Cereal, such as it is, never has and never will be healthy. In ads they often say "part of a healthy breakfast" which I have always interpreted as, "you have a healthy breakfast and you can add this garbage to it." I have been practicing intermittent fasting for a number of years, eating between 12-8pm and not eating the rest. It works for me. I don't miss breakfast, but if I am hungry, I will eat.
Food marketing is big business even when they say something is healthy for you. Question it. Currently reading a book called Salt Sugar Fat and it is opening the world of deception from as far back as the early 1900’s when processed food production began.
The best part is that smart people are researching this and calling it out Danni. The problem is that most people, even when faced with the reality of the crap they're eating, still won't put that junk down.
Thank you for your witty take on the serious matter of to breakfast or not to breakfast! It would be all the more funny were it not for the fact that Kelloggs is still going strong, as are its proponents (see all the Loma Linda Seventh Day Adventist shenanigans for further inspiration).
You, I guess, were a pioneer in Intermittent Fasting! Eat when you’re hungry, not on a schedule or when someone tells you too! Thanks for this interesting information!
😂 I agree - as I started my career in marketing (and Quaker cereal was a client!!) to get a dietetic degree. I am also somewhat leery of the government agencies that also put out nutrition information (think nutrition facts labeling, dietary guidelines etc) and they are backed by lobbyists for big- consumer packaged goods companies. Ancients did have it right!
And we still get bad information. This just came out yesterday
US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee reported that there is limited evidence that ultra-processed food intake increases risk of obesity in adults and made an explicit call for more US research on this important topic. I mean how much more research do we need. 🙄
Honestly, Marlo, there was a time in my career that I was salivating for jobs with the bigs. I got plenty of them as a contractor. Then I came face to face with what they were doing. After that I couldn’t countenance continuing. Of course that costs, but helping those companies succeed is just as evil. Hard choices.
Pamela's (flour) pancakes with berries and real maple syrup, tortilla loaded wrap with refried beans, avocado, sprouts with tomatoes, Ezekiel bread with butter are my array of go-to in the morning. Sometimes it's an apple and toast. Eating cereal makes me hungry within a couple hours, so hungry I eat the pain off the wall. Great read! (I live near Kellogg country and can attest to the strangeness of that part of the state, I think it must be something in the water.)
So true! Someone make a quip years ago about why there are so many babies lately.
"must be something in the air," I said. To which they answered, "yeah. their legs." That was just funny. It fascinates me how different we are, and how different our breakfast needs are, or not.
I completely agree! Kellogg was a psychopath. I'm not sure the industry is still behind his ideas about sexuality, but they have the public hooked on the narrative that drives their profits.
“In a world where men’s sperm counts are dropping along with fertility rates (I’m not sure this is such a bad thing) in the Western world, Mother Nature’s revenge for plastering Her with plastics, apparently, and who can blame Her?”
So beautifully worded!
A neighbour stopped me yesterday saying I’d joined the dog trend, that nurseries are closing and dog nurseries opening. He said he was one of 10 but people don’t have kids like that anymore, I said because they are loud and expensive. Really I’m infertile, which he did touch on but I didn’t feel like sharing, he would probably blame my life choices, which I suppose to equate to me starting a little late but really I lucked out on the genetic lottery.
I digress, back to breakfast, interestingly although I may delay breakfast I do find it stops me getting hungry during the day. But switching to a high protein breakfast has been the game changer, if I had sugar I find I’m much hungrier. I find regular meals helps me stop snacking and keeps my weight more regular! I think the key to success is LISTEN TO OUR BODIES!
There are several really important points here. It isn't just breakfast per se, Sheila-it's what we eat. For me, sugar begets more sugar, and I suspect that's true for so many. The body is conversing with us all the time and we have no clue how to listen.
I haven't been eating until 2pm the last few months, no sugar or wine, but the thing I crave the most is cereals, all of them, from rolled oats to the most worthless boxed cereals like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. 😂 It's ridiculous. I don't indulge in these, but I sure do crave them.
I’ve been in the steel cut oats fan club for a couple of decades now - peanut butter (both the powdered variety and the real stuff), salt and pepper for me. Sometimes blueberries if I have them and feel like it - but mainly I keep them savory. Bob’s Red Mill fangirl here!
The ingredient list includes "peanut flour, coconut sugar, and salt" - seems minimally processed to me, other than the necessity of grinding the peanuts and extracting sugar from coconuts.
Search for organic “PB Fit”. I learned of this from a young vegetarian runner - “No Meat Fast Feet” is her site - and have added it to my morning repertoire. More fiber and protein in your oatmeal without more fat - but I get lots of fat throughout the day and also plop in a tablespoon of real peanut butter (Santa Cruz Organics). Yum!
My local restaurant store carries the little packages of Bob’s Red Mill in all the flavors. I skip the sugared stuff and go for the plain original and then dress it up on my terms. I love it-easy, healthy, and tasty.
I love steel cut oats. The good ones are amazing. A few places make some without any junk in them and I load up with blueberries, a bit of butter and either walnuts or pecans.
Oh those marketing manipulators have been at it since the traveling elixir salesman in the later 1800's. It touches all parts of our lives these days and make my stomach churn. I despise commercials and ads, except the Geico, Farmers Insurance and Allstate, those are hilarious in their own manipulative way.
thanks for the kind words, Michelle. I would posit that such sales have been in place since the beginning of our species, the moment there were enough people for someone to need to seek advantage. That said, PR didn't be come an industry per se until after Freud. The Century of the Self, a BBC documentary, was a fine journey to learning just how incredibly gullible we have all been.
I kind of got distracted at grape nuts, though. My FAVORITE. My brother calls it gravel.
Yeah well I am a sucker for Frosted Flakes, although I haven’t had any for three decades. Probably just as well.
What a fabulously written article this is! Thank you for the insight and opinion. Fascinating stuff.
that's so very kind of you Gary. Thanks.
Cereal, such as it is, never has and never will be healthy. In ads they often say "part of a healthy breakfast" which I have always interpreted as, "you have a healthy breakfast and you can add this garbage to it." I have been practicing intermittent fasting for a number of years, eating between 12-8pm and not eating the rest. It works for me. I don't miss breakfast, but if I am hungry, I will eat.
I always feel better when I eat this way unless I"m on a serious adventure trip which demands more calories. Otherwise that's a great program.
Food marketing is big business even when they say something is healthy for you. Question it. Currently reading a book called Salt Sugar Fat and it is opening the world of deception from as far back as the early 1900’s when processed food production began.
The best part is that smart people are researching this and calling it out Danni. The problem is that most people, even when faced with the reality of the crap they're eating, still won't put that junk down.
Quit eating breakfast several years ago. I've never missed it!
And as a former Seventh-day Adventist, I can attest that Maria Cross nails it in her comment below! :)
I read the original "Nuts Among the Berries" in college and it kinda ended the myth I'd been raised with.
I love her work. So many of us are raised with a bit of crazy and it takes years to divest ourselves of it. Thanks, Warren.
Thank you for your witty take on the serious matter of to breakfast or not to breakfast! It would be all the more funny were it not for the fact that Kelloggs is still going strong, as are its proponents (see all the Loma Linda Seventh Day Adventist shenanigans for further inspiration).
Thanks Maria. We are fools, all of us, to believe such idiocy. And we pay for it with our health.
You, I guess, were a pioneer in Intermittent Fasting! Eat when you’re hungry, not on a schedule or when someone tells you too! Thanks for this interesting information!
I'd love to take credit but I'm n ot that wise, Marlo. I will say that the ancients had it right, and marketing has it wrong.
😂 I agree - as I started my career in marketing (and Quaker cereal was a client!!) to get a dietetic degree. I am also somewhat leery of the government agencies that also put out nutrition information (think nutrition facts labeling, dietary guidelines etc) and they are backed by lobbyists for big- consumer packaged goods companies. Ancients did have it right!
And we still get bad information. This just came out yesterday
US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee reported that there is limited evidence that ultra-processed food intake increases risk of obesity in adults and made an explicit call for more US research on this important topic. I mean how much more research do we need. 🙄
oh my-didn't see that. 'limited evidence' my ass! wow good job government agency! 🤦🏻♀️
Follow. The. Money. Nuff said.
Honestly, Marlo, there was a time in my career that I was salivating for jobs with the bigs. I got plenty of them as a contractor. Then I came face to face with what they were doing. After that I couldn’t countenance continuing. Of course that costs, but helping those companies succeed is just as evil. Hard choices.
Pamela's (flour) pancakes with berries and real maple syrup, tortilla loaded wrap with refried beans, avocado, sprouts with tomatoes, Ezekiel bread with butter are my array of go-to in the morning. Sometimes it's an apple and toast. Eating cereal makes me hungry within a couple hours, so hungry I eat the pain off the wall. Great read! (I live near Kellogg country and can attest to the strangeness of that part of the state, I think it must be something in the water.)
So true! Someone make a quip years ago about why there are so many babies lately.
"must be something in the air," I said. To which they answered, "yeah. their legs." That was just funny. It fascinates me how different we are, and how different our breakfast needs are, or not.
Haha, good one.
I completely agree! Kellogg was a psychopath. I'm not sure the industry is still behind his ideas about sexuality, but they have the public hooked on the narrative that drives their profits.
Amen and amen. And everyone else is looking at what works (hook kids young). Big Tobacco, Big Food, Big Everything is after our kids. And us.
“In a world where men’s sperm counts are dropping along with fertility rates (I’m not sure this is such a bad thing) in the Western world, Mother Nature’s revenge for plastering Her with plastics, apparently, and who can blame Her?”
So beautifully worded!
A neighbour stopped me yesterday saying I’d joined the dog trend, that nurseries are closing and dog nurseries opening. He said he was one of 10 but people don’t have kids like that anymore, I said because they are loud and expensive. Really I’m infertile, which he did touch on but I didn’t feel like sharing, he would probably blame my life choices, which I suppose to equate to me starting a little late but really I lucked out on the genetic lottery.
I digress, back to breakfast, interestingly although I may delay breakfast I do find it stops me getting hungry during the day. But switching to a high protein breakfast has been the game changer, if I had sugar I find I’m much hungrier. I find regular meals helps me stop snacking and keeps my weight more regular! I think the key to success is LISTEN TO OUR BODIES!
There are several really important points here. It isn't just breakfast per se, Sheila-it's what we eat. For me, sugar begets more sugar, and I suspect that's true for so many. The body is conversing with us all the time and we have no clue how to listen.
Here here! I completely agree!
I haven't been eating until 2pm the last few months, no sugar or wine, but the thing I crave the most is cereals, all of them, from rolled oats to the most worthless boxed cereals like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. 😂 It's ridiculous. I don't indulge in these, but I sure do crave them.
I have cravings like that too but mine are for pastries. Those are the kiss of death for me.
steel cut oats is like the perfect breakfast. I buy it at the bulk shop, make a big batch, and freeze single servings in silicone muffin cups.
I’ve been in the steel cut oats fan club for a couple of decades now - peanut butter (both the powdered variety and the real stuff), salt and pepper for me. Sometimes blueberries if I have them and feel like it - but mainly I keep them savory. Bob’s Red Mill fangirl here!
Peanut butter works too! Powdered peanut butter? What crazy stuff is this?
It utterly fails the “eat less processed food” test, but I eat mostly real food so am not being obsessive about that.
The ingredient list includes "peanut flour, coconut sugar, and salt" - seems minimally processed to me, other than the necessity of grinding the peanuts and extracting sugar from coconuts.
I try to stick with peanuts and salt only, when I can. Speaking of which I gotta buy some today for my pupper.
Search for organic “PB Fit”. I learned of this from a young vegetarian runner - “No Meat Fast Feet” is her site - and have added it to my morning repertoire. More fiber and protein in your oatmeal without more fat - but I get lots of fat throughout the day and also plop in a tablespoon of real peanut butter (Santa Cruz Organics). Yum!
I found it at Costco.
Oh wow - def need to try that out. Thanks!!
My local restaurant store carries the little packages of Bob’s Red Mill in all the flavors. I skip the sugared stuff and go for the plain original and then dress it up on my terms. I love it-easy, healthy, and tasty.
If you ever make your way to a Costco, you’ll find it in a 7 pound bag!
Thank you! As always!
I love steel cut oats. The good ones are amazing. A few places make some without any junk in them and I load up with blueberries, a bit of butter and either walnuts or pecans.
Yep! Blueberries are my go-to topping. More vitamin C than oranges, which helps to prevent cataracts.
Oh those marketing manipulators have been at it since the traveling elixir salesman in the later 1800's. It touches all parts of our lives these days and make my stomach churn. I despise commercials and ads, except the Geico, Farmers Insurance and Allstate, those are hilarious in their own manipulative way.
Julia - Humorous and informative piece.
thanks for the kind words, Michelle. I would posit that such sales have been in place since the beginning of our species, the moment there were enough people for someone to need to seek advantage. That said, PR didn't be come an industry per se until after Freud. The Century of the Self, a BBC documentary, was a fine journey to learning just how incredibly gullible we have all been.
I will have to watch that documentary. Thank you.
Thank you! try https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jymMjNc0igI
I never liked breakfast.
It doesn't work for all, Stella. At times I wake up famished but those are very, very rare.
Julia and friends, have you seen this movie?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111001/
So many years ago I have no memory of it. But I remember the title and the actors.
LOVE this! Totally on board with everything here—including your friend’s OMAD (but veganized, no meat!).
And I knew there was a reason I needed to stop eating Tony’s Frosted Flakes!
Gawd. Kert, if it had sugar, I was all over it. Anything as a carrier for icing was healthy enough in my book. Thanks for the comment!
You and I lived the same youth. Are we long lost sibs?
(Because, to be frank, I’m kinda keen on masturbation too!).
Who knows, Kert. I just found the story utterly hilarious.