Is Breakfast Sugar or Salt?
February 17, 2009 by Monica
Filed under Family Food
In most (if not all) traditional cultures the breakfast menu has nothing to do with our westernized idea of what should be eaten in the first meal of the day.
I’ve personally been grown eating sweet breakfasts, although they’ve always been on the healthy side with ingredients like yogurt, fruits and nuts. A couple of times a week the meal would include eggs or butter, but that would be the only non sugary ingredients.
Latter in life I’ve been open to the idea of a non sweet breakfast that would include meat, rice and vegetables. Both in the Ecuadorian countryside and Japan, as surely in many parts of the world, many families have lunch-like meals for breakfast that are in my opinion delicious and more energetic.
Now that I remember, in Japan natto (fermented soybeans) is a popular breakfast food that I consumed often, as well as rice and fish (if it only were mercury free…)
Eating fruits and other sweets in the morning is not enough for this breastfeeding mama, and even if sometimes I still grab some juice or fruits (with no sugar added) I prefer dinner leftovers, rice, quinoa, meats and vegetables.
My 4yo is up to all his mama’s experiments 
so he often demands rice, raw cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables, meats and other Ecuadorian healthy treats like mote (a kind of large grain corn), chochos (sort of white beans), and quinoa (I boil it with grated coconuts and stevia leaves, though). Once in a while I prepare tamales in achira leaves (yummy yummy).
Have you tried no-sweet breakfast meals? Would you give it a try? I think it’s great for kids to try the different food choices there are, stressing on local and healthy food. Also, I’d love to hear other alternative breakfast suggestions.
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My father is Japanese and I grew up in Canada with breakfasts sweet and salty (love miso soup). Apparently the first time I slept over at a friends, in the morning the mom asked me what I would like with my porridge, expecting a choice between cream or milk, brown sugar or honey. Instead, I innocently looked up and replied, “Sardines and soy sauce please.”
Naomi, you made me laugh
And it reminds me the many times people have seen my son eating nori as a snack and asked to try. A lot of people here don’t know about it or have never tried and they assume it must be sweet by looking at the way my son eats the seaweed.