Is breakfast on the run healthy?

Of course, we all know we should eat a healthy breakfast before we leave for work, but let's face it, most of us simply grab a cappuccino and a muffin on the way into the office and eat at our desks. But choose carefully where you stop en route to work - or else your waistline could pay the price. When we looked at the nutritional value of a muffin and a coffee at five different coffee chains on the High Street - and McDonald's, too - we found that you can end up eating twice the calories for the same breakfast depending on where you go.

COSTA

High-cal option: Chocolate muffin 408 cal

Cappuccino 74 cal

TOTAL 482 cal

Low-cal option: Apricot danish 246 cal

Espresso 8 cal

TOTAL 254 cal

Our expert, nutritionist Ian Marber (The Food Doctor) said: "You are effectively using up a quarter of your suggested daily calorie intake on breakfast. This would be fine if you were using it on protein and fibre, but it's going on sugar. You'll be lacking oomph and be hungry again pretty soon. The Danish is better - you could say it contains fruit, but we all know that the apricot is laced in sugar and there's not so much of it. It's OK if you combine it with some protein."

McDonald's

High-cal options:

Double sausage and egg McMuffin 573 cal

Cappuccino 92 cal

TOTAL 665 cals

Low-cal option: Buttered muffin 157 cal

Latte 59 cal

TOTAL 216 cal

Ian Marber says: "I'm not a big fan of this sort of breakfast and you'd be surprised how many people have it. We don't know what the saturated fat content is, but I'd guess it's pretty high. However, saying that, this is much better than any of the other muffins and pastries listed because it has such a high protein content. It will keep you going much longer - the muffins will only get you to about 11 o'clock. The buttered muffin is a pretty pointless piece of food - it's just fat and carbohydrate."

COSTA

High-cal option

Orange muffin 472 cal

Latte 194 cal

TOTAL 666 cal

Low-cal option: Plain croissant 234 cal

Cappuccino with skimmed milk, no chocolate 54 cal

TOTAL 288 cal

Ian Marber says: "It's amazing how many calories the orange muffin contains - the words orange and muffin together are not equal to 470-odd calories in most people's heads. The croissant isn't great either, but obviously better than the muffin - combine it with the Pret egg sandwich (a great breakfast) and it's OK."

STARBUCKS

High-cal option: White chocolate and strawberry muffin 417 cal

Tall skinny mocha 302 cal

TOTAL 719 cal

Low-cal option: Sunrise muffin 241 cal

Espresso 6

cal TOTAL 247 cal

Ian Marber says: "You wouldn't expect the white chocolate muffin to be lower in calories than the orange one, however it's still not doing you any good in terms of energy for the day. Like the orange and apricot products, I doubt the fruit content is anything to write home about. The low-fat option is interesting - I think a lot of people go for these thinking they can skip calories, but although it is low in fat, it will be high in sugar and you will want another one in a couple of hours, thus doubling your calorie intake."

COFFEE REPUBLIC

High-cal option: Double chocolate muffin 390 cal

Cappuccino 90 cal

TOTAL 480 cal

Low-cal option: Blueberry muffin 226 cal

Espresso 8 cal

TOTAL 234 cal

Ian Marber says: "Funnily-this chocolate extravaganza is much lower in calories than our Pret orange muffin. But not many will have it for breakfast because it
sounds fatty. The fruity muffins, such as the blueberry one, and pastries are eaten because their names are associated with breakfast.

"In reality they are cakes that should be eaten occasionally as treats, masquerading as a substantial breakfast."

Ian Marber works at The Food Doctor nutrition clinic in Holland Park, 020 7792 6700; website: www.thefooddoctor.com