
We need to call American breakfast what it often is: dessert - hippich
http://www.vox.com/2016/7/11/12128372/sugar-cereal-breakfast-nutrition-facts?utm_campaign=vox&utm_content=article%3Afixed&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook
======
fiblye
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.

~~~
niftich
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
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.

~~~
trentmb
> I wish there were places in the States that made those little sandwiches.

Your home? I've found that they can make whatever I want...

EDIT: This wasn't a cuckold joke- just a remark that you can to a large degree
command your diet

~~~
Dutchie
Non-native speaker here. Why could this be understood as a cuckold joke? (My
dictionary says this about cuckold: "The husband of an adulteress, often
regarded as an object of derision.")

~~~
gjm11
Because "Your home? I've found that they can make whatever I want..." suggests
that _trentmb_ is in the habit of getting breakfast at _douche_ 's home (and
can get "anything I want"!), and that _douche_ doesn't know this.

------
johnloeber
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.

~~~
scotty79
> What confuses me most is the popularity of breakfast cereal.

It's the laziest breakfast I can make for myself. Even cutting slice of bread
looks like more work than trowing some random debris in milk.

~~~
dualogy
If you feel too lazy to furnish proper nourishment for yourself, you're not
really hungry.

(Which is fine, people love to snack after all.)

~~~
scotty79
I'm rarely ever hungry. If I don't eat I get a headache, don't have energy to
eat anything and fall asleep. When I wake up I have strength to make myself
some food but it's hard for me to tell if I'm doing it because I'm hungry or
if I'm doing it just because I know I need it after yesterday.

When I was a baby I never cried because of hunger, I was just falling asleep.

------
gavinpc
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.

~~~
SixSigma
Well the no exercise part is mostly true. Diet is the most important factor.

~~~
lloeki
Can we stop with sweeping statements? Exercising when on a bad diet all the
while being definitely overweight sure won't work, while fixing your diet will
help even withojt exercise (although it'll help, especially as regular
exercise helps in regulating hunger)

But currently I need do shed only a little bit of excess weight, and short of
starving myself "fixing" my diet more won't help at all, only exercising will
do.

~~~
SixSigma
Running a calorie deficit does not require starvation.

You can easily live on 1500 kcals a day and lose as much as you like.

I know because I have done it.

~~~
cableshaft
Well congrats on having a body that doesn't constantly scream for food when
you only eat 1500 calories a day, because mine does (and probably a lot of
obese people).

That being said I have successfully fought through it and lost significant
weight before. But I felt hungry the entire time. I'm trying a different
approach by adopting a low carb diet this time around, though.

~~~
SixSigma
> only a little bit of excess weight

> obese

I just knew you were weasel wording. Fats are always in denial.

You wouldn't be hungry after eating a kilo of carrot & cabbage salad. So all
you're telling me are the lies you tell yourself.

~~~
lloeki
What? It's not even my reply.

Anyway currently if I reduce calorie intake my body just gets into a massive
slump mode as it tries to minimise calorie burn, resulting in zero weight loss
unless I downright fast. Conversely, just having a balanced diet and going
running regularly keeps my body very close to optimal weight.

~~~
SixSigma
Oh yes, sorry.

It is water retention that often causes plataeu, which admittedly, is where
the exercsie does factor in.

------
coenhyde
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.

~~~
teekert
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.

------
douche
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.

~~~
onion2k
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
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
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.

------
cbsmith
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".

~~~
OJFord
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
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
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.

------
bogomipz
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.

------
teekert
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?)

------
celticait
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"

------
fractallyte
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.

------
philwelch
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.

~~~
chjohasbrouck
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
Rats are pretty happy to eat our grain given the chance, aren't they?

~~~
chjohasbrouck
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. :)

------
wfunction
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)

------
thomasruns
How exactly are bacon and eggs the same as dessert?

~~~
zhte415
Here's a recipe for bacon and egg ice cream:
[http://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-to-cook-like-
heston/a...](http://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-to-cook-like-
heston/articles/all/bacon-and-egg-ice-cream-recipe/1819)

------
vinhboy
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?

~~~
toephu2
You think your Starbucks coffee is actually healthy? (many of Starbucks'
drinks have more sugar than a can of Coca-Cola)

~~~
rspeer
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
true, but i've yet to see a single person doing so. most people add sugar into
their already sweet lattes and other stuff

------
segmondy
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.

------
natejenkins
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.

------
throwaway6497
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.

~~~
eru
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
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. :-(

------
aaronbrethorst
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/)

------
cbhl
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.

------
beachstartup
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
Cereal is eaten religiously for breakfast by many.

~~~
mondoshawan
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.

------
wodenokoto
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
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-
lat...](http://www.arla.se/produkter/arla-ko/mild-yoghurt-vanilj-
lattsockrad-1000g-457846/) (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
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-10...](http://www.arla.se/produkter/arla-ko/mild-yoghurt-
grekisk-1000g-458665/)

~~~
wodenokoto
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.

------
warkid
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.

------
db48x
Maybe the author has ham and eggs for dessert, but that doesn't seem like it
would generalize well.

------
mhroth
Perhaps we could call it "pre-ssert"? ;)

------
rosstex
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

------
daeken
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.

------
vacri
> _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
There are different meanings to that word in common usage.

Eg just look at the phrase "second breakfast".

~~~
vacri
Does the phrase 'second breakfast' actually exist outside hairy-footed
Tolkien-creatures?

~~~
dalke
[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
"(its Hungarian name, tízórai, actually means "[snack] at 10")"

which we would call 'brunch' (or also 'snack').

~~~
dalke
Or "morning coffee break".

~~~
UncleSlacky
Or "elevenses".

------
laxatives
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
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?

~~~
peteretep

        > 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.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Do you _seriously_ believe that in this day and age, people are not aware of
the health implications of being overweight? Or of smoking?

Bear in mind that what you consider "encouragement" others may call "bugging
me about my own choices."

~~~
peteretep

        > people are not aware of the health implications of
        > being overweight
    
        > others may call "bugging me about my own choices"
    

I believe that I will bear the health and related collateral costs of obese
people via my contributions to my country's tax system.

I will also bug you if I see you dropping litter in public places or smoking
in an enclosed area that also encloses me.

------
beloch
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
Fried. Not deep fried. No one would do that.

