The Breakfast Page

Starting the Day With Food

Wake Up and Eat Breakfast

It’s one of the most natural things people do. When you wake up in the morning, it just feels right to eat something as one of the first things you do. And if you don’t have any food around, it’s a safe bet that getting some food will be one of your first priorities for the day.

When it’s part of a regular routine, breakfast can provide a reassuring anchor that helps to give a sense of shape and structure to your whole day.

Breakfast-Skippers

It’s sad but true — many people feel like they don’t have time to eat breakfast in the morning. With just a few minutes between the time they get out of bed until they have to be out the door, breakfast may not seem like the most important thing.

In the long run, though, skipping breakfast actually makes it harder to get started on time in the morning. That’s because the anticipation of breakfast helps you wake up. When you eat breakfast regularly in the morning, it actually makes it easier to wake up in the morning — it tells your body that it’s important to be awake at this time of day. And a breakfast, even a small one, improves your mental sharpness and energy all morning long.

Waking Up Hungry

What is it that makes people so hungry at breakfast time? The main raeson is simply that it’s been so long since the last meal. For most people, breakfast comes 12 hours or longer after supper.

It’s not always that simple, though. Hunger is, in part, a learned biochemical rhythm. What that means is that you tend to be hungry around the times of day when you usually eat. If you're not usually hungry at breakfast time, it’s probably because you haven’t been eating breakfast regularly. But eat breakfast several mornings in a row, and you'll probably find that you're feeling hungry the next day when that time of the morning comes around.

Links

http://www.heartinfo.com/nutrition/-
breakfast12898.htm “Eating a Low-Fat Healthy Breakfast” by Lisa Hark, on the Health Information Network

The Power of Breakfast

Among the many problems that can result from skipping breakfast, these are a few that scientific research has specifically established:

• metabolism reduced by about 2 or 3 percent
• reduced intelligence and alertness all morning (including, for students, significantly lower grades on morning tests)
• a powerful urge to eat snacks, especially in mid-morning and mid-afternoon
• increased appetite at lunch and supper
• drowsiness 1–2 hours after lunch
• difficulty getting to sleep at night and waking up in the morning (especially for “night people” who never eat breakfast)

Breakfast Food

It’s Supposed to Be Easy

Anyone who insists on making a big production out of every breakfast is missing the point. Breakfast is supposed to be easy — easy to put together, easy to eat, and easy to digest.

Cereal

Whether it’s dry cereal made from toasted grains, or hot cereal made by boiling grains, cereal is the one food category most identified with breakfast. And with good reason: the starchy energy of grains is just what you need to keep yourself going all morning long, and it’s the easiest kind of food energy to digest.

Food You Can Hold in Your Hand

If you have to eat breakfast while you're doing something else, it’s still breakfast. People in a hurry often select easy-to-handle food for breakfast: donuts, toaster pastries, mini-muffins, bagels, and so on. As long as these foods don’t have too much added fat, they can make just as effective a breakfast as the more formal foods of breakfast.

Orange Juice

Years ago, orange juice got associated with breakfast. It’s a good fit — vitamin C, carbohydrates, fat-free, and nothing complicated about it. And there are several other citrus juices to choose from. Some prefer the more bitter and complex taste of grapefruit juice or the lighter, sweeter taste of tangerine juice.

Your Own Breakfast

Forget the stereotypes and cliches of breakfast food. The reality is that everyone approaches breakfast a little bit differently. Whatever food helps you wake up is the right breakfast food for you.

Foods to Save for Supper

A few foods that are traditionally thought of as breakfast foods — such as bacon, sausage, and hash browns — are actually not the best thing to eat the first thing in the morning. That’s because these items are especially high in fat. Even some donuts and muffins have too much fat to make a pleasant breakfast. A high-fat breakfast could put you right back to sleep, make you sluggish all morning — or even contribute to a heart attack. Eat high-fat foods only in small amounts at breakfast. Or save them for the evening, when the body is better able to handle them — and when you were planning to go to sleep anyway.

Links

http://www.quakeroatmeal.com Quaker Oats Company, makers of Quisp, Cap'n Crunch, Life — and some 10 different kinds of oats.

http://www.malt-o-meal.com Matt-O-Meal Company, makers of breakfast cereals in bags, including Tootie Fruities, Corn Bursts, Coco-Roos, Colossal Crunch, and many more.

http://www.GeneralMills.com One of the truly giant food companies, General Mills built its reputation on breakfast cereals such as Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Trix, Kix, Chex, Cocoa Puffs, Golden Grahams, Wheaties, and Total.

http://www.kellogg.com Kellogg's, the biggest manufacturer of breakfast cereals and source of various other breakfast foods.

http://www.toastettes.com Official site of Toastettes, a leading brand of toaster pastries.

http://www.floridajuice.com The Florida Department of Citrus's official information about orange juice and citrus fruit in general.

http://freeweb.pdq.net/shoe/ Bagels for All: stories, videos, and facts about bagels.

Breakfast Places

Facing the World

Waking up and eating breakfast symbolizes coming to life and facing the world. If you're living in a dream world, refusing to face reality, then you need to “wake up and eat breakfast” — a metaphor that’s so powerful because it’s so close to reality.

Breakfast Meetings

It’s a business tradition — getting together for a special meeting before the work day really gets started. Of course, a 7:30 a.m. meeting has to have some kind of food — and usually a big pot of coffee — to help keep people awake. Breakfast meetings aren’t for everyone — just for those exceptional people who have that kind of internal drive that can get them somewhere they don’t have to be that early in the morning.

Breakfast can also be the excuse for a regular social gathering among a small group of people — a “breakfast club.” If you think socializing at 7 a.m. sounds like a good idea, you might have to ask around to find a group of people to socialize with, because most people will freely admit that they're not at their social best at that hour. That would explain the sense of loyalty that is often found in breakfast clubs.

Bed & Breakfast

Breakfast is a homey concept, and that’s part of the reason why “bed & breakfast” became the popular term for the new, homier lodging establishments that started to pop up a generation ago. If you're sick of motels that seem like they're all the same, bed & breakfasts may be the answer you're looking for. Part of their appeal is that every one is different.

Links

http://www.innformation.com Claims to be “the largest, most convenient and most complete bed and breakfast directory in existence.”

http://www.innplace.com The bed & breakfast and country inn directory of the Professional Association of Innkeepers International.

Breakfast in Story and Song

Cartoons

Somehow, breakfast cereal and cartoons seem to go together. Breakfast cereal makers quickly became the most important sponsors of Saturday morning cartoon programs on network television.

And they didn’t stop there. They created their own cartoon characters. Tony the Tiger and Cap'n Crunch were two of the first breakfast cereal characters to appear in their own television commercial cartoon campaigns and capture the imagination of a generation of children. More people remember Tony the Tiger and his famous line, “They're grrrrreat!” than the name of the cereal he promotes. Cartoon breakfast cereal commercials are designed to be more flashy and entertaining than informative. But at the same time that those cartoon commercials have made kids laugh, they might also have reminded a few TV viewers to head out to the kitchen during a commercial break and get some breakfast.

Movies

The Breakfast Club, Breakfast at Tiffany's

Music

Breakfast in America

Literature

Breakfast of Champions

Links

http://www.tonythetiger.com Fun and informative adventures for kids with Tony the Tiger, hero of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes advertising.

http://www.poptarts.com Finding entertainment value in Pop-Tarts, the leading brand of toaster pastries.

Breakfast Communications Corporation

The very first Breakfast record was the single “Paradise Road” by a band that called itself Hey. The company chose the “Breakfast” name because they were impressed with the special importance of breakfast in having a good day. Within a few years, the “Breakfast Records” people were doing more than just rock records; they were publishing — and providing related services — in a variety of electronic and print media. By 1989, it was time to incorporate, and Breakfast Communications Corporation was born.

More than a decade later, Breakfast is publishing more information than ever — and Breakfast Records is still releasing rock records. The same Breakfast logo that appeared on that first single — depicting a dinosaur munching on a tree at sunrise — still appears on Breakfast books, newsletters, records, CD-ROMs, and web pages today.

Links

Fish Nation Information Station: Breakfast’s monthly online newsletter, focusing on entertainment, communications, and related technology.

Breakfast Communications Corporation: The Breakfast home page.