Bamboozled by Breakfast: Unmasking Edward Bernays’ Impact on Our Morning Meals
I often ate breakfast because it was expected, not because I was hungry
During my youth, TV ads reigned supreme. In the 90’s the internet was in its infancy, and the digital world as we know it today was non-existence. It was the days of Saturday morning cartoons and ninja turtle pajamas. The Mad Men of the time convinced everyone that toast, cereal, bacon, eggs, and a glass of diabetic OJ were part of a complete breakfast.
Clever marketers ruled the airways and carried an almost Third Reich type of power where they cleverly sent electromagnetic waves in the forms of docile leprechauns and fluffy pirates to sell us sugar in its many incarnations. If you were like me, you didn’t just bite the dust, you took a mouthful of it, and then another. However, their power precedes my childhood by decades.
While food provides energy, after the typical American breakfast, I would find myself fast asleep in 2nd period with a waterfall of salubrious saliva streaming from my lips. As I got older and started to get more intuned with my body, its needs, and how it can function optimally, my thoughts on the most important meal of the day changed drastically.
