from?

Scooping bagels isn’t a new health trend. According to Bon Appétit, a possibility for its origin “came from the late ’90s and early aughts, when the Atkins diet made everyone terrified of carbs.”

In 2016, the book “Should I Scoop Out My Bagel?” by dietitians Hallie Rich and Ilyse Schapiro caused rebuttal articles, such as “Bagel scoopers are ruining NYC” by the New York Post and “Here’s the real reason you shouldn’t order a scooped-out bagel” by Brokelyn, to be published.

How are people reacting?

“Los Angeles probably has great bagels,” one New York native said about Offer’s video, “but in New York, scooping bagels isn’t a thing — it’s blasphemy. It just feels wrong,” per Spoon University.

On X, some users shared their honest feelings about bagel scoopers.

Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights posted, “Scooped bagels are the real horror.”

scooped bagels are the real horror 🥯

— Halloween Horror Nights (@HorrorNightsORL) October 30, 2023

Two X users shared similar experiences when learning about scooped bagels for the first time. One user said, “I miss the person I was before I learned about scooped bagels,” while the other user said, “I wish I could go back to two days ago when I didn’t know people scooped bagels.”

i miss the person i was before i learned about scooped bagels

— 𝙍𝙞𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨 (@riversmetimbers) October 29, 2023

I wish I could go back to two days ago when I didn’t know people scooped bagels

— heath’s evil twin (@Hotdogheath) October 28, 2023

Why are people scooping their bagels?

For people who like less bread and more stuffing in the middle, scooping out bread allows for more fillings or toppings to go inside the bagel.

Taking out more bread is considered a healthier alternative than eating the whole bagel, but doesn’t filling it with more cream cheese defeat the purpose?

“Calorie and carb reduction depends on how much is actually taken out of the bagel,” Deborah Cohen, an associate professor in the Department of Clinical and Preventive Nutrition Sciences at Rutgers University School of Health Professions, told Health.

Cohen added, “Sometimes one can get a lot out and sometimes not. It depends on the type of bagel, where it was made and if it’s toasted or not — I find scooping harder and more messy on a toasted bagel.”

So, depending on the type of bagel and how much bread is actually scooped out, calorie and carb content will vary.

Healthline said that for bagel lovers with diabetes or high blood pressure, carving out the inside of a bagel could potentially be a healthier alternative.

“However, it’s not necessary to choose scooped bagels to help with weight loss or diabetes management. If you don’t eat bagels often, choosing a scooped over an unscooped one is likely not going to make that much of a difference,” per Healthline.

Healthline emphasized that “maintaining an overall healthy eating pattern instead of focusing on the calories or carbs in a single food is a healthier and more sustainable way to approach weight loss and conditions, like diabetes.”

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