A few weeks ago I had leftover kale and
cauliflower from dinner. The recipe is a good one; there are olives and capers
it’s full of salty goodness. I made a meal from what was left. This in itself
wasn’t strange except for the fact that it was 8:30am. I tweeted about my
peculiar morning meal and asked “is it normal to have kale and cauliflower for
breakfast?” If we can use twitter as a barometer, it turns out people didn’t
think my choice was that unusual. The ultrarunner Sarah Stanley informed me
that she tries to have 5-10 vegetables for breakfast.
In other countries savory breakfasts are quite
common. In Norway and smoked fish plays a prominent role in breakfast. In Costa
Rica there’s Gallo Pinto (rice and beans) often served with eggs. In Japan miso soup and pickled
plums are commonly served. It’s been
documented that higher protein breakfasts result in lower calories consumed
later in the day but there is also
evidence that a savory breakfast can also help weight-wise. A study in the May
issue of The Journal of Nutrition
compared savory and sweet “preloads” or tastes.
There
was increased food intake after the sweet preload compared to the savory
preload. The researchers concluded that savory taste might help regulate
appetite.
I never could quite
understand why breakfast is so often super sweet. Of course Americans are not
alone in their predilection for sweet breakfasts, we didn’t invent
the pain au chocolat. Nope, we invented fruity pebbles (1971) , pop tarts
(1977) and muffins (3oz in 1950, more than doubled since) the size of our
heads. While you may not be a full-fledged dinner for breakfast person (our
lovely intern Joanna found the Japanese breakfast interesting but added “rice
and beans in the morning? I don’t thing I could ever do that!”) what we eat
early in the day can affect our food choices later. And whether it’s cereal or
soda, most of us can benefit from eating a little less sweet. If we can have
breakfast for dinner, why not have dinner foods for breakfast?
Are your breakfasts more often savory or sweet? What
are your favorite breakfast foods? Do you ever eat dinner for breakfast? What's the strangest thing you've ever had in the morning?
