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We need to call American breakfast what it often is: dessert

• fractallyte 10y ago
  Nutritionist Adelle Davis warned about excessively sugary breakfasts in her popular book "Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit" (1954). Chapter 2 described the effects of various types of breakfasts, taken from the results of clinical studies. Some excerpts: "The sources of sugar and starch in our American diet are cheap and overabundant; proteins are expensive and scarce. Typical American breakfasts, therefore, consist of fruit or juice supplying natural sugar; cereals, hotcakes, waffles, coffee cake, toast, or other starch quickly changed into sugar during digestion; usually refined sugar is added to cereal and coffee; jam or jelly may be eaten; quantities of sugar pour rapidly into the blood. In a matter of minutes the blood sugar may increase from 80 to 155 milligrams... As the digestion of a high-carbohydrate meal continues, however, sugar keeps pouring into the blood. In effect, it calls to the pancreas, “Send more insulin! More! More!”... The more carbohydrate eaten, the greater the insulin oversupply. For example, in the studies mentioned, the largest amount of sugar was freed during the digestion of the breakfast containing oatmeal." "If we now consider typical American meals with a critical eye, we see innocent stupidity elevated to an art..." "You may say you are not hungry in the morning; this remark means, “I overate last night.” Hunger sets in only when the blood sugar drops to about 70 milligrams; 12 hours after a typical American dinner the blood sugar is usually 95 milligrams or even higher. To launch a campaign of efficiency, the best technique is to have a mid-meal in the late afternoon. Dinner should be simple and graciously served: a soup or salad so delicious that everyone wants a second helping, meat or meat substitute, perhaps a low starch vegetable, milk, buttermilk or yogurt, and fruit. Appetites can be satisfied and the meal enjoyed without potatoes; gravy, and dessert, provided the afternoon snack is sufficient. Such a meal is easy to prepare, creates less havoc in the, kitchen, and allows you eagerness for breakfast the next morning." When it comes to food and nutrition, many people suddenly become 'armchair' experts. But these observations and conclusions were backed up by clinical studies. Note, too, that this was published over 60 years ago. Ms Davis was a household name in the US throughout the 60s and 70s; she was to nutrition what Rachel Carson was to environmentalism.
• laxatives 10y ago
  In a similar vein, there's this absurd notion of bulking or cultivating mass in the US. Overweight men delude themselves into justifying disgusting and gratuitous diets with 100-200+ grams of protein. Peanut butter, a sugary treat elsewhere, is considered some sort of super food like quinoa or kale.
  • force_reboot 10y ago
    Do you think there are circumstances where it's ok to shame fat women? E.g. if they had incorrect beliefs that lead to bad diets?
    • unethical_ban 10y ago
      Perhaps if they make up reasons why being over is healthy, then yes. I disagree with the parents assertions that PB is unhealthy, but also disagree that people can't be criticized for their weight, if they have control over it.
    • frozenport 10y ago
      Yes, especially if they are unhealthy.
      • SixSigma 10y ago
        If they are fat they are already unhealthy.
        • SixSigma 10y ago
          You can't downvote it away.
    • peteretep 10y ago
      > where it's ok to shame fat women I think shame is a poor tool for anything, but I think people who are overweight should be made aware of the health implications and continuously encouraged to lose weight, in much the same way that smokers are continuously reminded their habit is killing them.
• philwelch 10y ago
  Fortunately, breakfast is also the meal that you can best get away with eating no carbs at all. Nobody looks funny at you for eating bacon and eggs. Even if you have to accede to custom and have some toast, you can just butter it and have a protein-rich meal that is far closer to ideal than you can often get away with eating lunch and dinner.
  • deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  • drivingmenuts 10y ago
    IHOP has the Quick-2 Egg breakfast: 2 eggs, bacon or sausage, hash browns and toast. Frankly, the dessert pancakes, etc., make me a bit ill just looking a them. However, you can order just plain pancakes, a waffle or French toast without the sugary toppings.
  • chjohasbrouck 10y ago
    I love breakfast for this reason, sometimes I'll even have it for dinner. There are a hundred different ways to make an omelette, they all taste great, and none of them have any sugar or refined grains. You don't have to compromise at all, you get exactly what you want, and it's still healthy. Also, why do grains get a free pass? They're literally inedible to humans without being processed, no other mammals consume them (unless we force them to), gas station junk food is 95% grains and sugar, and somehow people still think this is a health food.
    • eru 10y ago
      Rats are pretty happy to eat our grain given the chance, aren't they?
      • chjohasbrouck 10y ago
        Hmm you're right. Looks like some forms of rodentia will eat grains if they're around. I still think they'd be better off eating an omelette though. :)
• douche 10y ago
  Breakfast, mix and match any of: Pork (Bacon, ham, sausage) Eggs (fried, poached, scrambled) Cottage cheese or full-fat, unflavored Greek yogurt, like Cabot Greek olives, a tomato, pickles maybe That'll keep you going all day, without getting hungry. Long ago, I used to eat two honking great bowls of cereal for breakfast, and be murderously hangry by 9 AM.
  • CalRobert 10y ago
    It works for you, but it all depends. That would have me passing out all morning. When I couldn't sleep in college I would stay up until 6:00 AM just to eat the big breakfast and finally go to sleep). My breakfast: * 2 cups of coffee * Nothing. And people will judge you for not eating breakfast with alarming harshness. It works for me though. I also have a diet that consists of large (some would say enormous) amounts of vegetables and not a whole lot else, unless I'm splurging. This happened after several years of fighting with my weight and discovering that by eating low calorie-density foods I could lose weight and not feel hungry all the time. It is astonishing how portions in the US (and where I live now, Ireland) are not just too big, but perhaps 5 times as big as they probably ought to be. I order a stew and it can easily feed three people.
  • onion2k 10y ago
    That works well for you, and that's awesome, but I don't think there's much evidence that there's one breakfast that works for everyone. People are different - notably in the make up of their gut microbiome, which has a big impact on what you can digest well. In your case it appears you can't digest cereals well, or you don't absorb processed sugar as well as other people, so breakfast cereals are a poor choice. That doesn't mean someone else wouldn't do well eating them. Food and the way we digest it is a hugely complex subject.
    • eru 10y ago
      As a counterexample to the grandfather comment, I do well without breakfast, and only get hungry at lunchtime. Probably because that's what I'm used to. I eat a big lunch, because food at Google is good, but I can't be bothered to get up in time for their breakfast.
• nsxwolf 10y ago
  This is missing the other side of American breakfast: Eggs, sausage, bacon, ham... Often combined with these other items, but not always. Very different macronutrient profile.
• fiblye 10y ago
  I've always hated American breakfast. My family often traveled when I was a child, which meant many Mcdonald's and Ihop breakfasts. The insane greasiness, saltiness, and sweetness of it all made me sick. To this day, I still can't eat any sort of typical breakfast food without feeling nauseous (which I suppose could be due in part to the conditioning of eating and then hopping back into a hot, smelly car for a 12 hour ride) Breakfast for me has always been a sandwich with veggies or other typical lunch food, just a smaller portion. The whole "breakfast all day" campaigns more and more restaurants push kind of bothers me since there's no "lunch all day" movement anywhere. If you want a good sandwich or spaghetti at 9 AM in the US, good luck. I'm living in Japan now, and the typical breakfast offered at hotels here is some meat, veggies, rice, and bread. Far more balanced and I don't feel like shit all day.
  • mablap 10y ago
    Oh friend, I am not American but we share similar childhood memories. I have traveled much in America and McDonald's/IHOPs/Denny's were a staple breakfast! When I was in Japan, I would often eat breakfast in a hurry by getting some groceries from 7-11. Such a breafast would usually consist of a smal pack of fried rice, with a pastry or two, and some juice or milk, for about 500Y if I remember correctly. Everything tasted good, but I cannot say it was "healthier" than what I'd have in America. But again, that was a 7-11 5 minute breakfast...
  • niftich 10y ago
    I grew up in central Europe and we traditionally ate open-faced sandwiches of artisan bread or bread rolls. You'd top it with some margarine or cream cheese, salami and cold-cuts, thin-sliced cucumbers or radishes, or serve fresh bell peppers on the side. In the US, Subway's deli sandwiches come close, albeit I've found them much heavier, in both the amount of bread, and the sheer quantity of meat. I too wish that more fast food restaurants served lunch alongside breakfast, instead of exclusively breakfast in the mornings.
    • douche 10y ago
      I wish there were places in the States that made those little sandwiches. Was in Berlin recently, and every corner bakery makes them. Delicious, and super cheap.
• vinhboy 10y ago
  I wish Starbucks would have healthier breakfast options to go with my coffee. Besides the oatmeal, everything else on their menu is like a candy bar. I can only eat so much un-sweetened oatmeal. I don't really don't know what else they could sell, maybe some sort of plain bread?
  • tdicola 10y ago
    If you're out at a Starbucks chances are you're also near a grocery store or food mart of some kind. Pick up an apple, avocado, berries, etc. Or just pack them in a bag--whole fruits are easy to transport. Be wary of the glycemic index of fruits though and don't go for the super sugary ones, see this list for example: http://adrenalfatiguesolution.com/fruits-lowest-glycemic-load/ http://adrenalfatiguesolution.com/fruits-lowest-glycemic-loa... edit: Also plain bread/toast is a horrible breakfast. It just turns into sugar in your body and won't make you feel full at all. Don't kid yourself about 'whole grain' being any better either--it's all the same to your body.
  • toephu2 10y ago
    You think your Starbucks coffee is actually healthy? (many of Starbucks' drinks have more sugar than a can of Coca-Cola)
    • rspeer 10y ago
      Why in the world would you smugly jump to the conclusion that he's ordering sugary drinks? He just said coffee. You can get black coffee at Starbucks.
      • saiya-jin 10y ago
        true, but i've yet to see a single person doing so. most people add sugar into their already sweet lattes and other stuff
  • gnicholas 10y ago
    Worse yet, their oatmeal is misleadingly labeled. They call it something like "old fashioned" or "steel cut", but in reality it's mostly instant oats, with a few heartier bits thrown in. It's very salty, but probably still the healthiest option at Starbucks.
• teekert 10y ago
  Let's just call both American breakfast and desert what they often are: piles of flavored sugar. Why not eat some fruit as desert if you absolutely must finish a meal with something sweet (and why must you, actually?)
• wfunction 10y ago
  This needs more detail before it becomes convincing. Is "sugar" on the left the same as sugar on the right? Or is one glucose and the other fructose or sucrose? If you haven't watched Sugar: The Bitter Truth [1] yet, you should. (Warning: It's 90 minutes long.) [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
• cbsmith 10y ago
  I thought a proper American breakfast was eggs, maybe with a side of bacon, ham or sausage. Most of this stuff is what I'd call a "Continental Breakfast".
  • Slippery_John 10y ago
    It is. Most people I know have that, cereal, or nothing. These days I do a piece of fruit or nothing. I do miss those fresh bakery sandwiches I'd get in Germany though...
  • OJFord 10y ago
    Maybe you get a different view from other countries, but Googling from the UK I thought it quite telling that if I: - search "english breakfast" I get pictures of a full english - sausages, bacon, black pudding, beans, tomatoes, toast, eggs; - search "continental breakfast" I get pictures of what we would call a continental breakfast - croissants, jams, maybe cold meat, fruit salad - search "american breakfast" I get pictures of scotch pancakes loaded with syrup and an "almost full" English as above I think the obvious difference for me though when I was travelling around the USA was not breakfast at home, but the ease with which you can get (and the consequent quality of) breakfast "on the go". Other than McDonalds (of course) and a handful of restaurants, I can't think of anywhere here to get breakfast, or something breakfasty, except cafés/sandwich shops that'll be selling the same things they will for the rest of the day. Maybe that's just the different view you get living vs. touring around on holiday, though.
    • eru 10y ago
      Continental breakfast is an English / British term. We actually eat lots of different things on the continent. (Google for German breakfast, or French breakfast etc.)
      • OJFord 10y ago
        I don't doubt it; I spent a good deal of my childhood in rural Normandy - parent post used the term first, so I was responding from the point of view of it being interesting to see our different viewpoints.
• thomasruns 10y ago
  How exactly are bacon and eggs the same as dessert?
  • adventured 10y ago
    They're very clearly not; not in any regard what-so-ever. They're the exact opposite of dessert: Low in carbs, high in protein, low in calories, very healthy.
  • zhte415 10y ago
    Here's a recipe for bacon and egg ice cream: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-to-cook-like-heston/articles/all/bacon-and-egg-ice-cream-recipe/1819 http://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-to-cook-like-heston/a...
  • Someone 10y ago
    "What it often is", not "what it always is".
• coenhyde 10y ago
  It's not just American breakfast, almost everything has way too much sugar in it. I've been in the US for almost 4 years. And for the most part i've gotten used to the sugar and salt. But it still surprises me time to time. On a related note i find it funny when my American friends say something has "lots of flavor", all i can taste is salt, no flavors. And when I say something has "lots of flavor" they think it has none.
  • eru 10y ago
    Feed them Thai or Szechuan food.
  • smcl 10y ago
    I had this with a friend from SF who was visiting Prague. We were eating some traditional Czech food and he was complaining that the food was so bland - and bemoaned the lack of Sriracha :-/
  • teekert 10y ago
    Exactly my experience. Even when you get a wok-style prepared meal with fresh veggies often there is a sauce poured over it that just makes the whole thing sweet and salty. Salt and sugar are a national addiction in the US. I think it is only fixed by not feeding kids sugar anymore. WHO recommends max 25 grams of sugar per day, for an adult, that means you can eat half a Dunkin Donut Banana Chocolate Chip and no more sugar for you for the rest of the day. It probably has to do with how little Americans cook at home. Just make a meal out of fresh veggies and manually add the amount of sugar and salt that are added to the prepackaged meals from the supermarket. You'll immediately see that it's insane.
• gavinpc 10y ago
  When I get to the end of the article and it says in large print > Why you shouldn't exercise to lose weight and then the heading over a video > The science is in: exercise isn't the best way to lose weight I can't help thinking that this kind of web journalism is itself just junk food. /rant Anyway, I wonder what the author would call breakfast in Spain. I was recently in Barcelona, and the breakfast there was, just as my wife remembered from years ago in Valencia, chocolate croissant with cafe con leche, where "leche" is what we'd call condensed milk, and they give you three tube-shaped packets of sugar to go with it. I looked for a good while to find an "English" breakfast, i.e. eggs, and they served them with French fries. edit: To clarify my rant, I wasn't objecting to the claim about exercise, so much as the presentation. It's the endless gravy train of tabloid-style "x is good/bad," at once patronising and pandering, which only further undermines its credibility by claiming that "the science is in." Oh really, the science is in this time. I'm glad we can finally put this behind us.
  • peteretep 10y ago
    Personal experience suggests that the best (only?) way to actually lose weight is the fork put-down, and increasing my level of exercise only ever makes it harder to practice portion control.
    • rnovak 10y ago
      Interesting, exercise has been the biggest factor for me, and it's actually kind of two fold. 1: it burns calories, 2: because I dislike working out, it makes me not want to waste it by eating shit food. A lot of people I think take the approach of "well, I exercised, so I can afford to eat this cheesecake", or something like that. I took it as: "ugh, I hated that workout, so I had better not eat this cheesecake" I think the biggest battle is mental, and not so much physical.
      • eru 10y ago
        Exercise also decreases appetite for some people. At least acutely. (I think it's because of the adrenaline, but not sure. Stimulants like adrenaline, caffeine and nicotine suppress appetite.)
• beachstartup 10y ago
  uh, sorry, what? american breakfast revolves around eggs and ham and potatoes. it's modeled after the english breakfast and french omelettes. i don't see any of the above on this list. all this stuff is euro/asian carb-aholic adaptations served at shitty budget hotels.
  • mark_edward 10y ago
    Cereal is eaten religiously for breakfast by many.
    • mondoshawan 10y ago
      The same can be said of any place. What's your point? The argument the article makes is that restaurant breakfasts are essentially crap -- that does not mean that's what the traditional or standard fare for breakfast in the US. I was born and raised here: yeah, we ate cereals on occasion, but not generally sugary ones (usually things like plain cheerioes, chex, etc.) -- my parents refused to get the horribly sugary crap like fruit loops, so it was at least marginally better. More often, though, we had basted eggs, bacon, and hash browns with toast. Usually kept me running all day. Nowadays I usually end up making a latte and having a bowl of oatmeal. I take one look at most breakfast menus and immediately start to feel sick. If I do end up going out for breakfast, usually I'll fall back to the same standby basted egg breakfast -- though usually restaurant cooks have no idea how to baste. Generally, I'd suggest going to Waffle House if you do go out in the US -- they serve what is generally considered to be the standard American breakfast. Very nice eggs, good grits, etc.
• throwaway6497 10y ago
  I have noticed that that areas with human settlements for the longest period seem to have most diverse and healthiest food choices. Mostly Asian - Chinese, Indian, Persian, Japanese. Western food is the crappiest of all. Lots of unhealthy meat, too much dairy, bad fat, salty and sugar diet. This kind of food is slowly taking over the world due to globalization.
  • Cerium 10y ago
    Agreed. For example my parents follow the McDougall diet, and have done so for about 15 years. I recently took them to visit China and worried some about finding food. Breakfast was the easiest meal of all. Every shop has simple soups, porridge, and soy or peanut milk. Combined with a steamed bun you have a quick and healthy breakfast.
  • eru 10y ago
    There's plenty of crappy food in eg India. Their sweets make your teeth hurt, and your insulin cry. Traditional western fare ain't too bad. Don't blame all that ails of modernity on the west.
    • 00098345 10y ago
      Way to go ahead to twist your parent comment into something else. You will never get any amount of sweetness in a south indian breakfast. But in general, you are correct in that diabetics are off the charts in India. We lead in cardio vascular diseases as well. :-(
  • collyw 10y ago
    There is plenty of good Mediterranean food around the Mediterranean (funnily enough). Meat and dairy aren't unhealthy unless you are overdoing them.
  • undersuit 10y ago
    >Lots of unhealthy meat, too much dairy, bad fat, salty and sugar diet. Oh yeah, great argument. Ignore that 90% of US grocery stores is various forms of processed carbohydrates with some cheap vegetable oils and HFCS thrown in; bread, cereal, chips, cookies, canned soup, and meals in a bag like Hamburger Helper. That's the stuff you need to worry about. Foods made with cheap carbs are the ones that are coming for you. They have great shelf life, are easy to ship, and the ingredients are dirt cheap.
• johnloeber 10y ago
  What confuses me most is the popularity of breakfast cereal. This stuff is ridiculously unhealthy, on many levels, but the easiest attack is on the sugar content: most breakfast cereals are around 30% sugar by weight. Frosted Flakes? That's 11 grams of sugar per 30 gram portion. Coco Pops? 12 grams of sugar per 31 gram portion. Honey Smacks? A mind-blowing, god-help-you 15 grams of sugar per 27 gram portion. Yes, these little delights are more accurately described as "pure sugar" (55.5%) than as "puffed wheat cereal" (44.5%). What about something healthy-sounding, like honey-nut cheerios? Fooled you! 9 grams of sugar per 28 gram portion. The smart marketers know that the general public is catching on to the fact that maybe you shouldn't eat a bag of sugar every day, so they say it's sweetened with honey. Honey sounds good and wholesome, right? Well, it's 81% sugar by weight, so you decide. Even something as bland-tasting as Rice Krispies is 10% sugar by weight. A large bowl of these for breakfast is still the same as munching on a tablespoon of sugar.
  • tomjen3 10y ago
    Plus who eats 30 grams of cereal?
    • johnloeber 10y ago
      That's what the nutritional label's "standard serving size" is. Of course the actual normal serving is much larger -- at least twice that.
      • dragonwriter 10y ago
        > That's what the nutritional label's "standard serving size" is. Interestingly, most of the cereals I buy (which have vastly less sugar per identified servings than the ones being pointed to) tend to have standard serving sizes of around 55g, not 30g.
        • johnloeber 10y ago
          What cereals do you buy?
• vacri 10y ago
  > And don't forget: Not everyone necessarily has to eat breakfast. Well... it is the meal that prepares you for the day. And really, the first meal of your day, regardless of the time it happens, is your 'break fast'.
  • eru 10y ago
    There are different meanings to that word in common usage. Eg just look at the phrase "second breakfast".
    • vacri 10y ago
      Does the phrase 'second breakfast' actually exist outside hairy-footed Tolkien-creatures?
      • dalke 10y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_breakfast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_breakfast - "a meal eaten after breakfast, but before lunch. It is a traditional meal in Bavaria, Poland, and Hungary."
        • vacri 10y ago
          "(its Hungarian name, tízórai, actually means "[snack] at 10")" which we would call 'brunch' (or also 'snack').
          • dalke 10y ago
            Or "morning coffee break".
            • UncleSlacky 10y ago
              Or "elevenses".
      • eru 10y ago
• rosstex 10y ago
  To think I used to eat Pop Tarts every breakfast in high school! My usual breakfast now is: Whole wheat bagel Cream cheese Almond butter Raspberries/Strawberries/Blueberries Walnuts/Almonds
• beloch 10y ago
  As bad as this stuff is, it has nothing on the British "full breakfast". Bacon, eggs, deep fried mushrooms, deep fried tomatoes, fried bread, toast, sausages, beans, black pudding, hash browns... Greasy, nasty food in obscene quantities. Who decided that even the tomatoes needed to be fried!?
  • phpnode 10y ago
    Fried. Not deep fried. No one would do that.
  • collyw 10y ago
    Thats so 2000's. Fat is fine these days. Carbs are bad. Heard it on the internet.
• cbhl 10y ago
  If there's one thing I appreciate about working at a large tech company, it's that they've helped make it easy for me to develop the habit of eating steamed vegetables with my breakfast. I still eat the sugary dessert stuff, but at least it doesn't comprise my whole breakfast.
• daeken 10y ago
  One of my favorite early scenes from Makers by Cory Doctorow comes to mind. (For context, Lester had just brought a homeless woman a doggie bag from Denny's, where they were about to get breakfast). > Lester joined them again. He was laughing. "She is funny," he said. "Kept hefting the sack and saying, 'Christ what those bastards put on a plate, no wonder this country's so goddamned fat!'" Perry laughed, too. Suzanne chuckled nervously and looked away. > He slid into the booth next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's OK. I'm a guy who weighs nearly 400 pounds. I know I'm a big, fat guy. If I was sensitive about it, I couldn't last ten minutes. I'm not proud of being as big as I am, but I'm not ashamed either. I'm OK with it." > "You wouldn't lose weight if you could?" > "Sure, why not? But I've concluded it's not an option anymore. I was always a fat kid, and so I never got good at sports, never got that habit. Now I've got this huge deficit when I sit down to exercise, because I'm lugging around all this lard. Can't run more than a few steps. Walking's about it. Couldn't join a pick-up game of baseball or get out on the tennis court. I never learned to cook, either, though I suppose I could. But mostly I eat out, and I try to order sensibly, but just look at the crap they feed us at the places we can get to -- there aren't any health food restaurants in the strip malls. Look at this menu," he said, tapping a pornographic glossy picture of a stack of glistening waffles oozing with some kind of high-fructose lube. "Caramel pancakes with whipped cream, maple syrup and canned strawberries. When I was a kid, we called that candy. These people will sell you an eight dollar, 18 ounce plate of candy with a side of sausage, eggs, biscuits, bacon and a pint of orange juice. Even if you order this stuff and eat a third of it, a quarter of it, that's probably too much, and when you've got a lot of food in front of you, it's pretty hard to know when to stop." > Suzanne couldn’t help it; she blurted out: "But willpower --" > "Sure, will-power. Will-power nothing. The thing is, when three quarters of America are obese, when half are dangerously obese, like me, years off our lives from all the fat -- that tells you that this isn't a will-power problem. We didn't get less willful in the last fifty years. Might as well say that all those people who died of the plague lacked the will-power to keep their houses free of rats. Fat isn't moral, it's epidemiological. There are a small number of people, a tiny minority, whose genes are short-circuited in a way that makes them less prone to retaining nutrients. That's a maladaptive trait through most of human history -- burning unnecessary calories when you've got to chase down an antelope to get more, that's no way to live long enough to pass on your genes! So you and Perry over here with your little skinny selves, able to pack away transfats and high-fructose corn-syrup and a pound of candy for breakfast at the IHOP, you're not doing this on will-power -- you're doing it by expressing the somatotype of a recessive, counter-survival gene. > "Would I like to be thinner? Sure. But I'm not gonna let the fact that I'm genetically better suited to famine than feast get to me. Speaking of, let's eat. Tony, c'mere, buddy. I want a plate of candy!" He was smiling, and brave, and at that moment, Suzanne thought that she could get a crush on this guy, this big, smart, talented, funny, lovable guy. Then reality snapped back and she saw him as he was, sexless, lumpy, almost grotesque. The overlay of his, what, his inner beauty on that exterior, it disoriented her. She looked back over her notes.
• aaronbrethorst 10y ago
  As you might have read two months ago, breakfast only became "the most important meal of the day" in 1944 when General Mills launched an advertising campaign to that effect: http://priceonomics.com/how-breakfast-became-a-thing/ http://priceonomics.com/how-breakfast-became-a-thing/
• celticait 10y ago
  Typical non-American making untrue biased judgements against the US. I think I've been to IHOP twice in my life. For us it was either oatmeal, eggs or toast before getting on the school bus. On the weekends we had bacon and eggs. OP has no idea what he's talking about. "Duhh I went to Germany and had a 1 liter beer for breakfast WHAT AN UNHEALTHY PLACE"
• wodenokoto 10y ago
  Is it an American thing to add sugar to yoghurt or is it a Scandinavian thing not to? As an outsider I also thought it funny that they translated waffle into a desert item.
  • unwind 10y ago
    It's definitely not a Scandinavian thing not to sweeten yoghurt, since it's common in Sweden. That is, it's trivial to find non-sweetened yoghurt, but all the flavored varieties (of which there are many) are sweetened, often rather much. A recent introduction by dairy giant Arla is http://www.arla.se/produkter/arla-ko/mild-yoghurt-vanilj-lattsockrad-1000g-457846/ http://www.arla.se/produkter/arla-ko/mild-yoghurt-vanilj-lat... (page in Swedish), which is specifically sold as containing "less sugar"; it still lands at 6.3% sugar (2.5% of which was added, the rest is natural from the milk I assume).
    • Evgeny 10y ago
      The Greek style yoghurt only has 3.6% sugar and yes, there probably is a lower limit on sugar in yougurt as lactose is a natural component of milk and classifies as sugar. http://www.arla.se/produkter/arla-ko/mild-yoghurt-grekisk-1000g-458665/ http://www.arla.se/produkter/arla-ko/mild-yoghurt-grekisk-10...
      • wodenokoto 10y ago
        Skimmed milk has 4,7 grams of sugar per 100 gram of milk, so that is the baseline. That does sound like a lot, but I think it is unfair to start classifying milk together with soda.
    • wodenokoto 10y ago
      That's true. I guess I was being a little naive here. I can see that many flavored yogurts have around 5% added sugar. But I understood from the article that even plain yogurt has added sugar, and I've noticed in some countries I've traveled to that plain yogurt is very sweet. But even at 5% added sugar, I think it is unfair to compare it to ice cream.
• mhroth 10y ago
  Perhaps we could call it "pre-ssert"? ;)
• bogomipz 10y ago
  Total click bait. Muffins aren't breakfast in the US, they are something you might buy along with a coffee instead of having breakfast but they are not breakfast. IHOP New York Cheesecake pancakes? There is nothing typical or representative about this at all. You can find glutinous outliers like this anywhere if you look. I've never even heard of this item. Additionally IHOP itself is a bit of a joke. Dunkin donuts? Its fast food, its junk food. Again it's what someone might eat when they didn't have time for an actual breakfast. Where are eggs? Where are bagels? Where is fresh fruit and yogurt? Where is toast? Because these are things that are far more typical of American breakfast items. Oh wait because these wouldn't serve your click bait title? The irony is this article itself is junk food. You can make poor eating selections in any country and for any meal. That doesn't make it typical.
• natejenkins 10y ago
  As an American living in Europe I would call pastries for breakfast a western breakfast. The idea that the US eats nothing but sugar for breakfast and this is unique in the world is way off base. Among my friends and colleagues, mostly Europeans from many different corners of Europe, it is exceedingly common to eat some form of croissants or pastries for breakfast. I think the difference lies in the portion sizes and density of these pastries. I'll have pastries once a week when I have breakfast with my wife, but otherwise I tend towards yogurt, bananas, and a handful of cereal. I'm not on the "sugar is evil" bandwagon. I definitely do manage my weight but it is more about calorie control than sugar intake. A serving of yogurt will have between 100 and 220 calories depending on if it is plain or has a bunch of good stuff added (I like both), a banana around 100 calories, and a handful of cereal about the same. I love sugary cereal and don't want to eliminate it from my diet. The difference between how I consume it now and when I was a kid is that I really eat one handful at breakfast time whereas in my childhood would eat one to two large bowls. Granola is the killer. The crunchy kind of granola has more calories per gram than sugary cereal and unfortunately is more dense. I see many people trying to eat a healthy, low calorie yogurt and granola breakfast only to fill the bowl with granola. Game over.
• AlgorithmicTime 10y ago
  I don't see how either a bagel with cream cheese or butter, or pork roll and cheese on a kaiser roll is dessert.
• warkid 10y ago
  Calories(fast carbs) are not bad for you if you go and spend them on some useful physical/mental activity right after you consumed them.
• segmondy 10y ago
  This article is truly about a whole lot of nothing. When I ask friends to go for breakfast, no one is thinking of yogurt, granola bars, muffin, smoothie or cake. The only thing on that list a few would think of might be waffles and pancake. The reality is that most would think eggs, if an omelet with veggies, meat, toast and coffee, perhaps oatmeal and grits. This is an American breakfast. Most places will give you a plain pancake and waffle, and the syrup is up to you.
• db48x 10y ago
  Maybe the author has ham and eggs for dessert, but that doesn't seem like it would generalize well.