Why don’t we (in general…in the U.S anyway) eat lettuce (or most any other kind of salad) for breakfast?
I’ve been known to have a spinach omelet for breakfast. The reverse of that would be a spinach salad with chopped egg on the top. Those are kinda similar, right?
I know a number of people who do, actually, but they’re all raw foodists.
It seems to be that the general American/western taste for breakfast foods is that if they’re savory, they should also be heavy in protein and/or fat, like eggs or the sundry “breakfast” meats.
I think there may also be a desire for things that are easier to make – not all the chopping, slicing and so on – and easier to eat – not so much chewing – early in the day. As much as I enjoy a salad, first meal of the day, I don’t even want crunchy toast.
By the same token, you could ask why we don’t eat soup or sandwiches for breakfast. For whatever reason, it’s become an ingrained custom that breakfast is limited to only a few things - cereal, eggs & bacon or pancakes/waffles.
When I decided to start eating healthier, the first thing I did was stop eating cereal. I was thinking about how I always make my own lunches and dinners, yet my breakfast was always something processed out of a box. So now, breakfast is whatever I want it to be. Sometimes it’s a homemade smoothie, or sardines on toast (got the idea from Alton Brown) or leftovers from the previous night’s dinner.
Fruit salad?
Someone once saw me eating leftover vegetable egg foo young with rice and gravy for breakfast and grossed out. I asked how was it different from having a vegetable omelet and rice krispies? No answer.
This makes me think of the Frasier theme song, with the tossed salad and scrambled eggs.
Moving from IMHO to Cafe Society.
I don’t know any raw foodists. Have they kept it up for long?
I’d add porridge and toast to that list, but there really aren’t a whole lot of traditional breakfast foods.
Similarly, I had a (Chinese) co-worker who would eat corn on the cob for breakfast. That just sounds so wrong to me, and yet there’s really no logical reason why it shouldn’t be a breakfast food.
My WAG is that it’s a hold-over from when people had to stoke up for a hard day behind a plow. Lettuce just doesn’t give you the carbs you need for that kind of workload.
Plus, in the middle of your commute, you have to stop at a gas station to do the necessary.
Pizza for breakfast is still cool, right?
Yes, but it must be cold. Fresh or reheated is just gross.
Whether you’re plowing or not, breakfast is still the best time to load up on calories for the day.
Oh, I have fond memories of arriving at the office at 8 a.m. for a meeting during the holidays. We always seemed to have cheese cubes, pepperoni, cold cuts, and pickles left over from the previous day’s luncheon. We’d all fill up a plate, open a diet Coke and let the meeting begin (much to the horror of our stuffy boss, lol!).
One’s been going for more than three years, and runs a raw food website. (I know the others through her.) She’s dedicated, because she found that eliminating processed foods and grains, especially, has resulted in alleviation of some chronic ailments. Likely she has some allergies or sensitivities and could be just as improved if she occasionally steamed her carrots, but to each their own.
I try to do the raw thing for several lunches a week, and any time I have to eat a late dinner. But I think it’s really hard to eat enough calories, even if you’re eating a lot of nuts, to do it 24/7.
Germans usually eat a Continental breakfast, but with the addition of cheese and cold cuts. I think the Duth do the same.
I will frequently eat steamed veggies for breakfast; kale, chard, brussel(s?) sprouts, spinach . . . usually steamed with a splash of soy sauce. Sometimes I’ll have a little bit of kielbasa or ham with it, but usually not, and sometimes with a little yogurt as well.
I feel a lot better than when I eat heavy breads, eggs, potatoes, and the like.
I guess I’m atypical.
For quite a while now, just to keep up with the tomatoes and peppers I have been eating a Tomato, Hot Pepper, Onion, and feta salad with Italian dressing and some bread as first meal. I like it, and I usually eat a humongous bowl -2 large tomatoes, several Chinensis style red chiles, about an ounce to two ounces of feta, 1/4 of an onion, 3 tablespoons of dressing, salt, pepper, bread and butter. It is very filling and seems to sustain quite well.
Of course, I will go back to oats and cereal (hohum) come winter.