早餐麥片的發明竟是為了....?(一) @ 譯文大賞

什麼時候早餐變成了一天當中很重要的一件事呢？(圖片來源：Brooke Lark, Unsplash)

You’ve probably heard that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

相信在成長過程中，您很常聽到這樣的一句話："早餐是一天當中最重要的一餐"

What you may not know is the origin of this ode to breakfast: a 1944 marketing campaign launched by Grape Nuts manufacturer General Foods to sell more cereal.

雖然您很常聽到這樣的說法，但您可能不知道這是從什麼時候開始流行的。這得從半個世紀前說起：在1944年，一間葡萄乾麥片廠商General Foods為了要銷售更多的麥片，於是就用這樣的話術來打廣告。

During the campaign, which marketers named “Eat a Good Breakfast—Do a Better Job”, grocery stores handed out pamphlets that promoted the importance of breakfast while radio advertisements announced that “Nutrition experts say breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

在廣告宣傳的過程中，透過"吃一頓早餐可以讓您的工作表現更好"這樣的話術，讓消費者知道早餐的重要性；而當時廣播-這個在當時是人最常接觸的媒體，也有打著"營養學者表示，早餐是一天當中最重要的一餐"這樣的slogan，來吸引聽眾去購買相關的產品。

Ads like these were key to the rise of cereal, a product invented by men like John Harvey Kellogg, a deeply religious doctor who believed that cereal would both improve Americans’ health and keep them from masturbating and desiring sex. (Only half of his message made it into the ads.)

這樣的廣告正好是助長麥片銷量的關鍵，而在當時，約翰·哈維·凱洛格（沒錯，就是那個常在超市裡看到的那個家樂氏)，這位相當虔誠的醫生，研發了一款早餐麥片。這項產品是當時最早出現的現代版的麥片。約翰深信麥片可以改善美國人的健康狀況~~還有抑制男性自慰及性愛的慾望。(小朋友還是不要知道的好.....)~~

約翰·哈維·凱洛格(John Harvey Kellogg)是現代早餐麥片的發明者，圖片來源：
Nyana Stoica, Unsplash

Before cereal, in the mid 1800s, the American breakfast was not all that different from other meals. Middle- and upper-class Americans ate eggs, pastries, and pancakes, but also oysters, boiled chickens, and beef steaks.

在十九世紀這個麥片穀物還沒問世前的時代，當時美國人平日裡吃的早餐其實跟其他歐美國家並無二致。中產階級以上的美國人在當時吃的都是蛋、糕點、鬆餅，有的時候還會吃牡蠣、水煮雞肉和牛排呢。

The rise of cereal established breakfast as a meal with distinct foods and created the model of processed, ready-to-eat breakfast that still largely reigns. And it all depends on advertising and convincing you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

到後來隨著早餐麥片的發明，許多人也漸漸愛上了這種能夠在短時間內就能準備好的早餐，再加上廣告的推波助瀾，使得大眾開始相信早餐是一天當中最重要的一餐了，這些因素正好助長了大眾食用麥片的風氣。

The Beguiling History of Breakfast

早餐的趣聞

現代早餐的出現，正好與麥片的問世是有關係的，圖片來源：
Rachael Gorjestani, Unspalsh

The modern era of breakfast begins with cereal. Before its invention, breakfast was not as standard or routine.

麥片是現代早餐的雛型，不過在麥片問世之前，其實早餐並非當時習以為常的飲食習慣。

"The Romans believed it was healthier to eat only one meal a day," food historian Caroline Yeldham has said. Many Native Americans, Abigail Carroll writes in The Invention of the American Meal, ate bits of food throughout the day (rather than at set meals) and sometimes fasted for days at a time.

對此，食物史學家卡洛琳雅德罕(Caroline Yeldham)就表示："羅馬人相信，如果要保持健康的話，那麼一天只能吃一餐。"另一方面，阿比果卡羅(Abigail Carroll)在他的著作《美國餐食的發明》(The Invention of the American Meal)中也提到，許多美國人整天只吃進少量的食物，而非我們現在在吃的那種套餐的分量，甚至有的時候還會斷食好幾天呢。

Of medieval Europe, historians alternatingly write that breakfast was only a luxury for the rich, only a necessity for laborers, or mostly skipped. And while many American colonists ate breakfast, they were reputedly harried affairs that took place after hours of morning work.

至於中世紀的歐洲大陸呢？史學家認為當時大概只有一部分的貴族或是有大量勞力需求的勞工階級有類似吃早餐的習慣，而大部分的其實都沒有在吃早餐的。(中世紀歐陸的飲食方式可以參考這篇：想體驗純正英式下午茶？千萬不要回到中古世紀！)

Historians tend to agree that breakfast became a daily, first thing in the morning institution once workers moved to cities and became employees who worked set schedules. In Europe, this first began in the 1600s, and breakfast achieved near ubiquity during the Industrial Revolution. With people going off to a full day’s work, breakfast became a thing.

史學家認為，當勞動階級開始往都市裡定居而且有了固定的上下班時間時，正好就是早餐融入日常生活的契機。以歐洲為例，歐洲最早是在17世紀，也就是是工業革命的年代。當時大量的工廠的出現及勞動力需求的增加，早餐便開始大量地出現在人們的日常生活裡。為了要儲備長達一整天的工作體力，早餐開始成為人們的必需品了。

一直得等到工業革命後，早餐才真正地成為了大眾的生活習慣，圖片來源：
Brooke Lark, Unspalsh

There was already a tradition of certain foods—like bread, ale, cheese, porridges, or leftovers—being cooked or eaten in the morning. Although since chroniclers of history spend little time describing breakfast, tracing the origins of favorite dishes is difficult.

當時的早餐就已經很像現代，都會搭配些特定的食物烹調，像是麵包、麥芽、麥片粥或是前一天的剩菜。不過因為相關的歷史記載寥寥無幾，我們很難真正了解早餐的雛型大概是什麼樣貌。

雞蛋會成為早午餐必備的食材，竟然是跟宗教有關，圖片來源：Hannah Tasker, Unsplash

Why are eggs a staple of brunch? Searching for the eggs–breakfast link takes one back at least to early history; Bible scholar John A. Rice describes Mary of Nazareth preparing eggs for a breakfast attended by Jesus. What about pancakes? Paleontologists speculate that humans ate primitive pancakes over 5,000 years ago; more recently, Thomas Jefferson enjoyed crepe-like pancakes.

不過回過頭來，您應該會好奇，為何雞蛋會是早午餐必備的食物呢？在經過蒐羅所有相關的文獻後，一位史學家約翰萊斯發現，雞蛋會成為早餐不可或缺的食物，其實是因為聖經裡有提到，聖母瑪莉亞會幫耶穌準備一顆雞蛋當作祂的早餐。那麼美式鬆餅呢？考古學家推測，早在5000年前左右，人類就有吃過類似鬆餅的食物了，而在文獻記載裡也有發現，湯瑪斯傑佛遜(美國第三任總統)很喜愛吃類似法式薄餅的鬆餅。

湯瑪斯傑佛遜(左二)是位喜歡吃美式鬆餅的美國總統，圖片來源：Stephen Oliver, Unspalsh

But once breakfast became fully institutionalized, the American breakfast grew increasingly like dinner. “Americans wanted meat, meat, meat. And potatoes. And cake and pie,” Lowell Dyson writes of food preferences in 19th century America. This mania extended to breakfast, and dishes like beef steaks and roasted chickens joined staples like cornbread, flapjacks, and butter on American breakfast tables.

不過一旦早餐完全融入日常生活後，美國人吃的早餐分量就開始變得跟晚餐一樣。對此，羅威戴森(Lowell Dyson)在他的著作《吃一份19世紀的美國早餐》中寫道："美國人一定都會吃肉，除了肉還是肉。然後還有馬鈴薯、蛋糕和餡餅"而美國人對於這些食物的喜好衍生到早餐，所以您會發現當時美國人在吃的早餐除了牛排和烤雞外，美國人還會搭配玉米麵包、煎餅和奶油。

It was not a recipe for good health. Americans complained chronically of indigestion, which early nutritionists and reformers named dyspepsia. As Abigail Carroll has explained, “Magazines and newspapers [just overflowed] with rhetoric about this dyspeptic condition and what to do about it.” It was the 1800s equivalent of our obesity debate.

這樣的食物真的很難要保持健康呀，所以也難怪根據史料記載，當時就已經有不少的美國人被診斷出有長期的消化不良的症狀，就像是阿比果卡羅(Abigail Carroll)所說的："當時有很多雜誌跟報紙都針對消化不良的症狀做討論並提供預防的方法"。哇，從這裡您就可以發現，原來消化不良其實早在19世紀就有了。