Closed Minds

I follow a low-carb (LC) diet to help control my type 2 diabetes. I can understand that this approach is very difficult for some people, and some with relatively mild type 2 can control despite eating more carbs.

But I'm always amazed at the closed-minded comments I often see in blogs of anti-low-carbers. Here's one, commenting on a photograph of a LC breakfast posted with a blog:

"There's nothing on the plate that I consider breakfast food."

The photograph seems to show bacon, ham, eggs, sausage, tomato, and mushroom.

I wonder why the poster feels that he needs special foods for breakfast. And apparently that special "breakfast food" should have a lot of carbohydrate, and little protein. That makes no sense. Most people are more insulin resistant at breakfast, and many studies have shown that blood glucose levels rise more after breakfast than after other meals. So if you feel a need for a daily allotment of orange juice, skim milk, toast, jam, and cereal, it would make more sense to eat it for supper, not breakfast.

Of course, this poster is not alone. Many people have irrational prejudices about "breakfast food." For instance, most Americans think bacon and ham are OK for breakfast. But if you say you had chicken or lamb chops, they'll think you're odd. Most Americans would consider Danish pastry or toast and jam to be suitable breakfast food. But if you say you had cheesecake or blueberry pie, they'll think you're odd.

What's the difference? Bacon, ham, chicken, and lamb are all meats. Danish, toast and jam, cheesecake, and blueberry pie are all sweetened starches.

It was the Kellogg brothers at the turn of the 20th century who pushed dry "breakfast cereals," at first primarily corn flakes, on the American public. At that time, rich people tended to eat meat and eggs for breakfast. Poor people ate starches, often boiled into porridge. Farm breakfasts tended to include a little of everything: meat, eggs, milk, pancakes, potatoes, breads, and pies. The farmers needed a lot of energy when facing long hours of backbreaking work and tended to eat the lighter meals like cereal in the evening.

By now, several generations of Americans have grown up thinking that breakfast has to include a dry cereal, often sweetened, and milk. But why do we have to mindlessly accept that there should be special "breakfast food"? We're smarter than that, aren't we?

In the rural area where I live, most people still conform to older patterns of eating. But in urban areas, it seems people are getting more creative with their meals, as described here. (The trend toward daylong snacking does not sound healthy, however, as commercial snacks are usually highly processed.) Nevertheless, the reporter reveals his underlying bias when he refers to eating nontraditional meals as "weird."

When we have diabetes, we need to eat the foods that keep our blood glucose levels down, whether they're considered "breakfast food" or "lunch food" or "dinner food." We can't let old patterns get in the way.

Lamb chops and broccoli for breakfast anyone?