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by consoomer 1003 days ago
I think it's a good thing it's in decline. Cereal for the most part is terrible for your health and wallet. There are far better alternatives for breakfast. Maybe people have started to realize that.
4 comments

Indeed, its popularity was an artifact of mid 20th century ag industry marketing and influence over the USDA (food pyramid and school lunch guidelines), as well as ag industry subsides.

Poor health outcomes are a direct result of these subsides.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7690710/

Yeah, this is a good thing. Breakfast cereal is dog food for humans. There are much healthier options. The only reason breakfast cereal has much nutritional value at all is because they add it artificially. Don’t get me started on the low fiber sugary cereals, that’s just pure garbage. Yes there are some healthier options, oats without added sugar is probably the best. But that’s cheap as dirt and hardly counts as cereal.

It’s just refined carbohydrates, a sprinkling of vitamins, and ton of sugar. You could be eating pastries with a multivitamin and you wouldn’t be doing any worse.

Yogurt or oatmeal and fruit is great. Eggs are amazing. My grandfather was a doctor who ate bacon and eggs every day. He made it to 90, died of prostate cancer. He didn’t eat sugar though. I tend to skip breakfast and go straight to lunch, otherwise I gain weight. I can’t personally do three meals a day. Everyone is different though.

Please ELI5 what is better for breakfast that is not very opinionated. I find scrambled eggs good but don't follow diets trends.
I drink black coffee and usually a piece of fruit like a banana or an Apple (I don't really care for breakfast so much). Sliced blueberries and strawberries are amaze, too.

But unsweetened (Greek) yoghurt with some oats/"granola?" and chopped fruit (like strawberries) is amazing.

Energy in energy out, Adult intake for average activity level is like 2k kCal or 8k kJ or so. I usually think like 1500/6000 or so since I wfh.

Let's do American so take your 1500 kCal, maybe leave keep 800 for dinner, 500 for lunch, 200 for breakfast (and snack during the day). So just make sure your breakfast is 150-200kCal.

Apparently it's 90kCal for a large egg (78g), so you could have 2 maybe with a dash of sauce of some kind for breakfast just fine.

But otherwise you could have anything: https://travel.earth/breakfast-around-the-world/ just ensure food type/portion size is controlled and balanced for vitamins etc as well. Soups (Asia and other parts) look pretty good too so I may try adding that in myself to my routine.

overnight oats with fruit, nuts, etc is easy, delicious, healthy, filling, and has unlimited combinations!
There's a whole 'nother issue here and that is in America in particular, you tend to think you have to eat "breakfast food": bacon, sausage, eggs, pancakes, cereals, oats, juices full of sugar, etc.

Just eat regular food, during breakfast time. (Although eggs are fine)

Seconding this. I eat a lot of meal prep'd pasta or soup dishes, I just microwave a bowl from my fridge. I eat this for every meal, breakfast included. It's satisfying having warm, savory, "real" food. I don't dislike oatmeal, but I'd probably never choose it over more "real" food.
Proteins and fats vs carbohydrates. Avoid sugars.
Reddit shower thought: Sugary cereal is “part of a balanced breakfast” only in the sense that Darth Vader is “part of the balanced Force”.
"part of a balanced breakfast / diet" always has been weasel words to the effect of "if you eat healthy foods as well as the product, then your overall diet will be somewhat healthy on balance".

See The McLibel case, 1997 (1) particularly the statement "You could eat a roll of Sellotape as part of a balanced diet" (2)

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLibel_case

2) https://www.mcspotlight.org/case/trial/story.html

I notice I do a lot better on the days I eat peanut butter on toast for breakfast, often with a banana. Keeps you going for hours, usually not all that hungry by lunch
If you're looking for a healthier breakfast-cereal substitute; then oats, cooked or as muesli. Yogurt. Avoid sugar.
Bacon and eggs
Fried food might be tasty, but it's but going to be the better (for health) alternative. Especially not fatty and cured foods.
Quiche. It's fairly easy to make, flexible in added ingredients, and lasts many days after.
Try organic full fat cottage cheese and blueberries.
A box of cereals lasts a week, how can it be that bad for your wallet? That's few tens of cents per breakfast.