Friday, January 14, 2005

Blogging the Dietary Guidelines, day 2

Welcome to the Furious Science Fair!

PROBLEM: is it possible to have a breakfast that is as fulfilling as yesterday's without all the calories from fat and with a little less sodium and perhaps some, oh, nutrition?

HYPOTHESIS: Muesli is a good breakfast food.

PROCEDURE: Today's breakfast began with
18 oz. coffee
8 oz. orange juice
1 cup Muesli cereal, including fruit, nuts, seeds, and FIBER
1/2 c. skim milk

I also had to add: 8 oz. orange juice.

RESULTS:
1. This breakfast amounted to 700 calories, including a good bit of Vitamin C, fiber, potassium, vitamin E, and calcium. If you want to know exact amounts, do the math yourself.

2. Do not be fooled: 1 cup of muesli might take up the same amount of space in your bowl as normal cereal, but there are no air pockets in that bowl. 1 cup of muesli is a lot of cereal. A lot.

3. 8 oz of orange juice is not enough to wash down 1 cup of muesli.

4. I was not hungry again until 10:30 a.m., compared with 11:30 a.m. with the sausage and bacon biscuits.

CONCLUSIONS:
Muesli provides a pretty substantial and nutritious breakfast, if you can eat it all.

A side point: you feel virtuous eating muesli, but is that any substitute for sausage? Which is to say, where are you going to position nutrition against happiness in your world view? My jury is still out.

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