The Morning Meal

I have an eating schedule that is idiosyncratic. (My friends sometimes choose a less diplomatic adjective.) I eat every other day. I don’t recommend the schedule to anyone else. For some people it might well be harmful. But it works for me. I adopted this pattern late in 1975 when my post-college metabolism shifted. The same daily number of calories that had kept my weight steady during the previous five years instead rapidly packed on unwanted pounds. It then took the better part of a year to develop a sustainable (for me) response. Rather than cut back on my daily intake to below what felt “normal” – i.e. rather than be hungry every single day – I opted for a one-day-on-one-day-off schedule. This was before “intermittent fasting” was fashionable; I just preferred being hungry every other day. I ate whatever I wanted one day and then didn’t eat at all the next. The strategy worked. I dropped 30 pounds (14 kg) within the year and kept the weight off for more than two decades. Around the turn of the current century, however, my life became difficult. (Among friends I sometimes choose a less diplomatic adjective.) My self-discipline suffered. The result was the same as in 1975. From 2000 to 2020 I repeatedly restarted the old on-off schedule (with short term success) only to break with it repeatedly with the same-old results. Finally late last year I got back solidly on the on-off schedule. When special food-related events fall on what otherwise would be an “off” day (as did Thanksgiving), I fast two days in a row ahead of the event in order to get into synch. I dropped 30 pounds in 2021 just as in 1975. Regrettably I didn’t drop 30 years as well, but one takes what one can get.
 
Breakfast is a key part of sticking to my routine. I can forgo that snack tonight if I know a good breakfast is only a few hours plus a night’s sleep away. I have a favorite breakfast spot and usually rotate among four very non-vegan selections: country fried steak (called chicken fried in some places) with eggs over easy; sausage and onion omelet with a side of bacon; chili jalapeño cheese omelet with a side of sausage; and eggs over easy on prime rib hash with bacon. All come with home fried potatoes and toast, though I always say to hold the toast. I’ll sometimes deviate from these with a taco omelet or something, but those four are the mainstays. Since returning to the on-off schedule I have lost my taste for sweet breakfasts: the savory options hold sway all the way. Besides, regularly eating sugary blueberry pancakes soaked in maple syrup might be tempting fate given the national epidemic of Type II diabetes.

 

Country fried steak at Marilyn's in Chester
comes with three eggs and toast

There are supposedly personality differences between sweet and savory breakfast aficionados according to an article in The New York Post. Among other things the savory fans are more likely to like rock, sci-fi, and cats. Well, I do like those though I suspect many eaters of crepes and Begian waffles do too. The same article notes that the biggest demographic for avocado toast and hummus is men aged 25-34 – yet another reason to worry about this age group.

 
The “science” regarding the value of breakfast as in so many other dietary things is conflicting. According to an Australian study published in the British Journal of Medicine, what you eat is more important than when you eat it. Says professor and study co-author Flavia Cicuttini, “We found that breakfast is not the most important time of the day to eat, even though that belief is really entrenched in our society and around the world.” The authors did not find evidence that breakfast aids weight loss despite common claims to this effect in popular literature; on the contrary they found that breakfast eaters ate 260 more calories on average daily than those who skipped the meal. Yet, other scientists argue that there is an advantage to a morning meal in order to stabilize blood sugar levels and boost immunity. Says Dr. Barry Sears of the Inflammation Research Foundation, “By having breakfast, you refill the liver glycogen levels so that the cortisol levels can decrease. If you don't eat breakfast, then cortisol levels will continue to increase to maintain blood glucose levels eventually causing insulin resistance that makes you more hungry throughout the day.”
 
Perhaps by skipping breakfast (along with other meals) one day and eating it the next I can combine the benefits of both regimens. Or perhaps I will suffer the ill effects of both. Whatever the case may be, I’m looking forward to sitting at my usual table tomorrow. Tomorrow, I think, is a country fried steak day. Today is an “off” day so this morning I just had blues for breakfast. That was OK too.
 

Mama Cass Elliot – Blues for Breakfast