"Breakfast was the most important meal of the day — until America ruined it"

lemurcat12

aggelikik wrote: »

Cereal is a treat, it is not breakfast. Nothing wrong with treats, but I prefer to have e.g. a slice of cake if it is going to be a treat for breakfast. Far more tasty.

Cake is a terrible breakfast.

Obviously pie is the correct treat for breakfast.

(Not kidding about my taste preference here, but of course kidding.)

Christine_72

Oh and when i was a kid in the 70's, we had the healthy tasteless crap for breakfast, stuff like weetbix or my mums homemade oats & muesli concoction, or wholegrain toast with vegemite. It was a day of immense celebration when my mum came home with a small box of fruit loops or coco pops, a once every 3 month occurrence.

HeliumIsNoble

I wonder... in my case, the biggest issue with cereal is that the recommended portion size (30-45g) is incompatible with any sense of satiation. Staying full until lunch? No chance. It's just too tiny.

Christine_72

HeliumIsNoble wrote: »

I wonder... in my case, the biggest issue with cereal is that the recommended portion size (30-45g) is incompatible with any sense of satiation. Staying full until lunch? No chance. It's just too tiny.

Lol for a 3 year old kid maybe.

crushingitdaily12345

I quit eating breakfast due to intermittent fasting, and I feel great. My body loves me for it!

AnvilHead

As a kid I often ate a half-box of cereal in the morning (Peanut Butter Crunch, Lucky Charms, Crunch Berries, Frosted Flakes, etc.), along with 12-16 ounces of whole milk and usually at least 4 pieces of toast with butter. Usually a glass or two of orange juice with it, and I drank full sugar sodas all day long. On weekends it was usually big omelettes and biscuits with sausage gravy (my dad's specialty, and I've never had sausage gravy so good since!).

I was skinny as a rail and couldn't gain weight if I wanted to (and I tried). That's because I was growing like a weed and on the run from sunrise to sunset. Playing sports at at school, racing bicycles on the weekends, street football until we got called in the house at night - my caloric expenditure was through the roof. My weight gain started when I went to college and wasn't anywhere near as active (and not growing anymore), but still eating the same. It wasn't sugar or carbs that made me gain weight, it was that my CO changed and the CI didn't.

Any nutrition "expert" who starts spewing the "carbz/sugarz iz da debilz" garbage immediately loses all credibility with me. Science clearly shows otherwise and my own personal experience throughout my life does as well. Carbs don't make you fat, eating too much makes you fat. CICO is an irrefutable truth, no matter what you're eating.

Oh, and I can still crush a box of Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch cereal once in a while!

cmtigger

lemurcat12 wrote: »

aggelikik wrote: »

Cereal is a treat, it is not breakfast. Nothing wrong with treats, but I prefer to have e.g. a slice of cake if it is going to be a treat for breakfast. Far more tasty.

Cake is a terrible breakfast.

Obviously pie is the correct treat for breakfast.

(Not kidding about my taste preference here, but of course kidding.)

My mom was always careful to hide if she was eating a slice of leftover pie for breakfast, but my dad did it all the time. Or a brownie, or whatever sweet was on the counter.

I was a little confused because those things didn't seem to different from the pancakes or doughnuts we had a few times a month.

Our everyday breakfasts were instant oatmeal, or sweet cereals like captn crunch. My favorite has always been fruity pebbles. But weekends or holidays we might have eggs and bacon, or an egg casserole, and the before mentioned pancakes, waffles, french toast, or doughnuts.

None of us were overweight until our late 30's, and then just barely overweight. We actually were a bit underweight as teens. I put on weight not because of breakfast, but because of a congenital issue catching up with me and reducing my activity.

paperpudding

For around 20 years I have eaten the same breakfast about 5 days per week - 3 weetbix with milk and one teaspoon sugar.
Before I started losing weight this is what I ate and while I was losing and now that I am maintaining.

Made no difference to hitting my weight goals.

What did, of course, is reducing rest of my daily intake to appropriate calorie level.

It does not matter what you eat for breakfast, if anything - what matters is your total daily intake.

Meganthedogmom

My mom didn't allow "sugar cereals" in the house when I was growing up. It was either plain cheerios, Rice Krispies, or corn flakes.

I was still fat.

ilfaith

Sunna_W wrote: »

The first two cereals, part of the sugar-cereal boom that began in the 1950s, are nearly equal parts corn flour and sugar. But even my Special K is about 13 percent sugar. Cheerios comes in at the lowest, between 3 and 4 percent. But I wonder if sugar, the current nutrition bugaboo, even matters given that they’re all composed mainly of processed grains.

When we arrived at the breakfast cereal real estate, she pulled a box of Cheerios off the shelf, one with a bowl shaped like a heart and a message stating it can lower cholesterol. “The first ingredient is whole-grain oats,” Sukol said, reading the label. “So far, so good. But the second ingredient is modified food starch, and the third is food starch — that’s nonsense. That’s just like corn syrup.” The fourth ingredient was sugar, followed by salt, followed by an additive. “I don’t know what this is — tripotassium phosphate — but I’m pretty sure it’s not food.

“It’s disingenuous to call this a whole-grain product,” she concluded.

I think without knowing the actual percentages of the listed ingredients it's really impossible to know whether a cereal is mostly whole grain or nearly equal parts whole grain and sugar.

Cheerios could be 87% whole grain oats...5% modified food starch, 4% food starch, 3% sugar, and less than 1% salt and tripotassium phosphate.

Or a cereal can be 50% whole grain, 40% sugar, and 10% whatever else. All the list of ingredients tells us is there is more grain than sugar. More sugar than salt. More salt than preservative.

I grew up eating cereal. If mom went shopping it was Cheerios, Grape Nuts, or Product 19 (which doesn't exist anymore)...but if dad went to the supermarket we got Froot Loops or Apple Jacks (because that's what he liked). Of course the best was when we visited grandma and she had the assorted little boxes of things like Sugar Pops and Sugar Smacks (back when they actually had "sugar" in the name).

I still love cereal...especially the sweet kind (Honey Bunches of Oats and Maple Brown Sugar Frosted Mini Wheats are my favorites). I still give my kids cereal for breakfast a few mornings a week (usually Cheerios or Rice Krispies...we try to save the uber sweet ones for snack time).

Penthesilea514

It was definitely the same as I have heard from other posters for me. I was super active in high school (3 season varsity athlete) and year-round swimmer (since I was 9) meant I could pretty much eat anything and not gain weight (working out 6 days a week, often more than 1x a day).

Then college *sad trombone* with beer and pizza and studying...I didn't gain too much though as I still did some physical activity, but not nearly as much.

Then grad school REALLY made me super sedentary *sadder trombone*. I also didn't know how to cook and so fast food 2-3x a day plus no activity meant major weight gain.

I rarely ate much for breakfast, throughout this whole time- when I was skinny/athletic and when I got obese to now, less obese. I definitely cannot blame sugar cereal on my weight gain.

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Wtn_Gurl

when I was little, I never was hungry, never bothered to eat breakfast. and I never got on the morning orange juice kick.. even now, seems like orange juice is the common food item in restaurants, they even give you free o.j. but I don't like it, didn't like the junk floating around on top (maybe that's why!).. too concentrated taste, and just didn't like it. those Tang commercials on tv made you as a little kid, believe I MUST DRINK TANG. haha weird. I know.

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L1zardQueen

Oooooo Tang! I love Tang! It's what fed the moon landing astronauts! Tang and Cap'n Crunch cereal, now that was breakfast. Good times!

ValeriePlz

I love breakfast, but like others in this thread, I steer toward protein.

In response to the original article, American processed food producers have added sugar (and salt and fat) to almost every meal, not just breakfast.

MelissaPhippsFeagins

Today I drank a protein shake and and coffee and ate a serving of Kind raspberry Chia bar. My macros are balanced for the day, with slightly more carb than I aim for and slightly less fat. But, I plan to eat PB mixed into Greek yogurt for lunch and that should put them where they need to be. Dinner is going to be lean beef tacos.

StarvingDiva

I rarely eat breakfast. I break my fast around 10 am typically, sometimes not until lunch depending on when I eat dinner the night before, and it's usually decaf with protein shake in it as my creamer. Occasionally on the weekends I might make bacon and eggs to break my fast, but more often than not, I don't, I am usually running errands in the morning and so don't actually eat until traditionally lunchtime. But I do love "breakfast" typical foods. I just maybe eat them for lunch or dinner (not cereal) but more eggs and bacon.

WandaVaughn

I ate cereal as a kid, either the sweet kind (Count Chocula, anybody?) or Cheerios- which I spooned sugar into. Or we ate Toast 'Ems. (pop tarts) Was never an overweight kid. This was also the time we drank sweet tea or Kool-Aid with a cup of sugar in it. We'd finish our breakfast and head outside to play for hours, running and riding our bikes. I don't think the sugar had time to settle into our active bodies back then.

ValeriePlz

OMG Count Chocula. So good.

lifestylechange888

I love cereal but rarely eat it because it just does not have enough protein, even with the skim milk, to keep me filled up. Especially since breakfast is after my 60-80 min workout. My kids love their cereal though, and will not eat my plain no-sugar cereals....

AnvilHead

Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »

Oooooo Tang! I love Tang! It's what fed the moon landing astronauts! Tang and Cap'n Crunch cereal, now that was breakfast. Good times!

Tang and Space Food Sticks!

WinoGelato

WandaVaughn wrote: »

I ate cereal as a kid, either the sweet kind (Count Chocula, anybody?) or Cheerios- which I spooned sugar into. Or we ate Toast 'Ems. (pop tarts) Was never an overweight kid. This was also the time we drank sweet tea or Kool-Aid with a cup of sugar in it. We'd finish our breakfast and head outside to play for hours, running and riding our bikes. I don't think the sugar had time to settle into our active bodies back then.

We had this cool little sugar dispenser that sat on the table, which we would use for adding sugar to cheerios and corn flakes. The best was drinking the gritty milk afterwards... I wish I still had it!



ETA - I was skinny as a rail and people used to suggest that my mother wasn't feeding me. I didn't gain weight till college at which time I wasn't eating breakfast at all.

KayHBE

lemurcat12 wrote: »

aggelikik wrote: »

Cereal is a treat, it is not breakfast. Nothing wrong with treats, but I prefer to have e.g. a slice of cake if it is going to be a treat for breakfast. Far more tasty.

Cake is a terrible breakfast.

Obviously pie is the correct treat for breakfast.

(Not kidding about my taste preference here, but of course kidding.)

Oh yes Pie for breakfast.... Just like toast and jam!!

princess0lexi

some cereals do have a lot of sugar or other bad things but you may be able to find something that is a little more healthy in cereal, i eat corn flakes ( plain) and walmarts great value brand cheerios and they may not be that great but they are not loaded with sugar like most cereals.

janejellyroll

princess0lexi wrote: »

some cereals do have a lot of sugar or other bad things but you may be able to find something that is a little more healthy in cereal, i eat corn flakes ( plain) and walmarts great value brand cheerios and they may not be that great but they are not loaded with sugar like most cereals.

If you're talking about Great Value Toasted Whole Grain Oat cereal, sugar is the third ingredient (not that there is anything wrong with that). It also includes some of the starches that are specifically called out as problems in the article.

I would argue that this shows the relative uselessness considering cereal to be full of "bad things" as you apparently enjoy eating this cereal and find it to both satiate you and help you meet your nutritional needs.

http://www.fooducate.com/app#!page=product&id=E5405DB4-45EF-11E1-AFF9-1231380C18FB

DamieBird

I rarely ate cereals as a kid, sugary or otherwise. I much preferred oatmeal, grits, toast, or eggs and bacon to cold breakfast food. This was consistent until I started driving, when I would stop and grab a Little Debbie cake and soda on the way to school in the morning. In my 20s and early 30s, I still went for the eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, toast full complement, sometimes with a side of Corn Pops when I was very active and I was overweight, but not obese. I still had no idea how CICO worked.
These days, I have an English muffin with butter and honey before in the morning before work, and a Greek yogurt with some strawberries and a few Grapenuts for texture (preferred to granola) around mid morning. I also have a 24oz coffee with creamer in it - I don't mind the taste of black coffee, but I notice that if I don't drink the fat in the creamer, than I'm much hungrier throughout the morning. Weekends, I'm most likely to go for a fat filled coffee for the first few hours and then a protein filled brunch of eggs/omelets with meat and veggies . . . . unless there's cake in the house (which should be the REAL breakfast of champions!) .

clicketykeys

zachbonner_ wrote: »

That portion size is around 130 calories. Are your full meals 130 calories? I'm gonna guess no, just eat more of it or eat something else width it like some eggs

2 oz of Captain Crunch with a cup of milk is 422 calories. My face-sized omelet with two pieces of toast was 377. I don't want to imagine how many calories it would take to fill me up on Crunchberries.

deputy_randolph

I had 3 scrambled eggs, 4 strips of turkey bacon, an ounce of dark chocolate, and coffee this morning.

I'd rather have the chocolate than cereal. Cereal is expensive and not filling for me.

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