I refer to the one in which some people are applying Reddi Whip to their breakfasts, and it is suggested that this is the way to go. It caused me to do a double take, as I absorbed the implicit message: abnormal is the new normal, got a problem wit dat?
Surely many of us have applied whipped cream to an occasional belgian waffle over a lifetime, but equally obvious is the fact that a steady diet of this leads to obesity and diabetes, the twin chronic plagues that make a mockery of our efforts to afford health insurance and shed the stigma of self indulgence that hangs like an albatross from our fleshy necks.
Granted, the world of commerce has always spoken nonsense to the gullible and led the wise to scratch their hands in perplexity. We ask, in a whisper, is it just me who finds this odd? as the fools besport themselves in the required dance of consumerism. Glad I am not an idiot, there but for the grace of destiny goes meself.
But in a deeper mode, no man indeed is an island. The unaffordability of my health insurance has roots in the slaves of Reddi Whip, Ronald McDonald, and Sunny D. Why drink orange juice when you can drink something tangy and the right color and backed by a bigger ad budget? The Dems and Republicans posture on health insurance, but I can tell both camps a needed fact: money will not buy us health if we continue to run from it.
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Comments: 7
Fake whipped cream is no worse than pouring syrup or honey all over pancakes, waffles, etc. or loading toast with jam, no worse than doughnuts and sugary coffee.
The US may have the world's most horrible breakfast habits.
I have been in countries where I was served cold cuts and bread. No sugar. Vegetable soup--from Korea to Ukraine to Taiwan. Very healthful. Even the Brits put some grilled tomato and mushrooms with their eggs and bacon, a little something veggie and healthful and even the eggs and bacon are way better than the sugar-sh*t people consider normal in the US.
Consider the healthfulness of an onion bagel with lox, onions, lettuce and tomato slices for a weekend breakfast. Adored on the East Coast--at least its urban areas--but unknown elsewhere. Not long ago in a rural DE restaurant another woman and I could barely get the waitress to understand the very concept of cured but not cooked salmon on a bagel! Yet it is immensely rich on good nutrients! She wanted us to eat (puke!!!) grape jelly (how gross does that get??) on a bagel! But then, the bagels bore only faint resemblance to the real thing from a deli.
If you hate sweet in the morning, as I do, it can be all your life is worth to to find something fit to at in the morning. Go to any number of conferences and meetings where "breakfast" is offered; you'll explode from sugar high before the first talk is done if you actually eat and drink what they offer. Learn to have ham and cheese on toast at home before you go!!
I even know Northerners who put--gack!--sugar and milk on grits! Puke! How awful does it get?? Grits is for salt, pepper and eggs!!!
Your complaint about the whip-sh*t on breakfast is legitimate from a health standpoint, but totally in line with the truly horrid US ideas of what is and is not breakfast. (Other cultures do not separate a category of "breakfast food" from any other food).
You really can't fuss until you have taken to eating vegetable soup for breakfast as do many people in Europe and Asia. Or grilled chicken and green salad accompanied by arepas (not sweet!) or else rice and beans as is done in much of South America.
Or as a very few people in the US do.
Good stuff! Grits with black pepper and eggs is a wonderful breakfast. So is the traditional bagel with the Works.
I have to admit a weakness for a chocolate croissant at breakfast, but i rarely fall prey to this weakness because I do not like one stale and where do you get a fresh one. Even if I were to fall prey to this "pain au chocolat" as the French call it, i would like it accompanied by a piece of fresh fruit, some coffee or tea, and orange juice.
I also hear what you are saying about the ham and cheese thing for breakfast. My wife and I visited my german relatives long ago briefly during our honeymoon and german breakfast is a beautiful thing. They did not eat much greens unfortunately, but they did like a variety of meats and cheeses and lots of whole grain bread products.
Breakfast is such a cultural divide. While living in Italy I used to have a brioche and a cappuccino (not the huge Starbucks version, but served in a coffee cup) every morning and it felt great. Italians are horrified at the thought of anything like eggs or bacon in the morning. Americans are mostly descended from northern Europena farmers, and a large cooked breakfast was considered a main meal.
What has happened is that the food industry has capitalized on our habit of large caloric intakes in the morning, and replaced the traditional eggs, bagels, fish and meat and grains with sugary cereals. They are cheaper, more convenient, and of course deadly.