You are not imagining things: The Breakfast Movement is real and it is here.
(This is almost inextricable from the Egg Movement, to which we have already laid claim: Last week, we wrote about A Genius Way to Upgrade Fried Eggs, 100 Ways to Eat Eggs, and How to Make an Egg White Scramble That Actually Tastes Good—and, in the dinner field, we proposed 5 Smart, Inspiring Ways to Eat Eggs for Dinner.)
Back in February, Sam Sifton urged readers to wake up fifteen minutes earlier (...groan)—or stay up fifteen minutes later the night before (...meh)—for bonus breakfast-making time. "Start making breakfast every day," he concluded: "Make breakfast all the rage."
And whether it's Sifton or fast food purveyors (looking at you, McDonald's all-day breakfast menu) who are responsible, breakfast is back: The market research firm NPD predicted, according to Eater, that breakfast consumption, both in and out of the home, will grow by 5% by 2019 (and that exceeds the 4% expected population growth), and for as much breakfast content as we publish, Time, Inc. is launching a breakfast-exclusive website called Extra Crispy any week now.
Is there anything breakfast can't do?
Well yes, apparently. Because yesterday, the Times published an article titled "There's Nothing Magical About Breakfast" in which Aaron E. Carroll—who does not eat breakfast (and, in my imagination, is Sam Sifton's NYT rival?)—argues that "our belief in the power of breakfast is based on misinterpreted research and biased studies." And while Sifton argues that for students "the data is clear: Eating a healthy breakfast leads to improved cognition and memory, helps reduce absenteeism and generally improves mood," Carroll clouds this clarity: "The bottom line is that the evidence for the importance of breakfast"—even among children—"is something of a mess." And so...
If you’re hungry, eat it. But don’t feel bad if you’d rather skip it, and don’t listen to those who lecture you. Breakfast has no mystical powers.
Pause right there: Here's where we beg to differ.
So maybe breakfast isn't a magical unicorn ready to prance through your life and solve all of your problems, dietary or otherwise. But maybe, no matter what anyone—scientists or journalists or your great aunt Irma says—the following foods are reason enough that breakfast really is something worth celebrating:
French Toast
Pancakes!
Eggs, Scrambled
Eggs, Omelet'd
Eggs, Otherwise Prepared
Bacon, Sausage & Other Breakfast Meats
Waffles
Granolaaaaah
Potatoes
Bagels & Sidekicks
Oatmeal & Other Mushes
Muffins
Cakes! Cookies! Scones! Pie! Are we going crazy?!
Maybe we got ahold of the breakfast cocktails?
But okay, fine: If you're Team Carroll (not Team Sifton) and you can't get down a bacon, egg, and cheese before 12 P.M., your breakfast won't mind if you have it for dinner instead.
Breakfast is or is not in any way mystical—make your case in the comments.
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Written by: Sarah Jampel
Popular on Food52
9 Comments
Rather than look at individual dishes or recipes, it would be more beneficial to define categories, like vegetable protein or complex carbohydrates and what people around the world serve as healthy and tasty options in those categories, like natto or miso soup in Japan, frijoles in Mexico for veg protein; rice in Asia, tortillas in Latin America, various breads in Europe.
Probiotics like pickles, kim chi or sauerkraut for breakfast? Works pretty well if you have savory breakfasts and pair with other items like sausage or fish.
Perhaps we need a post on what readers (and editors) eat for breakfast that is not usually considered breakfast food.. I guess that I do like strata for breakfast, but then I like the strata I make any time of the day
For maybe a couple billion people on this planet this week, breakfast is going to be a bowl of rice, some veggies or beans (natto, frijoles, et al), a small piece of fish, and maybe some fresh fruit.
I'm also shocked that there is no photo of avocado toast which has become some weirdly exalted cultish food fad for non-Californians.
Hard to include it all in one post!
See what other Food52 readers are saying.