We’ve been doing breakfast all wrong for generations. There is no doubt in my mind. And I’m thinking mass breakfast hysteria may be at the root of our current socio-cultural madness. Give me a few minutes to state my case…
How the Hell did we get ourselves into the mess we’re in today, where we persist
in habits and choices that result in the wastage of up to 2/3 of our fresh,
healthy food between the farm gate and our dinner plate?
Submitted for your consideration…
I guess it was the notion of Breakfast Chili, and the earnest debate about whether Ketchup deserves a higher profile at breakfast both made a sleep-robbing impression on me over the past week.
But, if breakfast truly is ‘the most important meal of the day’, why do so many of us eat such improbable breakfasts?
By that I mean, ‘cereals’ that are 85 percent sugar? Other empty-Calorie foods such as breads, jams and jellies? Fatty faves such as cured meats? Just generally unbalanced meals that tend to feature cascades of sugar, salt and or fat that we wouldn’t dream of serving at other mealtimes throughout the day?
Dangerously vulerable…
When we rise and try to shine after 8 hours of otherwise restorative sleep, it’s only natural we looking for something substantial to counteract the inevitable cravings that have built up over a relatively long interval with no food intake.
During our waking, active hours, we normally have a full meal every 4 hours or so. Overnight we go at least 8 hours without eating at all. And just lately (about the last 5 years) doctors have been saying we should extend that foodless period backwards into the evening, Eating too late in the evening, they warn, could cause sleep disturbances as well as metabolic imbalances.
They postulate that eating at night might also be contributing to the obesity crisis. Is it natural, they ask, to be taking in full meals before nodding off – when we’ll be at an extreme of inactivity and prone to storing away unneeded Calories as fat? I ask, it is naturl not to eat full, nalanced meals heading into the part of our day wnen out minds and bodies want to restore and refresh themselves?
That’s opening the door to a completely different, though related issue. Maybe we’ll address it in the future. But today we’re discussing breakfast – the ‘aftermath’ or, maybe, the counterpoint of what can be considered an abnormally long, 12-hour-or-more interval between meals.
My epiphany…
I say that, when your body wakes after a ‘regular’ night, its cravings as well as its valid nutritional needs are screaming like a choir of horny alley cats for Calories!
In situations such that, why does it seem so natural for cravings to win out over reasoned, calculated, balanced food choices?
Why would so many of us breakfast so recklessly as to pile carbs on top of carbs on top of carbs? Which is to say, pile pancakes and/or waffles on top of sugar-doused, sugar-infused ‘cereal’? And add toast on top of that? And adorn the toast and pancakes with sugar-bomb jams and jellies, syrups and honey? Not to mention a fatstorm of butter?
Okay, I’ll admit that many folks do ‘insist’ on topping their breakfast carbs with a handful of fresh or dried fruit. But that’s mere lipservice to the sensible, intuitive notion that breakfast is an important time to load up on nutrition-packed fresh produce. Not to mention ‘clean’ protein. To power us through the active ‘half’ of our 24-hour daily cycle.
What DOES make sense?
I contend that what makes sense for most of us is a breakfast composed of modest ‘doses’ of clean protein (including eggs!), lots of fresh fruit (a balanced variety – 2 or 3 complementary types), and some kind of healthy carb, such as a wholegrain cereal or bread product.
Meanwhile, consider this… It’s only due to the art and science of modern advertising that products such as sugar-infused and/or coated breakfast cereals, for instance, even exist…
My take
Now that I’ve got you thinking…
My Questions to you:
If common sense prevailed, would we not be looking at food choices for breakfast that much more resemble what we now consider ‘normal’ for supper?
Why don’t we Westerners ‘naturally’ gravitate toward the kind of breakfast that folks from less-developed parts of the world – such as Asia, Africa and the so-called Blue Zones – who live longer, healthier lives than we do, typically choose for breakfast?
Just in general…. Why do we Westerners tend to cave to our cravings rather than following our innate (though long-suppressed) common sense when it comes to something as fundamental and essential to our well being and health as food choices?
To put it in a darker ‘light’ – how the Hell did we get ourselves into the mess we’re in today, when it would be so easy to solve so many of our cultural and societal problems by simply eating better? It’s not because decent food isn’t available.
On the other hand, why do we persist in habits and choices that result in the wastage of up to 2/3 of our fresh, healthy food between the farm gate and our dinner plate?
Muse on that…
~ Maggie J.