Bill is traveling today, so your Understandably morning newsletter is brought to you by Kate Sullivan and the letter B (you’ll see why in a minute)…
Most of us fall into one of three groups in the morning:
All I need is coffee to survive;
I’ll grab something on the way, I guess;
Bacon, eggs, two pancakes...or an artfully arranged smoothie bowl.
The latter category sticks to the idea that breakfast is the most important meal of the day—interestingly enough, a concept that didn’t really exist until the 1920s, when a PR flak for Beech-Nut Foods, Edward Bernays, engineered a survey getting doctors to say that a bacon-and-eggs breakfast was the best way to start off.
Before that, folks just ate what they could, when they could—preferably loading up on calories early as a way to fuel themselves for a day that most likely included a lot of manual labor.
After Bernays, though, the idea of breakfast being paramount took hold (and yes, Beech-Nut sold a whole lot of bacon as a result).
Today, you see plenty of reminders to eat your Wheaties, drink that OJ, and maybe down an overpriced smoothie or egg-white omelet if you’re concerned about calories or health.
Recently, however, skepticism has abounded. Some studies have suggested that breakfast doesn’t really matter, and it’s back to the old ways of eating, where as long as you get the appropriate amount of calories and nutrients at some point during the day, you’ll be just fine.
And the general, sensible consensus is that eating real food—things your grandmother would recognize if she read the ingredients on the label—will keep you the healthiest.
But a study earlier this year in the journal Proceedings of the Nutrition Society suggests that your bowl of processed breakfast cereal may, in fact, be more important than we thought.
Researchers from the Ohio State University studied the breakfast habits of 30,000 American adults. They found that people who skipped breakfast wound up lacking a host of vital nutrients, missing out on calcium, iron, zinc, and a range of vitamins.
In other words: they didn’t just make up the nutrients later in the day. However, folks who skipped breakfast did seem to snack more—and they were eating sugary, fatty stuff instead of, you know, apples.
So, looking closer, it seems as though that common wisdom about eating breakfast is right, even if it has its roots in a 100-year-old PR campaign.
And all those missing nutrients? They’re packed into fortified cereals.
That’s right, a bowl of highly processed, vitamin-infused raisin bran can make the difference between being nutrient-deficient and having what your body needs to maintain itself.
Some of those essential nutrients missing in the study subjects were specifically those crammed into processed breakfast products: folate, vitamin D, niacin, and so on. Of course, you could get them through fresh foods eaten throughout the day, like mushrooms, fortified milk, or broccoli.
But for people who can’t or won’t do that, for whatever reason, the easy way to get your RDA is through foods engineered to include these nutrients.
Oddly enough, because of all the attention paid to kids’ nutrition, and to remaking cereal formulas using more natural ingredients in the last year or two, even a bowl of Froot Loops may therefore be arguably better for your long-term health than grabbing a banana on your way to work.
Because breakfast, to quote Christopher Taylor, PhD, one of the study’s authors, is a “unique meal opportunity.”
And although the study was funded by the National Dairy Association Mideast, a bowl of cereal and some milk is probably still a better choice than Edward Bernays’s two rashers of fatty bacon.
So what do you eat for breakfast? Are you a coffee-only person, a smoothie fan, or is every day pancake day?
7 other things worth your time
The brutal heat wave scorching the Pacific Northwest continues, with temperatures exceeding 100F and expected to go to 115F or higher throughout the region. Utility companies are warning of rolling blackouts and bridges are being hosed down with cool water to prevent them from buckling. (AP)
A couple of not-so-missing links? Two archaeological discoveries may give new insight into where modern humans come from: 100,000-year-old bones found in Israel may be from a previously unknown type of primitive human. Meanwhile, another ancient skull, originally unearthed in the 1930s, has re-emerged in China. Dubbed "Dragon Man," it may be not a missing link but a parallel type of human like the Neanderthals. (Guardian; BBC)
United Airlines just placed its largest-ever order, contracting for a total of 270 planes from Boeing and Airbus as it overhauls its fleet to both retire aging planes and plan for a new growth spurt. Among them: a total of 200 737 MAX aircraft. COO Andrew Nocella: the new planes will “secure a spot for everybody’s onboard bag.” (Airways Magazine)
The US Supreme Court declined to hear arguments in a case in which a Virginia school board in 2015 banned a transgender student from using the boys’ bathroom. The decision means lower courts’ rulings that the board’s policy violated Title IX, a federal civil rights law barring sex-based discrimination, will stand. (AP)
Japan’s pandemic case numbers are on the rise, and Tokyo’s governor has taken time off to be treated for exhaustion and possibly other illness just 3 weeks before the Olympics are due to start. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has suggested that a new lockdown might be coming, even as athletes begin making plans to arrive and 58% of Tokyo residents polled oppose holding the Olympics as planned. (Bloomberg)
An Arizona bill allowing women who have had a child due to rape to terminate their rapist’s parental rights has passed the state legislature. Previously, rapists could share parenting rights with their victims. The bill’s sponsor, State Sen. Victoria Steele, said, “While we cannot change what happened in the past, we can change what happens in the future and lessen the pain by not allowing a rapist parental rights.” (Newsweek)
As if doing 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200-meter sprint, long jump, javelin throw, and a 800-meter run wasn’t enough, US heptathlete Lindsay Flach is making the rest of us look even worse by competing in the Olympic trials while 18 weeks pregnant. (HuffPost; @Fast_Women)
Thanks for reading. Photo credit: Pixabay. Want to see all my mistakes? Click here.
I try to eat about 1 or more cups of vegetables in an omelet in the morning. I also add some black beans to it. Then I have a cup of berries, either black-, rasp- or blue topped with Greek Yogurt. I have had this same breakfast for probably 20 or so years with little variation. i think we can rethink breakfast and not always have the typical breakfast food. Getting 1 cup of vegetables and 1 cup of fruit in the morning gets part of my fruit and veggie requirements 'out of the way' for me. Thank you for this email newsletter. I love connecting with and reading things that curious people such as yourselves put out. Because most of us have more sedentary lives than people 100 years ago did, a smaller breakfast might be more appropriate.
I agree that breakfast is quite important. Processed foods really aren’t much better than nothing and the “empty” calories often leave you with cravings soon after.
For one thing, processed foods have initially been stripped of their nutrients which is why they are added back, aka, “fortified.” Any time a product is fortified you have no idea the quality of that fortification. Moreover, adults do not need milk and do not naturally have the enzymes to digest milk. That’s why so many people are lactose intolerant. You can get calcium from better sources and take a D supplement in a controlled manner.
Processed foods are designed to offer calories and a solid bottom line to the manufacturer, not nutrition. You would likely be better off eating real food for breakfast and taking supplements.
I have a smoothie every morning. The typical ingredient list includes a banana, protein powder, a serving of uncooked steel cut oats, handful of roasted almonds, spoonful of organic blackstrap molasses, 1/2 cup blueberries, few frozen grapes, kale leaf, fresh spinach, ice and a cup of oat milk. I also take vitamin D3, turmeric, B complex, fish oil, and DHEA. It’s quick and easy.
Industrial food production is a business. People make buying decisions based on emotions and big business understands that. Want to know more, simply read the book Salt, Sugar, Fat. There are plenty of other books but that one is comprehensive with input from former industry execs.