Foodie sound off: Oatmeal makes me gag

Open threads,

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?

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58 thoughts on “Foodie sound off: Oatmeal makes me gag”

  1. I LOVE oatmeal – especially steel cut oats. But lately, I've been eating vegetarian collard greens, brown rice and some kind of bean (preferably refried). People are SO turned off by this. They say, "That's not breakfast!" I tell them, "Anything can be breakfast! It doesn't have to sugar sweetened cereal or processed meat and eggs!"

  4. I'm one of the ones who doesn't eat breakfast. I have one idea about why some people are nauseous in the morning. When I was pregnant, I read that one of the reasons for morning sickness (which for me and probably most women actually lasts all day) is having an empty stomach. It would be kind of ironic that one of the reasons for not wanting to eat in the morning is having an empty stomach, but I think it's possible.

    When I do eat breakfast, I also prefer savory meals. Don't get me wrong, I love pancakes and donuts, but I just can't eat that kind of stuff first thing in the morning (if I can eat at all). Usually when I eat breakfast items, it's for lunch or dinner.

    My favorite breakfast food has to be breakfast burritos! Scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, cheese, and salsa. YUM!

    I'm not sure what my least favorite breakfast food is. I love it all! Muffins, pancakes, waffles, eggs, cereal, oatmeal. It's all good! I just can't eat it in the morning. :-/

  5. Oatmeal. I am VERRY particular about it. I don't often crave it or eat it (certainly couldn't have it every day), but when I do, it has to be made a certain way. Never instant, yechhhh. I add raw oats and a pinch of salt to a pot of cold water and cook it for a good long time on the stove, stirring often until it's thick and almost creamy in consistency. (Adding a little milk to the cooking water helps, too.) Has to be served piping hot, topped with brown sugar, a dab of butter, and a splosh of 2% milk. Don't stir until uniform, leave little streaks of brown sugar/butter/milk. And if it gets tepid while you're eating it, it has to be nuked until piping hot again or it's inedible.

  6. conuly, in my opinion, "nauseated" which can have only one meaning is the clearer choice rather than "nauseous" which can have two meanings. To say that you feel nauseous can mean (1) you feel that you caused nausea in others, or (2) you feel sick to your stomach. To say that you feel nauseated can only mean that you feel sick to your stomach.

    I think that Anonymous on February 5, 2011 at 12:06 PM meant something similar when he/she commented above. At one time, only "nauseated" would have been considered correct and Anonymous was probably taught exactly that in school, as was I. The English language is constantly evolving, though, and after years of constant misuse, what was once considered incorrect can, and often does, become acceptable as is the case here. It is a shortcoming of the Merriam-Webster site (and other) that they fail to state this fact.

    When commenting on blogs, I try to remember this highly useful definition (though I'm no saint and sometimes forget):
    http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/grace_2

  7. It is not Merriam-Webster's job to state, on every single entry, the basic fact that language changes and evolves. We do not expect the entry on "pea, pl. peas" to explain that at one point "pease" was a mass noun like "rice" and that "pea" was an erroneous backformation. Well, not outside of the etymology section, anyway.

    What you and the other poster were taught in school was *wrong*. It is no less wrong than children who are taught to say "so-and-so and I" at all times, even when what they mean is "so-and-so and me", or when they're taught that you cannot break an infinitive (in Latin, you can't. In English, quite the contrary!)

    What really gets under my skin is when people try to "correct" others and they are wrong. I have no intention of being "polite" or "pleasant" to people who themselves are both rude (a comment that serves no purpose other than to nitpick a statement that was in no way ambiguous or difficult to understand?) and wrong. If you don't want to be corrected, endeavor to simply be correct before posting – not after.

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