Determined To Succeed

Remember Saturday morning cartoons? I know, I know. They’re still on the air and Saturday mornings are probably still cool for kids. However I’ve noticed the shows and commercials on the “Big Three” networks are far louder, outrageous and more bombastic than the shows and commercials I grew up with, probably because they now have to compete with the glut of competition from cable.

Anywho, I bring this up because, for me, staples of Saturday morning cartoons were cereal commercials. Oh yes, you’d have Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Honeycomb (my personal favorite), Cheerios, Frosted Flakes and Tony The Tiger saying “they’re greeeeeeeeat!” And no matter which one you liked they all had the following line: “…part of a nutritious breakfast.” You’d see a nice glass of milk, a small glass of juice, a couple slices of toast and select fruit either on or next to the sugary goodness that was the cereal.

While it always struck me as funny that the phrase didn’t necessarily mean that the cereal itself was nutritious the concept of starting the day with breakfast was. Throughout my weight gain years I know I was not good at all about eating breakfast. I skipped thinking it would save calories, but all it did was make me eat the bulk of my calories later, especially at night, and made me snack on unhealthy crap.

These days we barely glance at the kitchen in the morning (guilty). Fixing breakfast takes up precious time that’s in short supply. But there’s tons of evidence (pun intended) that the simple act of eating breakfast is a big part of losing weight.

“People skip breakfast thinking they’re cutting calories, but by mid-morning and lunch, that person is starved,” says Milton Stokes, RD, MPH, chief dietitian for St. Barnabas Hospital in New York City. “Breakfast skippers replace calories throughoutcream cheese, the day with mindless snacking. They set themselves up for failure.”

Two studies in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association backed up this finding. A group of researchers analyzed data from a study that followed more than 2,000 young girls from ages 9 to 19. They found that regular cereal eaters had fewer weight problems than infrequent cereal eaters. Those who ate cereal occasionally had a 13% higher risk of being overweight compared to the regular cereal eaters.

Another research group analyzed government data on 4,200 adults. They found that regular breakfast eaters were more likely to exercise regularly. And women who ate breakfast regularly tended to eat fewer calories overall during the day. Those men and women who ate breakfast cereal had lower overall fat intake compared to those who ate other breakfast foods.

It makes TOTAL sense (get it? TOTAL?! A cereal reference?! Ah, never mind). Eating early in the day keeps us from “starvation eating” later on. It also jump-starts our metabolism, says Elisabetta Politi, RD, MPH, nutrition manager for the Duke Diet & Fitness Center at Duke University Medical School. “When you don’t eat breakfast, you’re actually fasting for 15 to 20 hours, so you’re not producing the enzymes needed to metabolize fat to lose weight.”

But before you go filling up a bowl with Cocoa Puffs or fruity-patooties (or whatever passes for cereal these days with kids and their new-fangled rock and roll) listen up. Breakfast is the best time to make wise food choices. That’s where fruits, vegetables, and whole grains come into the picture. Because these are high-fiber foods, they fill you up – yet they bring less fat to the table, says Barbara J. Rolls, PhD, the Guthrie Chair in Nutrition at Pennsylvania State University in Pittsburgh.

These high-fiber foods allow you to eat more food yet get fewer calories. It’s a concept called “energy density” – the number of calories in a specified amount of food, Rolls explains. “Some foods – especially fats – are very energy dense, which means they have a lot of calories packed into a small size,” Rolls says. “However, foods that contain lots of water have very low energy density. Water itself has an energy density of zero. High-fiber foods like fruits, vegetables, and grains have low energy density.”

Translation: If you eat foods with high energy density, such as bagels, you rack up calories quickly. If you eat high-fiber, low-energy-density foods – such as oatmeal, strawberries, walnuts, and low-fat yogurt – you can eat more and get fewer calories.

For example: A breakfast made up of 1 cup of oatmeal, 1/2lf cup of low-fat milk, 1 cup of sliced strawberries, and 1 tablespoon of walnuts has only approximately 307 calories total. Two multi-grain waffles, with 1 cup of blueberries, 3 tablespoons of light syrup, and 1 cup of plain low-fat yogurt have about 450 calories total. That’s almost equal to the standard bagel-and-cream-cheese breakfast – yet it’s much more food, and much lower in fat.

So what are some healthier breakfast suggestions? I’m so glad you asked that ’cause I just happen to have a few right here:

* Banana with peanut butter
* Banana sliced into yogurt
* Oatmeal with fruit — like apples, blueberries, or peaches (what I just had for breakfast)
* Small tortilla with a few tablespoons of peanut butter and chopped strawberries. Roll it up, slice it. It works for kids and adults.
* Breakfast smoothies — berries, ice, and milk or yogurt.

As for the much-beloved bagel – sadly, it’s the calorie equivalent of five slices of bread so just eat half. Better yet, go for smaller bagels, the little ones that are like hockey pucks. Spread some peanut butter on it instead of cream cheese. If you must have cream cheese, buy low-fat. Honestly there is no difference in taste. Add a little bit of jam, some sliced strawberries and you are good to go.

If on-the-run fast food breakfast sandwiches are your food of choice indulge them in a healthy way: whole-grain English muffins, a cooked egg, low-fat cheese melted on top – ham or Canadian bacon optional. It’s portable. You can drive with that. It’s got a good beat and I can dance to it. I give it an 87.

So, my friends. You can now see how important breakfast is and have some suggestions for what to eat. As for the sugary cereals we were fed as kids, some breakfast is better than no breakfast. The last thing anyone should do is skip breakfast. Otherwise, you’ll be eating something even worse later on – candy bars and potato chips – because you’re starving. But if you have time for that cereal take sweetened cereal and mix it with unsweetened cereal, or take unsweetened cereal and mix it with something a little sugary – like yogurt.

That may not please Count Chocula or the little dude from Lucky Charms but who cares. This is about you not them and losing weight is ultimately what is “magically delicious.”

P.S. – Always remember one simple rule especially at night: IF YOU’RE NOT HUNGRY FOR CEREAL THEN YOU’RE NOT REALLY HUNGRY.