The most crucial—and rushed—meal of the day

By Bryan McKenzie

Published: September 19, 2008

The turgid coffeehouse ad evokes Rockwellian images of rounding out “the day’s first moments with a cup of coffee — expertly blended and roasted, offering flavors that mingle delightfully with your meal.”

That’s theory. Brutal reality, however, has this decrepit reporter out at 5:30 a.m., pajama clad and stumbling at the leash end of a tugging beagle. Down the street and back we go, fetch the paper and hit the shower, towel off and dress up, hit the refrigerator and get to work.
Reality is scooping grounds from a can of rot-gut decaf, slapping it into a bleached paper filter, filling the tank, holding your unwashed cup in place of the carafe to get the strong end of the brew stream and sitting down to a last-minute breakfast as the Internet spools up.
“The morning begins and is already complete,” the prose goes. “A wholesome, nourishing breakfast inspires a whole you.”
What’s really going into the stomach is a small cup of fruit-on-the-bottom, low-fat, raspberry yogurt and a banana while the mind tries to make it taste like a Hardees sausage-egg-and-cheese biscuit. Is that wholesome? The coffeehouse promises that “hot oatmeal completes the meal with whole grains and protein,” but you know that ain’t happening at McDesk.

A good morning start

“If you’ve got fruit-on-the-bottom and the beagle is pulling you pretty hard, it might work. The fruit is a good idea, but if you have blood-sugar issues, you might consider a low-carbohydrate yogurt,” said Cynthia Moore, a nutritionist with the University of Virginia Medical Center.
He who breakfasts, wins, goes conventional wisdom, but are you really doomed to false starts and weak finishes if you don’t have time for a real Leave-It-to-Beaver breakfast?

“Not necessarily. A quick breakfast can be good,” Ms. Moore said. “If you can take the fruit and maybe a boiled egg with you. You may not have time to boil an egg that morning, but you could boil it the night before. You could also take a handful of nuts to add protein.”
Various Web sites say yes, grab-and-go breakfasts can be good for you. One site recommends a quick breakfast of string cheese and fruit or whole-wheat crackers, which sounds like a prison breakfast in solitary.

Whatever’s around, really

The Mayo Clinic has some different ideas, such as leftover vegetable pizza (you can peel off the pepperoni and save it for lunch), vegetable burritos with salsa and shredded cheese, or a microwaved potato topped with broccoli and cheese.
“What’s important is to make sure that whatever you eat for breakfast is good for you,” Ms. Moore said.
Or, as the coffeehouse prose proposes, “whole fuel to make it through the whole morning.”