Chapter 1 WHAT SHALL WE HAVE FOR BREAKFAST?

Introduction.  What a person eats for breakfast depends greatly on who he is.  Grandmothers do not eat the same breakfast that growing boys and girls eat.  A man who works all day in his office does not eat the same breakfast as a soldier who is on the march all day.  You do not have the same breakfast tha ta two-year-old child has  Sick people eat different breakfasts from those that well people eat.  In summer we vary our menus from those in the winter. 

Put in another way, all of this means that what one needs to eat for breakfast, and during the rest of the day, depends on one's age, one's occupation, one's state of health and perhaps one's sex, or on the season.  Quote from Everyday Foods by Harris and Lacey from the Riverside Home Economics Series

Back in times gone by Fruit was the first ingredient of a standard American breakfast.  Maybe this is where we lost out on at least one serving of fruit a day. 

 

Menu Suggestions from the text book:

Light Breakfast:

Cantaloupe

Toast

Coffee or Milk or Cocoa

 

Medium Breakfast:

Cantaloupe

Shredded Wheat, Cream

Coffee or Milk or Cocoa

Soft Cooked Egg

Toast

 

Heavy Breakfast:

Cantaloupe

Oatmeal, Cream, Sugar

Coffee or Milk or Cocoa

Ham and Eggs

Muffins

Hot Cakes and Syrup

 

Here is a truly amazing statement from this book published in 1929!!!!!  And again I quote:

"More people under twenty years of age are underweight than overweight."

Can you even imagine? 

 

A meal to be well balanced isn't just about calorie count.  It should also consider the various needs of the body for food. 

 

1. Body-building and repairing foods--protein, mineral ash, and vitamins: foods that make us grow. 
2. Fuel foods-- fats, carbohydrates, proteins: foods to make us go.
3. Regulating and protecting foods-- vitamins, minerals and water: foods to keep us growing and going 

There is also a chart in the book that was suggested to look at and see where the Daily Energy Requirements of Adults According to Occupation.  This was pretty amazing to me as well in light of current American Standards.  The calorie counts for Men based on occupation and caloric requirements by men weighing about 154 lbs. 
Tailor............................2300-2600 calories
Shoemaker............................2700-2950
Carpenter............................2800-3500
Metal worker................3350-3950
Farm Laborer...................3150-4200
Painter..............................3500-3800
Excavator--------------------4200-4700
Stone-worker.....................4600-4700
Lumberman....................4900-5300

Women in occupations and caloric requirements for women weighing about 123 lbs.
Hand sewer...............................................1500-1700 calories
Machine sewer...........................................1800-2250
Waitress....................................................2400-3000
Laundress..................................................2800-3350

The chart for food allowances for healthiy children by age that is also on this page came Courtsey of The New York association for Improvement of the Condition of the Poor. 

The Home Practice activity that I am choosing here is:
Begin now to eat a good breakfast, each day, regularly and leisurely, and have a little spare time before leaving for school.  After a few days I believe I will be able to consistently answer the question posed..... Why should you? 

Anyone want to join me?