blairmacg | What's for Breakfast?

For years and years I've been telling folks cereal isn't the best breakfast food, but my voice is nothing compared to the relentless marketing for "whole grains" and "low fat" supported by large corporations and federal funding. But every now and then, a little research slips out. This study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, discusses the positive impact of a high-protein breakfast on eating habits, hormonal balance, and hunger.

The levels researchers deemed "normal protein" and "high protein" were, in my opinion, both high--13g and 35g respectively. 13g would be two servings of standard cereal AND a a half-cup of milk. 35g would be, like, five eggs. That sounds like a great deal of food, yes? Alas, we've lost sight of the fact breakfast should be a large meal. But when preliminary medical thought connected health problems with fats, breakfast was one of the first places we made fat and calorie cuts. We abandoned proteins because they were linked with fats, and kept the carbohydrates, the starches, the sugars. What followed was an explosion in weight issues, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, mood disorders, cognitive decline, and more.

I suspect it'll be another ten to fifteen years before the overall thinking changes, primarily because school curriculum includes lessons and testing on the USDA-created eating plans. Anyone educated between "the four food groups" phase and today will operate under the assumption that fats are bad, grains are good, and low calorie foods the ultimate goal.

In the meantime, we have a generation of children being raised on foods with nutritional labels that look like this:

That's a PopTart. Just one PopTart. Do you know many kids who eat just one PopTart out of a wrapped package containing two? Neither do I. All numbers on that label should be doubled. Compare those doubled numbers to the label below, which is for the product's entire two-piece package.

Anyone want to guess what packaged food that label is from?

And as a final point of comparison, here's the label for a standard raisin and bran breakfast cereal:

Bottom line? Eat protein. Have salmon for breakfast. Or Greek yogurt. Or eggs. Or a protein shake. Or chicken, beef, or other meat. If the fats in meats make you nervous, go for wild game and grass-fed proteins. The fats are then Omega-3--healthy!

Get your fiber and carb-energy from fruits and vegetables. Save most of the grains and starches we're told to eat for when you just can't seem to take in enough calories to match your energy expenditures.