no wonder the us has massive obesity and cardiovascular related issues, i literally had to drink like 1.5 liters of water while watching this video bc the sweeteness was too much to bear 😅
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Oh, I was expecting he would go into depth but the video was already at the end by that point.
The idea of the essential american breakfast has largely been funded by the food industry, and the idea that we should eat breakfast in the first place has been, too. You can directly trace that to Kellog’s – the man himself. What is it based on? Market research. If you look at breakfast in history, it was never standard or even known. Many people didn’t eat breakfast simply because it wasn’t in their habit.
The “moral” of the story that you can eat dessert for breakfast if you want to and that’s your prerogative feels kinda… dull, too. I hate how I’m expected to eat cereal that is pumped full of sugar (when cereal is already full of carbs, but processed breakfast cereal has terrible carbs in it) and if I don’t somehow I’m weird. I hate how I’m expected to eat all the time, either from advertisements, stores, restaurants or friends. I hate how terrible stuff like Nutella (which is mainly sugar and palm oil) claims they’re part of a complete breakfast if you include “fat-reduced milk, a slice of bread, and a glass of orange juice” but if you actually take the nutella out of it, you’ll get a healthier breakfast. I hate that these things are being marketed directly to kids who don’t know any better and they develop a bad relationship with food because of it. I hate how sugar made its way into everything we eat as if it happened by accident or by pure luck, when in fact it was deliberately promoted by lobbies and interest groups to increase their sales.
And I hate how this is greenlit by corporate executives who only care about their margins AND that they’re allowed to do this. In the United States you still don’t have standardized nutritional labels by weight, they just show 1 “serving”, which can be anything the manufacturer wants. They can claim 1 skittle is a serving.
It’s not an individual problem, and that’s why I think telling people “ultimately you eat what you want” is dull. It’s a social issue, and it’s important to educate people about that. Sure, eat a full meal at ihop if you want, I can’t stop you. But you should be informed about what it actually contains and why before you do.
Edit: Btw I should talk about orange jucie too. Do you know how they make it? They store the juice in huge vacuumed silos, which takes all flavour and colour out of the orange juice – but that means they can sell you orange juice all year long. Then they add a soluble powder that gives colour and taste back to the juice. The difference between fresh-pressed orange juice and store-bought juice is so different it’s like they’re two entirely different drinks. They also add a ton of sugar in it obviously, and if you look at most juices and compare that to carbonated sodas, the sugar content is about the same. But again we put drawings of oranges on the bottle and that must mean it’s healthy, right? Fruit is good, right? Advertisers know this and play on it (but they’ll deny it of course). If you tasted different orange juice brands in a blind test you probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between two brands, because they all use the same powder to make theirs.
I grew up in France having hot chocolate and bread&jam for breakfast. It’s only when I moved to the USA that I experienced people eating eggs&bacon for breakfast, which I still find weird. So my experience is completely opposite from “Americans eat dessert for breakfast”.
Where is the author from?
Americans also eat donuts, pancakes and maple syrup, cereals like cinnamon toast crunch, french toast, waffles, croissant, etc. for breakfast. Now that probably doesn’t mean everyone in the US only eats sweets, there are people who avoid sugar and eat healthy food.
The author is from Washington D.C according to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Harris_(journalist)
Eggs and bacons were promoted by the food industry as the essentially American breakfast in the 20s, to increase pork sales. Edward Bernays was responsible for that, and he basically invented Public Relations, which he called propaganda in the 20s – before there was a bad connotation. But it really explains what they’re doing, so maybe that’s also why they changed the name.
Eggs are a very good source of nutrients (good proteins especially for small caloric intake), but bacon is pretty much useless in human physiology.
As I don’t live in the US I don’t know how the breakfast has evolved over time, but looking at the aisles in supermarkets they have a hundred different brands of cereal so I assume it’s quite popular. Many fast food “restaurants” also offer breakfast options, with Mcdonald’s offering theirs only in the morning. Not sure if you can get the IHOP “breakfast” options after noon lol.
It’s just a different journey of a person discovering that eating healthier feels good. Like the american food he talks about all has a ton of oil and sugar, both aren’t healthy and fat for example makes you feel sluggish.
So then he goes and tries other cultures, figures out that some people in europe eat the same food but with less sugar and less fat.
He could have researched what americans ate decades ago, I bet there was plain unsweetened corn flakes and bread, maybe even whole wheat bread. Stuff like that totally is healthy and good for you, just not fried and topped with sugar.
In europe we are on the way to add even more fat and sugar as well, it’s the most delicious flavors after all - but having that kind of fun every morning comes at a toll.
Also he says that he “just doesn’t like the fatty and sweet food”, which I don’t fully accept, he just isn’t used to this kind of diet and isn’t used to feeling shitty afterwards.
You’ll feel better eating healthier is my point.
his follow-up video on non-american breakfast is also worth watching: https://youtube.com/watch?v=XVvFRE6yNPk
Because sugar industry.
