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Celebrity chef Rachel Allen is urging people to rise to the occasion and not give up the great Irish tradition of bread making.

The TV star has backed a campaign calling on the nation to Love Your Loaf and celebrate one of Ireland’s favourite foods.

And the mum of three slammed fad diets, such as the Atkins, which shuns most carbohydrates.

She told the Irish Mirror: “If you talk to anyone who knows about nutrition we need carbs to balance with our proteins to make our proteins work.

“It’s not a road I would recommend anyone go down.

“If you cut out carbs completely and then have one little bit then everything goes back on again.

“We need to have a balanced diet. The Italians and the Spanish in the Mediterranean have always eaten things like tomatoes with bread on toasted bruschetta or tomatoes with pasta because tomatoes are there to control your blood sugars.

“We need to think about these classic combinations.

“I think we need to eat more like our grandparents.

“I’m not one for cutting things out because then I just feel deprived and then I just binge.”

Speaking in conjunction with National Bread Week which runs until Saturday Rachel, 43, said it

would be a shame if the country fell out of love with one of its finest exports.

Although we didn’t invent soda bread, we’ve made it ours.

During the Famine it was the easiest and least expensive to make.

And Rachel said it’s the best bread for budding bakers to kick off with.

She added: “It is really easy to make and there’s just a few basic rules with it.

“Bread-making is scientific. But once you follow the steps it’ll be brilliant.

“I would then move on to a yeast bread. You need to give it a bit of time. It’s a different kind of a bread to make.

“It’s good to experiment with different types of breads.

“With a brown yeast bread I slice it and freeze it. It’s really nutritious.

“And it’s great for someone who isn’t in a family where the bread will be eaten in a few hours.

“Sourdough is one of my favourites or a brown bread with seeds.”

Registered dietitian Dr Mary McCreery has also been heaping praise on the humble loaf and explained it has a valuable role to play as part of a healthy balanced diet.

“National Bread Week is a great opportunity to correct some of the confusion there is about bread.

“For example, many of the facts quoted about bread are based on American bread ,which is completely different in its composition, particularly its sugar content, to the healthier-style Irish bread.

“Contrary to popular belief bread is good for us – providing protein, folic acid and many

nutrients such as dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals needed for growth, maintenance of health

and wellbeing.

“For example, Irish people get more iron from white bread than they do from meat or fish dishes.

“It is also the second highest contributor to the calcium intake of the Irish population.”

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