What Exactly Constitutes A Complete Breakfast?
Hundreds of commercials for cereal and other breakfast foods have promised to be the missing piece to the all-important "complete breakfast" — but what does that term mean, exactly?
The words might conjure up visions of pancakes stacked high and deep, or perhaps your mind's eye sees a spread featuring the not-unrelated full English breakfast — but it's a little more scientific than that.
In fact, as the American Chemistry Society explains on Reactions, its dedicated YouTube channel, a complete breakfast is actually defined by the presence of carbohydrates — the starches and sugars found in grains, fruits, and vegetables, and protein — which make up the building blocks of our cells and keeps our blood oxygenated.
And despite the fact that many "spokes-animals" have promised that your favorite sugary cereals from childhood were indeed crucial to the completion of the complete breakfast, that's not quite true, even though cereals do contain carbohydrates.
That's because these cereals are full of refined sugars, a simple carb, capable of providing only quick bursts of energy instead of sustained, long-term energy — which is what you want from your breakfast.
Watch the full video from the American Chemistry Society below to learn more about breakfast: