Wrong kind of bread gives wardens the bird: Park's visitors to have loaves confiscated and replaced with healthier snacks

Officials claim white bread causes arthritis, birth defects and starvation

RSPB says all bread is fine, as long as birds have a balanced diet

Birdseed offer at Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park aims to protect Queen's swans

By CLAIRE MCKIM

PUBLISHED: 12:40, 19 April 2013 | UPDATED: 12:40, 19 April 2013

It is a practice that has endured for generations – feeding the birds at the local park with the scraps from a loaf.

But now wardens at Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park have been ordered to stop bird-lovers throwing the ‘wrong’ kind of bread.

They will swap visitors’ white bread for a replacement snack of ‘healthier’ birdseed for them to distribute.

The policy is said to be aimed at protecting birdlife at St Margaret’s Loch in the royal park – including the Queen’s swans.

Officials claim white bread can give birds arthritis and cause birth defects or even starvation and they have put up signs warning against the practice.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has questioned the crackdown, saying all bread is fine, as long as birds have a balanced diet.

However, Holyrood Park ranger Matt McCade said: ‘White bread doesn’t have any nutritional value. It can cause arthritis and birth defects.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2311554/Wrong-kind-bread-gives-wardens-bird-Parks-visitors-loaves-confiscated-replaced-healthier-snacks.html#ixzz2R0Rpcuhz