Courtesy Wikipedia Creative Commons Attribution: Torsten Seiler

Breakfasts were bigger then, but people are bigger now.

This Wikipedia  photo of a German breakfast makes me long to lighten up on “healthy eating.”

My Seattle Danish immigrant father, Hans Pederson, constructed buildings, roads, and bridges. He died at 69 when I was one month old.. After extensive research, I’ve also learned his food habits. What they ate for breakfast back then defies today’s conventional wisdom. Pork. Cheese. Eggs. Potatoes. Skip the fruits and veggies.

The adoptive father who raised me lived to be 92. A Maine Yankee, he traveled the world before he came back home. Although he lost the use of his legs during his later years, he maintained his appetite. He favored apple pie with rat cheese for breakfast. We also kept a good supply of greasy Maine donuts in the kitchen—the old fashioned kind that sink like lead in your stomach—not those popular today that feel like you’re biting into a pillow.

Blessed with good health myself, I try to keep up with the latest food research. I mostly eat oatmeal with fruit, nuts, and flax seed for breakfast. I favor whole what bread. Barley too, to lower cholesterol. Still, although I’ve tried them,  kale smoothies hold no appeal.

Now I’m learning that because my carbs are not gluten free, I may be heading for mental decline. Guess i’ll stay tuned in to whatever they decide next week.