Why a Farmer’s Breakfast is for a Farmer (2024)

So, recently someone I love brought up the fact that they had gained more weight than they would like. Being someone who has lost over 70 lbs, twice, was a personal trainer for two years, and a nutrition major for a year, I have a little bit of knowledge of how to shed those unwanted lbs. Knowing this person’s activity level and eating habits, it wasn’t much of a mystery as to why they were most likely gaining the unwanted weight. Seeing as eighty percent of weight loss is based on the person’s nutritional habits, and I know for a fact that they still eat as if they were still putting in 14 hour shifts then coming home to fix stuff or maintain the law, it is most likely the usual suspect, excess calories and not enough physical exercise to burn it. As our activity and habits change, we also need to change our daily diet to ensure we at least are not eating more than we are burning.

If you’ve not been to a Denny’s or IHOP lately or aren’t from the Midwest, you may have not heard of or remember the ‘Farmer’s Breakfast’. A farmers breakfast usually consists of two eggs, two pieces of bacon, two pieces of sausage, hasbrowns/breakfast potatoes, and a biscuit with a glass of milk. Now, this meal consists of approximately 1300 calories, and of that approximately 950 calories is from fat. Now for a farmer who works laboriously from sunrise to sunset, this is an appropriate meal as they are burning over 3500 calories extra a day for a total burn of around 5500 calories. The Surgeon general states that people should not consume more than 20–35% of their daily calories from fat. This means for the farmer his breakfast only provides 17% of their total calories from fat providing them with all the energy they need for the day to come. This person I love dearly eats this every morning and has for as long as I can remember. Now, with this person’s age, size, and activity level they are burning probably 2200 calories a day at most, most. That means that just by eating this one meal, they are consuming 59 % of their total calories, and over 40% of their daily calories from fat. That is just breakfast, not to include the meals and snacks to follow.

Now the farmer’s breakfast is a hearty meal as it was meant to feed a person doing a lot of manual labor, and that brings me to my second point. It’s not that we can’t enjoy all the trimmings of a farmer’s breakfast, it’s just that most people don’t burn the excess amount of calories it was meant to replace. Cutting that meal in half gets you all the trimmings and also cuts the nutritional content in half. Now this is still not a heart healthy option for every day, but definitely just fine a few days a week. Yes, even though the meal has been cut in half and the caloric intake would be fine for most, all of the items in the meal contain fat, however, some of the items are mostly fat highlighting the phrase, “It’s not just how much you eat, but what you eat”. By consuming this meal you are getting the lowest end, yet still, all of the recommended fat for the day, and any fat after that would only be adding to the heightened risk of cardiac arrest, heart attack, stroke, and many other serious medical issues, one of the serious medical issues being obesity or carrying excess fat.

Yes, obesity is a serious medical issue for many reasons, and in most cases is avoidable. There are many reasons people don’t get enough exercise and don’t eat nutritionally rich food and I don’t judge anyone for where they are, but it is important to recognize it is only us that can change our health, yes, health. Eating right and working out shouldn’t be about “looking good naked” (though it doesn’t hurt the self esteem), but about our health. Obesity can lead to an abundance of health issues, some of which are experienced in the present, however things like bone degeneration, joint pain, and mobility issues aren’t dealt with until years later, decades even. Things to worry about in the present ranges from diabetes and cardiac arrest, to high blood pressure and headaches, and then after developing comorbid (co-existing often connected) illnesses, one would have to deal with the symptoms and side effects of those illnesses. Having battled my weight my whole life, falling and getting back up (a couple times), I can testify that excess weight has only had a negative impact on my life and health. As I’ve written before, this is not about looking good or meeting a social norm, it is trying to reset the social norm as loving ourselves enough to feed it nutritious and balanced meals, and exercise on a regular basis, as not doing one can cancel out the other. Plenty of people in great shape who exercise seven days a week die of heart attacks due to high cholesterol clogging their arteries from poor diets, just as people who eat right but don’t exercise often develop mobility issues much earlier in life and often experience side effects like chronic pain and lung diseases from not properly expanding their lungs.

If this article has taught you anything I hope that it is there are people that care about you that just want the best for you, much like you do them, and feeding yourself healthy balanced meals and exercising are just two of the minimal things you could do to love yourself as much as others love you. After all, we all deserve healthy meals that aid in graceful aging, and to use our bodies as much as possible, for as long as possible. So, please, take good care of yourself and I promise to try and do the same. As always, thank you for reading my work, until next time.