According to research from the International Journal of Obesity, skipping the morning meal is associated with obesity as well as with decreased vitality and impaired social, emotional and mental health functioning. Breakfast cereal is the fourth largest source of added sugar in U. Still, some cereals provide nutrients. One cup of dry bran cereal offers nearly 4 grams of protein and 7 grams of dietary fiber with less than 7 grams of sugar, for example.
At this point, Americans were buying cereal because they were intrigued by notorious figures like Kellogg—it was, first and foremost, a popular curiosity. To achieve real legitimacy, the industry still had to wage a war on two fronts.
The first, against competitors; the second against the deeply entrenched idea of what really constituted a hearty American breakfast. It was one thing to have a product on the shelves, but another entirely to make consumers see it as a daily necessity. Many package designs, then, focused on the completeness of a bowl of cereal; how, Fannie Farmer be damned, this one box contained everything you needed.
More than anything, these cereals promised ease for the American housewife. She could make her life more convenient while still nurturing and providing for her family. And the idea was catching. Original box designs, advertisements, and supplementary nutritional inserts were geared toward adult concerns like health, cost, and convenience—nobody saw the value of marketing to children.
That changed in , when Kellogg's introduced the first-ever cereal box prize aimed at younger demographics. Anyone who bought two boxes of Corn Flakes would receive the Funny Jungleland Moving Pictures Booklet, a colorful book of animal illustrations, either from their grocer or through a mail-in order. The campaign persisted for a whopping 23 years—Kellog's had discovered that children could be just as valuable of a market as their parents, and soon competitors were following suit.
By the middle of the 20th century, especially in the post-war years, advertisers were catering to children and teenagers as a distinct and profitable demographic. With radios, and then televisions, in the household, products could be advertised to them directly, which they in turn requested by name.
It featured three bears—Handy, Dandy and Candy—though years later, the cereal's mascot would change to the affable Sugar Bear. It was also one of the first cereals to come substantially pre-sweetened, though Shurman explains that's just because technology finally caught up to what everyone was already doing at home—dumping sugar on their grain flakes.
With this new development, you didn't even need milk. Sugar Crisp boasted "It's fun to eat plain—right out of the package! Other brands were deploying the same techniques, with Kellogg introducing Corn Pops in and Frosted Flakes in , and General Mills unveiling Trix in Early boxes of Corn Pops made sure consumers knew about these new developments, emphasizing "Pre-sweetened" and "No sugar needed.
TV was where the kids could get hooked, with Tony the Tiger debuted in , the Trix rabbit and Sonny the Cuckoo bird They didn't care what the box looked like yet, as long as what was in it was what the mascots were telling them to eat.
The boxes were still aimed at parents, concerned more about the health of their child than the cartoons they wouldn't shut up about. This box of Cocoa Puffs from the late s still highlights that it's a corn cereal, as does this box of Trix , even though the rabbit was there, too. And Lucky Charms' original box advertises the "goodness in toasted oat cereal.
Through the s, cereal boxes increasingly focused more on taste, fun, and flavor innovations, not on convincing consumers they need cereal in the first place—that work had already been done. Customers already knew that cereal was what they should be eating for breakfast, so the advertising shifted, focusing on which cereal to buy and what perks it offered. Cereal companies could play up technological advances that allowed for sugar coatings, bright colors, and freeze-dried fruit to be added.
All that sugar? Entrepreneurs—some of whom worked in the sanitariums, like Charles C. Post—really build on these ideas and make them a healthy requirement. Milk came to be seen as a super food, and something that would keep you from getting deficiency diseases.
Why is it that, in America, we have maintained the feeling that lunch needs to be a quick meal in the middle of the day? Lunch is the original quick meal; it accommodated changing work schedules. And dinner has taken on the ideological weight of the meal. Dinner has been the time when we celebrate family, and when we concentrate on having a nice, hot meal, ideally.
Because dinner fulfilled that need, there was less of a need for the other meals to. We can just pour milk over cereal, or pop some toast in the toaster and walk out the door without even needing a plate or utensils. Breakfast accommodates work. Dinner was not initially a strong identifying factor, in terms of nationality, for colonists. At first, they were eating more or less peasant food, porridges brought from England that said more about class than nationality.
The first two or three ingredients are most important, as they comprise the majority of the cereal. If sugar is listed several times under different names — even if it is not in the first few spots — the product is probably very high in sugar. Protein is the most filling macronutrient. It increases fullness and reduces appetite.
This is likely because protein changes the levels of several hormones, such as the hunger hormone ghrelin and a fullness hormone called peptide YY 15 , 16 , 17 , Pay attention to portion sizes, and always read the ingredients list. You can also enrich your cereal by adding your own protein. If you are hungry in the morning, you should eat breakfast.
One study in teenage girls found that a high-protein breakfast of eggs and lean beef increased fullness. It also reduced cravings and late-night snacking High-protein breakfasts may help reduce cravings and promote weight loss. Breakfast cereals are highly processed, often packed with added sugar and refined carbs. Their packages regularly have misleading health claims.
If you eat cereal, read the ingredients list and approach health claims with skepticism. The best cereals are high in fiber and low in sugar. That said, many healthier breakfast options exist. Whole, single-ingredient foods — such as oat porridge or eggs — are a great choice. Preparing a healthy breakfast from whole foods is not only simple but starts your day with plenty of nutrition. Breakfast can be both good and bad, depending on what you choose to eat.
Here are the 10 worst foods to eat in the morning.
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