Cereal For Dinner: Can the be “Normal”?
Cereal For Dinner: Can that be “Normal”?
Whats for dinner tonight? Its probably not your favorite cereal. Why not? Research shows that whole-grain cereal is an excellent source of vitamins and fiber, and is low in calories and saturated fat. So why don’t we eat cereal for dinner? The problem is that cereal is not marketed as a dinner food, so we don’t associate it that way. Now, what if Kelloggs came out and launched a dinner cereal? Its not that this dinner cereal would be different from any other cereal. It would just give us permission to steer from the norm and do things a little differently.
About 7 years ago I experimented and use my theory on myself. I ate cereal for dinner 5 nights a week for about 4 months and I can honestly say that my stomach was flatter than ever, I never felt full or bloated and I got used to it pretty easily. In fact, I found myself driving home from work wondering what cereal I would have that night, and I looked forward to it. I never felt better.
Our overweight problem is largely cultural. Big, dinnertime meals are part of what we do even though research proves that consuming our largest meal at night is a big part of our bulging waist-lines. Not long ago I read an interesting study about the timing of our eating. The researchers investigated the eating habits in some community in Scotland and compared them to ours. This community was a farming town and the people, on average, consumed the same amount of calories per day that we do, but they did not have a weight problem. The reason: Breakfast was their big meal. About two thirds of their daily calories were consumed in the morning and they ate sensible lunches and dinners. In our culture, we consume two thirds of our calories after 5:00 P.M. Timing is everything. The bodys metabolism slows down significantly after 6:00 P.M. and our bodies just arent burning all of those calories effectively. Makes sense, doesnt it?
I remember what my mother used to say to me during my cereal for dinner days. She thought I was crazy and would say things like, that is not healthy for you. You need food for dinner. I beg to differ.
In our world, we do what seems normal; what everyone else is doing. A family sitting around the dinner table eating a bowl of Cheerios with sliced bananas sounds ludicrous. It just doesnt fit into our cultural picture. But obviously something has got to change in our country or were just going to keep eating ourselves to death. Try the cereal plan for a few weeks and see if you lose weight. There is such a huge selection of good, healthy cereals, so you don’t have to worry about getting board. Dare to be different.