What We’re Really Eating At Breakfast Now

Food guidelines are changing. So is what we eat for breakfast. Cereal? Out of favor. Eggs? Maybe OK. And all kinds of new menus. We’ll look at Americans and breakfast.

Hard times in Battle Creek, Michigan, home of Kellogg's, the world’s largest cereal maker.  Cereal sales are dropping.  Kellogg’s fortunes are dropping with them.  The home of Frosted Flakes and Tony the Tiger is in trouble as Americans’ breakfast habits and menus change.  Carbs and sugar are no longer the hot “go-to.”  Greek yogurt and fruit smoothies and even green salads are moving in.  Eggs have a new lease on breakfast life with the latest report on cholesterol.  We’ve got Chinese, Vietnamese, Turkish, Mexican-style — all at the table.  This hour On Point:  what’s for breakfast now in the USA.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Devin Leonard, staff writer for Bloomberg Businessweek. (@devinleonard)

Alice Lichtenstein, professor of nutrition science policy at Tufts University.

Merry White, food anthropology professor at Boston University. (@merrycorkywhite)

Bloomberg Businessweek: Who Killed Tony The Tiger? -- "People who still eat breakfast at home favor more labor-intensive breakfasts, according to a recent Nielsen survey. They spend more time at the stove, preparing oatmeal (sales were up 3.5 percent in the first half of 2014) and eggs (up 7 percent last year). They’re putting their toasters to work, heating up frozen waffles, French toast, and pancakes (sales of these foods were up 4.5 percent in the last five years). This last inclination should be helping Kellogg: It owns Eggo frozen waffles. But Eggo sales weren’t enough to offset its slumping U.S. cereal numbers."

BBC News: What does America have for breakfast? -- "Two pillars of the everyday American breakfast, seen for decades as part of a well-rounded morning meal, seem to be slowly losing their appeal to US consumers. But what foods are Americans turning to instead? One telling sign was the departure last year of the head of Kellogg's US breakfast-foods division, who took up the helm of yogurt maker Chobani Inc. As Kellogg's sales have dropped, Chobani's have skyrocketed to nearly $1bn a year."

Quartz: The American breakfast table isn’t what—or where—it used to be — "A desire for portability—being able to eat breakfast on the way to work or school—is one factor. Then there are those persnickety millennials, who either don’t eat breakfast at all, hate processed food, are embracing Paleo, or are allergic to gluten. But perhaps cereal’s biggest obstacle now is this: Consumers are going crazy for protein. More than half of Americans want more of it in their diets, and a quarter of them examine nutrition labels specifically for information about a food’s protein content. At home, they’re gobbling up Greek yogurt. Away, they’re now finding an array of egg-and-cheese wraps, sandwiches, and scrambles at full- and quick-serve restaurants."

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