When my grandfather was a boy during the Great Depression (he was born in 1920), he would complain about having to eat oatmeal every morning for breakfast. Here’s what his mom would say to him,
“You’re going to eat that oatmeal or I’m going to shove it down your throat!”
He would tell that story and crack up before he even finished that sentence. In fact, if he was feeling more spirited than usual, he would start laughing so hard he would seem to run out of air and start crying. Getting oatmeal shoved down your throat didn’t seem very humorous to me, but he got such a kick out of telling that story. He’s such a jovial person, I loved watching him tell a story that ended with him wiping his eyes.
Needless to say, he hated oatmeal and never gave it to his own children. My mom does not like or eat oatmeal.
But I like oatmeal. It doesn’t make me gag. My favorite flavor is maple syrup or brown sugar with raisins. That just screams YUM to me.
When I blogged about breakfast in the classroom, you guys commented that you, or your teenage kids, didn’t like eating breakfast and that the thought of eating it made you nauseous. That’s something I never considered, but I totally get. Why do you think people are nauseous in the morning?
Ironically, on Friday I completely forgot to eat breakfast. I was driving to work and realized that I didn’t have my usual bowl of cereal or even brush my teeth! I grabbed one of the KIND bars I carry in my purse and scarfed it down. Actually I wasn’t feeling very good and by the end of the day, I was totally bogged down by the fog of a cold. So that’s my excuse!
What’s your least favorite breakfast food? Your most favorite?
This actually really describes me. I've grown up hearing that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but in all honesty, until I got married, I thought that I just didn't like breakfast food.
Turns out, I just can't eat first thing in the morning. It takes my system a couple of hours after I wake up before it's ready to handle food. If I get up at 6:30-7:00 am, I'm not ready to handle any food in my system till about 9-10 am.
Generally, if I do grab anything before starting my day, it's a glass of orange juice. That's both light enough, and filling enough (I get the original style with the pulp) that I count it as breakfast.
I used to HATE oatmeal too…b/c it reminded me of this rice porridge that I remember a nanny shoving down my throat. I still won't really eat porridge, but have come to LOVE LOVE LOVE oatmeal, and I try to start my day with a bowl of steel cut oats and some goodies added to it!
Mrs. Q,
When you say that maple flavored oatmeal, are you talking about the kind that comes in the packets? I used to eat that stuff, too, until I found McMann's Original Steel Cut Oats. You will never want to experience oats any other way until you cook AND eat these oats. They are pure oats and not processed and the texture is so beautifully creamy.
I enjoy the ritual of cooking them every morning almost as much as I enjoy eating them. You can add your syrup or honey, raisins, cream, etc. I start the cooking process when i make my tea, I steep my own tea. There's just something about morning rituals that comfort me. Anyway, I add about a 1/2 – 1 tsp brown sugar and a splash of 1/2&1/2, no I don't use the fat free kind, I am more afraid of what they substitute the fat with than the actual fat.
I get the whole not wanting to jump out of bed and eat, I can't do that either. My husband does, I mean as soon as he gets out of bed, his coffee is made and breakfast is served. I start my tea and oatmeal. We do this before we wake our two boys (ages 9&6). I don't remember what I ate growing up, I think there was a lot of toast and peanut butter on the way out of the house to catch the bus. I love toast and peanut butter, the boys like cheese toast and a pear for breakfast. Sometimes a waffle or bowl of cheese. My older son loves a block of cheese with a whole grain waffle, that's pretty good actually.
Ditto on the steel-cut oats, and on the not eating until later in the morning. I typically bring my breakfast to work (homemade granola, yogurt, and some sort of fruit), and eat it after I've gotten myself settled. If I eat earlier, I get really nauseous and it's an unpleasant ride into the city.
I ate bacon and eggs for breakfast almost every single day of my life in childhood. How I resented it at the time! I still like breakfast and because I'm nursing I wake every morning RAVENOUS. I like oatmeal (and I always make the Old Fashioned kind even though I do make it in the microwave). I make it with milk, golden raisins and pecans. YUM. I also love the flavor of all breakfast carbs: toast, waffles, pancakes but they make me so sleepy. I hardly ever eat those for breakfast.
My daughter usually gets oatmeal or scrambled eggs for breakfast. On the days when we're running late she gets yogurt and toast in the car. And then there's the infamous school breakfast when she gets to school!
My family used to have Scrambled Egg Sandwiches (on white bread, of course) about once a week. Everyone else loved them. I couldn't stomach it. Even worse were our early morning trips (usually big vacations, trips to state parks, or to the regional amusement park) where my mother would pack them for us to eat later while we were on the road. Hot scrambled egg sandwiches were bad enough, but cold ones (combined with windy and hilly country roads) almost always made me throw up.
Another shout-out for steel cut oats! I recently had "instant" oatmeal packets for the first time in a few years since switching, and it was gooey and slimy and just grossed me out totally. Oatmeal was meant to be hearty and chunky!
I have to wait to eat until at least an hour after I wake up. I take thyroid medication, and you have to take it on an empty stomach and then not eat for an hour. This is hard for me because I do enjoy breakfast. Oatmeal is one of my favorites. My little boy (he's two) begs me for oatmeal when it's not even breakfast time. Perhaps eating oatmeal is just an acquired taste. . . or, perhaps you only like it if it is made correctly. 🙂 Now I think I'm going to go have some oatmeal for breakfast!
I'm another that just can't eat right away in the morning. And I prefer a warm, savor breakfast to something sweet (even fruit). As for oatmeal, it ranks with bananas for me – at the bottom of the list. I think it's a mushy/texture thing (I haven't tried steel cut). I do LOVE to bake with it, though!
I've always been a "breakfast first" kind of person. I can't start my day without a good breakfast. I love steel cut oats or Scottish Oatmeal for breakfast but I can't eat it every day. 🙂 I put brown sugar and cinnamon in it. So very good. I used to eat the "instant" oatmeal and now I can't even look at it. lol Once you eat REAL oatmeal, you don't want to go back. My other breakfast food is Fiber One Honey Clusters, raw almonds and a homemade mocha.
Sugary cereals are my least favorite breakfast. I used to eat them all the time as a kid but now I can't stand them. I guess learning about real food can do that to you. 🙂
I have maple and brown sugar oatmeal with raisens almost daily. Doesn't matter whether it is summer or winter here. No eggs, I can't stand those things.
I used to date a guy who would get sick if he ate before noon — no Sunday brunches during our relationship!
I've noticed as I've gotten older that I like to wait awhile now before I eat breakfast. I still definitely need to have it (and I get majorly cranky if I haven't eaten by 10am), but while I used to not because to do ANYTHING until I'd had coffee and at least some fruit or toast, now I like to wait until 9ish. My favorite office breakfast lately has been the Quaker Organic Instant oatmeal (easy packets, and only one ingredient!) mixed with some peanut butter and fresh fruit.
Mrs. Q.,
I know you are working on a gluten free diet, but I don't know if you know that typical oats are contaminated with gluten? If you don't have Celiac disease, perhaps you aren't as sensitive, but you might want to try buying certified gluten free oats (if you aren't already). I am unable to eat oats unless they are certified GF, and even then they don't always sit so well. You may want to try Bob's Red Mill GF oats.
Hope that helps!
I've always been a breakfast girl–I can't function without it. I do, however, usually wait about an hour after I get up to eat. I hated oatmeal as a kid, and I've never been much for cereal in the morning. But as an adult, I eat oatmeal for lunch at least 2-3 days a week all winter!
I honestly think that the nauseous in the morning thing is related to dehydration and/or low blood sugar. If I wake up feeling wonky, a long drink of OJ help tremendously!
I'm the oddball, I guess–if I don't eat breakfast, I get nauseous and a headache and have no energy at all. Cannot skip, never could.
That being said–I agree, skip the packets if you are eating them. Too many chemicals and weird things! Just add what you like. Cheaper and way better. (I'm sure you know this.) I love steel cut, but my morning cooking is limited to coffee and toast (for fear I'd burn the house down–I am not a morning person), so I go instant. I know it's not as good, but it works for me.
And a tip: best oatmeal flavor ever is to add a spoonful of peanut butter and some real maple syrup. A swirl of yogurt is delicious, too. I do homemade, whole cow's milk yogurt, but I'm sure coconut would be good, too. But the PB&M is the bomb!!! And the added bit of protein and fat helps maintain your energy level through the morning.
i could not eat breakfast for a couple of years as a teenager. it made me nauseous. i remember the feeling. i think it might be a teenager thing?
now i love breakfast, and i feel sick around noon if i skip it. one of my favorite things is steel-cut oats. so much better than instant or rolled. because steel-cut take so long to cook, i make a big batch and warm up a bowl when needed… yum
I used to feel sick if I ate too early, but it is because I never did. So I started to make myself eat breakfast and drink water with my coffee and now I find myself hungry when I get up in the morning. Your body needs the fuel!
My favorite breakfast is whole plain greek yogurt with honey and cocoa nibs or pistachios.
And also steel cut oats with butter, cinnamon, dried currents and whole milk.
I like a savory thin little tea sandwich (has to have some protein on it, like smoked salmon, or prosciutto, or a slice of ham and a slice of swiss), with black coffee. It has to be really good mellow dark roast coffee.
In my reoccurring daydream it's a cold, crisp early winter morning before the kids or my husband wake up, I walk to the kitchen wearing a cozy warm robe and my fuzzy sheepskin slippers, put on a fire in the wood burning stove while a tea kettle (electric such, I'm such a cheat) brings water to a boil. I feed my loyal cat who behaves more like a dog and enjoy a mug of nice, warm tea while I browse my etsy.com-store's orders and make my to-do-list, the news and the handful of blogs I follow (yes, I'm looking at you, Mrs. Q).
In the same daydream, when the kids wake up, I get some breakfast into them and my husband, and see them off to work and school. Only after the necessary stuff is done, and my quiet morning is followed by a brief chaos before another moment of tranquillity, will I have a breakfast of a small serving of home-made yoghurt with some frozen berries, or oatmeal with a bit of milk and berries or fresh fruit in it. (I avoid added sugar in my food).
This daydream sort of ties in with my age-old habits. I don't really eat breakfasts. I eat a mid-morning snack about two hours after waking up and having a nice, warm mug of tea or coffee. My first meal of the day is a light, often dairy-based snack with a serving of fruit or veg, or just a piece of fruit. I rarely eat any grains before noon, and I only do wholegrain.
At work, however, my mid-morning snack is sometimes followed by an early lunch of a small serving of instant oatmeal (no additives, I add a teeny pinch of salt and some berry or fruit soup they sell in cartons over here, they're easy to carry to work, so I keep an "emergency stock" in my drawer in case I forget to bring lunch).
I can eat breakfast in the mornings, as proved by 270 days of military service in the FDF Marines that always began with oatmeal, rye porridge or such at 0630hrs every day, with the exception of Sundays, when we often got things like pancakes or such. However if I do, my weight goes up by 20% within a matter of weeks, if I don't also burn 4000kcal per day, which, short of being in a war zone, is not my usual daily routine. I get up to 2500-3000kcal, if I walk a lot, and do my 90 minutes of physically straining work-out (in winter time, it's figure skating).
Something about my metabolism requires me to start slowly in the morning, or I'll end up messed up all day.
The skipping of breakfast seems to be a common thing among some family and friends who work in the creative field (software development and arts and such). My fiancé works as a video game designer, and he takes even longer than me to get going in the mornings, before his metabolism is ready for food.
It also seems to be a common habit to skip breakfast, if your IQ is over 140… (Even more obvious when you go to 150+ or 160+, or the few savants I know. The higher their IQ, the more often they forget to eat breakfast. My extended family has two Nobel laureates in sciences). That is however just a theory of mine, with no supporting data.
My favourite breakfast is a tie between home-made yoghurt with some fruit or berries, with the occasional crushed seeds or soy thrown into the mix, and Japanese sweet omelette, tamagoyaki, which is a staple in Japanese lunch boxes as well. The common denominator with these breakfasts is protein. If I eat a bit of protein in the morning, I'm not as likely to binge eat later on in the day, and don't get cravings for fattening foods the same way.
The least favourite dish has to be barley porridge. I just have horrible traumas from school lunches, which were porridge a few times a month, and barley ends up like balls of snot in texture a little too often.
While I am not a fan of breakfast food, I usually try to eat something before heading off to class. Cheerio's are usually my to-go food. But, on weekends, I love scrambled eggs, bacon, and either hash browns or toast with some jam spread on it.
My mother and my brother, on the other hand, hate eating as soon as they wake up.
I am one of those people who do not eat breakfast. Depending on the day I get up and fix my fiance breakfast and take it to him at work. But, for me I normally just hav black coffee. If I eat anything it would be on saturdays which is the day I sleep in and get up about 8:30 or 9.
When I was little I had to eat breakfast every morning, because my mom made me. But, about the age of 12 it got to the point where I would get sick in the morning if I ate breakfast. At the age of 20 I still have the same thing happen.
I have to eat breakfast right away, but my husband and son don't like to. I just did a post on my blog about baked oatmeal, it's great because you can cut it up into squares and take it with you!
I'm another oddball…I usually have to eat rather soon after I get up in the morning because I'm RAVENOUS! If I skip breakfast, I get nauseous and get a headache and whatnot. My husband used to be the type that couldn't eat when he got up. Whenever we would go on a roadtrip and would have to leave out early, he always got sick from breakfast no matter what it is. However, now that he is working 10-hour days and has to be at work earlier, he HAS to eat breakfast or feels like he's starving. Also, the earlier I get up, the more I feel hungry; so, if I woke up at four in the morning for some reason, I would probably have to eat something every few hours. My husband and I are both rather skinny, and they say eating breakfast helps you lose weight and keep it off.
Also, I totally agree about the steel-cut oats. Once you eat those, you can't eat that Quaker blobby mush. YUCK!
I think being tired or up so early makes peoples stomachs get on edge. I have a friend, a co-worker actually, who cannot be up earlier than about 9 or 10 because he will throw up. Im not sure why, but he also cant eat in the morning.
I think breakfast is the most important meal of the day. my grandfather would eat HUGE breakfastses since he worked in the fields and they wouldnt have meals until they were done working.
I think times have changed, along with peoples eating habits, especially breakfast. I cant imagine not eating breakfast! I woke up late the morning to be at work at 7 but I made a point of eating a boiled egg and GF toast on my way there.
my least favorite breakfast food…I dont think that I have one.
my favorite breakfast food is eggs, GF bacon, fruit, vitamin packed juice, and Bob's Red Mill mighty tasty GF hot cereal w/Earth Balance.
I love breakfast, and I love food rituals. I like both sweet and savory breakfasts, including oatmeal with my own peach preserves –yummy!
However, I love peace and quiet while I'm eating breakfast –on weekday mornings I shower, get my daughter breakfast, make lunches and drop my daughter off at school all before eating breakfast. I'm pretty ravenous by then, but it's worth it. I get a latte and bagel from Panera (no cream cheese or toasting, just "as is") on my way into my office. I sip the latte while listening to NPR on the rest of the drive, and then enjoy both in the quiet peace of my office. Oh, I love that part of my morning 🙂
Luv oatmeal! In my late teens-early 20's when I worked out a lot pre-cardio snack was always a instant-sugary packet of oatmeal & a yogurt.Around 30 I realized a low sugar diet is best. So I eat plain old fashion oatmeal made w/ almond milk , the plain not sugary kind w/ a dash of cinnamon. My 6yr old will take a few bites of it & likes it, but she's a cottage cheese 4 breakfast kid.
My husband is in the "can't eat in the morning" camp (my son and I in the "must eat breakfast" camp). For my husband, I've always thought that it just goes along with his not being a morning person in general. He hates getting up early, doesn't wake up easily, really drags until about 10:00 am — but then stays awake until midnight or later, while I'm asleep long since, and up at 6:00.
My husband also calls oatmeal "too heavy" to eat in the morning, but will eat bacon and eggs (which makes me laugh, because I consider those too heavy!).
Also, if you're busy in the morning but want steel cut oats (which my son and I love) you can make them overnight in the crockpot (lots of online recipes — include a chopped apple and some cinnamon and it's DIVINE!). We also keep a stash of homemade frozen muffins and waffles and such (whole grain — you could use gluten-free flours) in the freezer for quick prep. My son's favorite is a whole-grain english muffin with scrambled egg and smoked salmon!
Oh, by the way, it's "nauseated" not "nauseous." Nauseous is the stuff that makes you nauseated (i.e. nauseated means feeling sick, nauseous is disgusting — I feel nauseated because the rotten eggs were nauseous.)
I think my least favorite food – for breakfast or any other time – would have to be yogurt. Even just the smell of it is enough to make me gag. Always has been. I wish it wasn't – I know yogurt is really good for you. Every so often I get it in my head that maybe my palate will have changed by now, and I should try yogurt again. Most times just opening the package is enough to disabuse me of that notion – the farthest I've ever gotten is a single bite, and that was a whipped yogurt that I'd stuck in the freezer on the recommendation of a Yoplait commerical one summer. I think it's genetic: both of my sisters are the same way with yogurt.
I love reading other comments about not being able to eat first thing in the morning – I've always been the same way! I remember staying home from school as a kid because breakfast had upset my stomach, only to feel fine again by 10am or so. My boyfriend HAS to eat as soon as he wakes, but I prefer to get moving first and eat later, after an hour or so.
Also, I second the peanut butter-oatmeal combination! I use agave nectar to sweeten it, but I'll definitely try the maple syrup…I buy Trader Joe's quick-cooking steel cut oats and make them on the stove top. It only takes about 5 minutes!
Your comments are making me chuckle!
(To the commenter who asked – yes, I eat gf oats now)
I love love love most breakfast foods (with the exception of oatmeal/malt-o-meal/cream of wheat – gag), but I also have the "I can't eat right when I get up" thing as well. It just makes me nauseous to even think of food that early.
I also can't seem to drag myself out of bed 1-2 hours early just so I can eat breakfast before work.
However, my husband won't let me skip breakfast so I have Carnation Instant Breakfast every morning. While I can't really eat without being nauseous, I can drink a glass of milk and with the Carnation, at least I'm getting some nutrition 🙂
Weekends are the BEST because that means I get to eat breakfast-y type foods without the meh's. I also frequently (probably at least once every 2 weeks, if not more often) do breakfast for dinner 🙂
I eat anything for breakfast that I would eat at any other time. Honestly. Most of the time I eat whatever is left over from the night before. I love oatmeal, warm and comforting with crunchy brown sugar and cool milk…mmmmm. Never stirred.
I am odd in my willingness to eat wildly garlicy breakfasts, or whatever is going by. I do brush my teeth before I leave, but I also live in Spain where folks don't seem to notice garlic smells, and neither do I as it is most everything!
Mmmmm.
What I pretty much must have is a great big mug of TEA! or two.
1. I rarely eat breakfast, just out of habit.
But as a rule, I prefer savory breakfast foods – eggs, sausage, toast with butter – to sweet ones.
The nieces have steel-cut oats with fruit every day. We try to vary the fruit so it's not same-same all the time. So one day they have it with pumpkin and ginger, another day it's blackberries and pears, on a third day it's apples with cinnamon, and so on.
2. On nauseous/nauseated. Oh boy. Gosh, I love it when people throw out these random "rules" without any understanding of how language works, where these "rules" come from, or if they're even correct.
Let's check the OED!
Nauseated: Originally: †causing nausea, cloying, rank (obs.). Now: suffering from or characterized by nausea. Also fig.
Citations from 1659 onwards.
Nauseous:
b. orig. U.S. Of a person: affected with nausea; having an unsettled stomach; (fig.) disgusted, affected with distaste or loathing.
Gosh, it looks like… yes, indeed, it looks like you are incorrect. Nauseous in the sense of "being nauseated" has citations going back to 1885 in the OED.
But not everybody can access the OED online (fun fact – you can if you have a NYPL library card!), so let's try Merriam-Webster:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nauseous
What do they say on the subject?
Those who insist that nauseous can properly be used only in sense 1 and that in sense 2 it is an error for nauseated are mistaken.
There it is, black-and-white in the dictionary.
I'm with you on steel-cut oats. I discovered them last week and am completely hooked. Raisins, walnuts, bananas, frozen berries, dried fruit…the possibilities are endless, and mostly pretty healthy! Now I gotta try peanut butter next time.
As for feeling nauseous in the morning…just a wild guess, but maybe it has to do with eating too late or eating an oversized dinner? Seems like the people I know who skip breakfast also have a huge dinner, and I know when I go to bed on a full stomach I feel a little weird in the morning.
My father was born in 1928 and has the same aversion to oatmeal, for the same reason! I have never understood it myself.
Ashley mentioned being ravenous in the morning. I actually have another problem, if my blood sugar levels plunge during the night, I wake up with a migraine (requiring something other than oral medication to be sorted out).
If you eat a small portion of low GI food in the evening (for me, it's wholemeal rye crackers with for example avocado on top), it'll keep your blood sugar levels in check overnight, and eating some protein in the morning is going to keep your snacking urge at bay throughout most of the day.
Some people feel oats are heavy, others think bacon and such is. A common breakfast (Time-wise more of a "mid-morning meal") I may have if I'm not doing yoghurt, is a carrot salad and Japanese omelette, or a small omelette with sourcream, spinach and tomatoes.
As a general rule, go with what's best for you. 🙂
Oatmeal, yogurt, and bananas are all things that I like, but whose textures really, really get to me. It's just the mushy sliminess of them. As long as I'm very careful not to think about what I'm eating, I can enjoy all three just fine.
But yes, most mornings I have to be awake for a while before I can eat, too. I have found that something really easy to digest, like herbal tea and some buttered toast will be ok first thing in the morning, but the idea of a big bowl of oatmeal, fruit and cottage cheese, or yogurt with cereal/granola is asking way too much right off the bat.
Interestingly, I have found that I do not feel that way on weekends, when I wake up without an alarm clock. But on working days, even when I get enough sleep, there's something about being blasted awake that leaves me feeling exhausted and sick to my stomach for a good half hour afterward.
Over the years I've learned to solve the problem by eating on my way to work. I'll wake up, make some toast or a waffle with peanut butter (whatever can be carried out the door wrapped in a napkin), maybe an apple, and a travel mug of coffee or tea. I'm usually good to eat by the time I'm on the road, so I shove food down during red lights.
Another thing I do is keep a packet of instant oatmeal in my locker in the break room for the mornings that I didn't have time to fix breakfast on my way out the door. Microwave some water in my coffee mug, add the oatmeal, and bam. Breakfast during my mid-morning break.
I do have to eat breakfast or I'm a wreck all day, so I've learned that I just sometimes have to work around that tired nauseous feeling I get most days.
Interesting. The aroma of that microwaved, packeted, overly-sweetened fake oatmeal crap makes me a little sick to my stomach.
Oatmeal is no big deal to me; I'm not a big fan, though I will eat it once in a while made with dried fruits and a touch of cream or whole milk. I have always been a breakfast adherent, and I'm at a point now where I make much better choices because I want my body to have clean fuel to burn. I don't stick to traditional American breakfast foods, preferring instead to put together a mix of foods that work for me. One morning this week, it was a small handful of toasted almonds, a homemade fresh ginger muffin split and toasted (with a bit of homemade freezer jam), and a bowl of blueberries in gin syrup (an Epicurious recipe). This morning, I used last night's stir-fried veggies and leftover roasted chicken as the filling for an omelette that I shared with my sweetheart; we had homemade pastries on the side. I often eat leftover supper for breakfast, too.
I find that a good whack of protein in the morning keeps me satiated until lunch, which is about six or seven hours later.
I'm another one who can't eat right after getting up. I really need to be up for a couple of hours before I can enjoy food and not feel sick (and I'm a morning person).
Yes, for some reason I feel sick if I eat breakfast before school every morning. I don't know what it is though…
Lol, who knew oatmeal and not eating being able to stomach breakfasts were such hot topics!!
I used to hate oatmeal, too, and then my tastes changed. Now that I've discovered steel cut oats, I'm hooked. I cook them in water (d/f for you, Mrs. Q), and since I'm trying to lay off sugar, I add cinnamon, slivered raw almonds, and dried cranberries. Yummy yum yum! Steel cut oats are more filling for me, and I love the nutty texture.
Also, I usually can't eat first thing. I need about an hour after I wake, though I do like something to drink first thing – herbal tea on a cold morning or OJ.
Oatmeal, oatmeal, oatmeal! I eat it at all times of day, actually. Ultimate comfort food. I would choose oatmeal over a chocolate chip cookie any day. My favorite way to prepare it would be with fresh fruit and a little bit of brown sugar…but I don't have the fruit too often (like strawberries, blueberries, etc.), so I often just flavor it with peach or raspberry preserves.
Least favorite breakfast? I don't think that exists! But if I had to pick something, I'd choose eggbake. 🙂
My dad was the same way – hated oatmeal because that is all they ate for breakfast while growing up.
Still, I loved it, he wanted me to have a good breakfast and never denied me it, especially in the winter and when I have swim practice.
People that get nauseous at the thought of breakfast probably haven't made a habit of having breakfast and instead slug down a beverage of choice.
It is the most important meal of the day, hands down – and there would be a whole lot more attentive people in the world if they ate breakfast and I bet the obesity level would go down because they aren't jonesing or a sugary snack to keep the going through the morning, afternoon.
My kids are not allowed to leave the house without it. The one thing is – I don't always feed them "breakfast food" – as long as it is nutritional and they like it – they can eat it.
Mix it up – you might find that is does a body good.
Quite a few are criticising "instant oatmeal" as sugary, HFCS nightmares… the stuff I use is a Finnish-made product (I'm in Finland, so "duh") that's 84% wholemeal rye, oats, barley and wheat, and the rest is oat bran and a tiny pinch of salt. No preservatives whatsoever, and I sweeten mine with fruit or berries when I eat it. It's worth giving a try, if you ever get your hands on a product like that.
http://www.raisio.com/uploads/elovena_4viljaa.jpg (The packaging design's been pretty much that way for almost a century, although I hear the girl was originally a brunette… *grin*)
I was baffled when seeing the US supermarket food aisles for the first time, since trying to find simple, plain no-bells, no-whistles oatmeal without salt or preservatives or sweeteners… Finally, with a little help from my hubs, I ended up liking Quaker Oats, and have been buying it since, while in the US.
I think a lot of people aren't interested in breakfast because they eat to much for supper the night before-we used to eat fairly late7-8 pm and it was our big meal of the day-no one ever wanted breakfast. Once my daughter started school we started eating supper much earlier and I normally had a lighter supper because it wasn't 7-8 since lunch and low and behold I was all of a sudden hungry for breakfast in the mornings.
Count me in with the "nauseous first thing in the morning" crowd. At best I'm just not hungry; at worst I feel nauseated at the smell of food. I get my first hunger pang at 9-ish, usually.
If I could eat on my body's own schedule, I'd have brunch at 10:00-ish, lunch at 3, and a snack at 7 or 8 or so. But the rest of my family isn't into that…
I am a big breakfast eater. And I always make sure my 7 year old also eats a meal in the morning, usually with some protein to keep him filled up until recess when he can eat a snack or his lunch time. He cannot eat straight out of bed though. I have to make sure he wakes up early enough to 'get going' so that he can eat something. He'll cozy up on the couch watching the news while I pack his lunch and prepare his breakfast, about 20-30 min, basically the equivalent of hitting snooze button a couple of times. He does not get much variety though, usually faux sausage or faux bacon with eggs/frozen Van's waffles/cold cereal. Sometimes he'll eat oatmeal, I buy McCann's, and use honey to sweeten it.
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