Some years ago, I read an article about how millennials are killing breakfast cereal or something, and I made the mistake of reading the comments. Surprisingly, it was less millennial bashing, and more older readers looking down on cereal. Something something nutrition, something obesity epidemic, something something overpriced processed foods. This article isn’t the one I remember but has comments along the same lines.
Disclosure: I eat cereal every day. It’s cheaper and easier than most options, there’s enough diversity in brands that I don’t get tired of it. Personally I don’t buy the sugary cereals, except to mix with less sugary cereals. I wouldn’t care if it was linked to obesity, and judging by the first meta-analysis I found, cereal is actually negatively correlated with being overweight.
To be fair, it’s a fine line between explaining your preference in foods, and moralizing your preference in foods. But I get the impression that these commenters don’t care a bit about walking that line.
My impression is that commenters, without realizing it, are basically complaining that cereal is too low class for them. Which seems misplaced on an article talking about how millennials (who are on average poorer) are eating less cereal.
When we think of social justice, we often think of the practice of calling out perceived missteps. But it’s also worth remembering that other half of social justice: letting go of needless judgmentalism. We don’t judge people for their race, sexuality, gender, or ability. We learn that many things that we used to consider the butts of jokes, such as manners of speech or clothing, are basically stand-ins for race, class, or disability.
And, well, food is another one of those things.
You know, as an Asian American, I’m repeatedly awestruck by how blatantly racist it is that “soy boy” is a derogatory term among the alt-right. Tofu is not just for vegetarians, and has been consumed for millennia in some of the most populous cultures of the world. But I digress.
I don’t mean to say that needless judgmentalism is bad because it’s racist or classist. Because sometimes it’s not racist or classist, but it’s still needlessly judgmental. Sometimes, among vegetarians, I’ve encountered a sort of elitism directed at “imitation” meats, and I don’t get it. I like portabello burgers and Beyond burgers, and it’s cool if you don’t like one or the other but why the moralizing?? That’s not racist or classist as far as I know, but it’s still needless and annoying.
I don’t understand why the majority of vegetarians and vegans I meet detest brussels sprouts. I love them, they hate them. Go figure.
I also don’t understand why some (no groups named) conflate choice with ability, or worse don’t respect choice or ability. People with allergies and intolerances aren’t “picky eaters”. Even when it is a choice (e.g. I will never eat squid, octopus, brain, tripe, etc.) that refusal doesn’t affect or hurt other people. A muslim refusing to eat pork and a vegan refusing to eat animals are not analogous to people refusing to date based on skin or body size. Just ask what people don’t want given to them and don’t question it. It’s not hard.
The vegetarians and vegans I know have posted “veganuary” meals and pictures on their own facebook pages throughout the month, but have the respect not to “suggest” or “invite” omnivores to join them. I say nothing in reply all month, then next Saturday I will jokingly post without pictures, “veganuary is over, time for carnivuary!” They get the joke and know I would never give them anything without consent.
Back to the original point about cereal, I’d like to know how much of younger people’s tastes is disinterest, awareness (environment, nutrition), taste preferences or other reasons. I usually eat instant oatmeal and not boxed cereal because I prefer to cook and eat warm foods (and change what I put in it, e.g. jam, fruit, etc.).
You might be fascinated or horrified if you do some delving in the history of cereals and how they came to be a force on the market. The short form is that any health benefits claimed are, naturally, egregious fictions. I grew up in the 60s and still encountered that “wheaties are good for you! roughage!” stuff. The battles between the Kellogs over how much sugar to put in cereals (and Post finally coming along with frosted sugar bombs) is fascinating stuff.
I start my morning with a cup of metamucil, which also turns out to be bullshit.
@Intransitive #1
When I was a kid, broccoli and brussel sprouts were practically cultural symbols of all the foods that kids don’t like. I liked them both, although I realized later this might have been because my mother always steamed them. Raw broccoli is weird to me–although my husband likes it. There’s also this.
The reputation of evangelical veg*ns notwithstanding, I have sat through a lot more arguments where omnivores try to persuade veg*ns than the other way around.
If you believe the news articles, it’s because cereal is too inconvenient, and millenials are opting for things like breakfast takeout or yogurt. The mind boggles, given how convenient cereal is already, but I suppose people might lack good kitchen spaces or dishwashers. I would also say, I put little credence in the news articles.
When I visited France the dining hall always had cereal with hot milk, so apparently that’s a thing.
Which is funny because in Germany luxury müsli seems to be all the rage. Personally I don’t care much for boxed cereals. Once in a blue moon I crave corn flakes, I love porridge.
As a mum I hate nothing more (ok, I do, figure of speech) than people who claim that children do not like certain vegetables or vegetables at all. My kids have always eaten veggies and I am still afraid that one day they will finally be convinced that they shouldn’t. Especially by adults acting all surprised when they eat them. I’ve always loved veggies. I genuinely don’t like celery and radish, but that’s because they’re disgusting.
You are, of course, being judgmental of needless judgmentalism. Needlessly? 😉 Well, what harm does someone else’s judgmentalism do you?
Human beings are social. We’re constantly making judgments about whom we want to include in or exclude from our circle of social intimates, and about the status of people at varying degrees of intimacy. And, of course, other people are making the same judgments about us.
For example, I don’t particularly worry about “cancel culture”; I don’t even care whether it’s really a thing or not, nor to what degree it’s actually a thing. I’m simply not interested in being at all intimate with some amorphous mass of Twitter/Tumblr/Instagram/whatever users. I’m perfectly fine with all of them being complete strangers, i.e. I’ve already excluded myself from social intimacy with them, and I’m completely uninterested in their judgments about my (or anyone else’s) social status.
I’ll also add that the last time I tried to establish social intimacy and status with a largish group of people on the internet, at the Internet Infidels Discussion Board, the experience ended quite badly. It was fun while it lasted, but it’s not an experience I’m at all interested in repeating. I will add as well that I’m not all that good at establishing social intimacy individually and in-person; my efforts at joining any kind of larger social culture outside of work has met with as little success as my online efforts. So my indifference to other people’s judgments probably has something to do with me being an extremely socially awkward misanthrope.
I do not eat breakfast cereals. I don’t really have any reasons to dislike them, it’s just that there are countless foods that I like much more.
Whenever I hear the word “Kellogg’s,” my first association is an asshole who wanted to circumcise boys in order to discourage masturbation through pain. So, no, I am not going to buy products from this brand. Moreover, I am not interested in buying food produced by any of the large corporations anyway.
That being said, in Latvia there actually are a few small businesses that made decent cereals, with less sugar and made from other grains rather than corn. Those are actually pretty good. I occasionally buy those and eat them like cookies (without milk or anything). Nowadays most cookies have terrible ingredient lists, thus I refuse to buy them. These “cereals” instead have decent ingredients and I can eat them as snacks.
@#1
There is nothing wrong with being a picky eater. Each person is free to eat whatever they want for whatever reason.
@#3
And here I am, not eating breakfast cereals, because I want real food instead for breakfast. Granted, I have a family member who cooks for both of us, so I can get good food without having to cook it myself.
@#4
Yes, I agree that telling children that they are supposed to dislike some healthy food is terrible. I have eaten vegetables all my life, they are my favorite food. By the way, I like radish but not celery.
What’s wrong with maize? We’ve been eating it in the Americas for centuries. Is this some sort of European thing?
Funny that you should mention the panic about millenials killing cereal – because some millenials on tumblr, meanwhile, are somehow panicking that the rich are going to gentrify cereal out of reach (fortunately for them, rib/meat economics are a terrible model to apply to the economics of some of he most widely produced grains on earth, so I think cereal is safe).
@3 regarding the inconvenience of cereal, for me it’s not the cereal part so much as the milk part. While I was living with roommates who drank a lot of milk and always finished it before it went bad, and who also helped buy more milk, it was super convenient. But when I’m living by myself or with roommates who don’t drink (much) milk, I’ve had a couple too many traumatizing incidents of pouring milk into my cereal and taking a big spoonful only to discover that the milk has already started going off. So it’s easier to just keep cereal a special occasion/nostalgia thing and stick to things that don’t go off as easily for daily use. That said, this does happen to be a rare week when I have both milk and cereal in the house, so maybe I’ll have some now…
I think the other thing for me is that I usually eat breakfast at work so that I can eat later in the morning (never hungry when I first wake up), so it’s logistically easier to have things that are either more shelf-stable than milk (there’s limited space in my work fridge) or easier to carry in as a single serving for the day on my commute.
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Also, re: food moralizing in general, I think the near-universality of needing to eat food is part of the reason people get so judgmental about it – while it’s easy to not form much of an opinion about, say, the current president’s policies (especially if you don’t regularly read the news), it’s hard to avoid creating opinions when you have to eat at least something several times a day. I think it also becomes one of those things like sex where so many people feel that because they regularly engage in it, they’re basically already experts in it, and thus less likely to ever question their own opinions.
I think the general moralization against “picky eaters” also motivates people to try and think of some higher moral/scientific/whatever reason to back up their food likes or dislikes, since it’s sometimes hard to just say “yeah, I don’t care for it” without someone who does like it demanding more of a justification.
I have nothing against picky eaters, as long as they take care of their own food.
We’ll host the family Christmas next year and I’m already wondering about the food because there’s a bunch of guys who expect me to respect their million dislikes.
The people who are really killing breakfast are people like me, who are into intermittent fasting. Other than days when I am traveling across multiple timezones I haven’t had breakfast in 17 months. That’s the only thing that stopped my habits of endless mid-morning snacking and endless post-dinner snacking. Now lunch is my first mean of the day and dinner my last, no more than 8 hours from first bite to last. Works for me, I don’t care if anyone else does the same or not.
I’m eating around an irritable digestive tract. Mostly easy-to-digest foods and limited amounts of roughage because it tends to go straight through without passing “Go”. I also eat smaller meals because it’s just easier on my system. Large meals tend to cause… problems.
Eating my breakfast porridge as I read, but I’m not a millenial, made with milk and this morning eaten plain. Some days it might have fruit on top or maple syrup if I feel the need. Otherwise I eat muesli I mix up myself as I don’t much like raisins, soaked in milk overnight and usually eaten with fruit too. Once a week I eat toast and marmalade, only once a week though as I like a lot of butter on my toast.
robertbaden @#8
For me it depends on the maize, I am fine with straight corn, cornmeal and masa harina, I do not like ‘modified starch’ from corn as I find it repeats unpleasantly.
Jazzlet:
I view that sort of thing as processed food. Like orange juice, which has too much sugar for this diabetic.
@#8
Personally, I have nothing against corn per se. It’s possible to make some great foods from it. I only dislike all those numerous junk foods that Americans are making from corn.
@#9
It’s silly to tell other people what they should eat (unless, of course you are a doctor dealing with a patient who has some health problem that requires specific nutrition to manage). It’s also silly to demand other people to somehow logically justify their preferences and likes/dislikes. Each person is free to eat whatever they like. Personally, I don’t even bother coming up with plausible sounding explanations for my dislikes. If I simply don’t like some food, that’s a sufficient reason to avoid it.