Time for Your First Breakfast
A bagel [stop right here!  this is the problem  ] when we wake up, and a pot of yogurt at our desks later; more people are eating a second breakfast
By Ellen Byron
April 25, 2017 6:00 a.m.
The most important meal of the day is increasingly eaten twice.
After years of fretting that people had stopped eating breakfast, or simply nibbled on the go, food makers and restaurants are discovering that more of us actually want to eat more than once in the morning.
“We see a lot of people grab something when they’re rushing out the door, then they have a second breakfast once they make it to their desk,” says Siggi Hilmarsson, founder and chief executive of the Icelandic Milk and Skyr Corp., which makes Siggi’s yogurts. In January, the company introduced its first single-serve yogurt drink. Then, it discovered via social media posts that people were drinking it as an early-morning, pre-workout meal. A more substantial second breakfast usually follows later in the morning, Mr. Hilmarsson says.
Restaurant chain Pret A Manger sees a rush of customers between 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., and another rush around 10:30 a.m. “They are having that second breakfast,” says Jo Brett, U.S. president of Pret A Manger. “People are eating more little portions, more often.”
In response to demand for smaller servings, including in the morning, this month the chain, which has about 440 locations world-wide and 76 in the U.S., is expanding its selection of pots, its name for the small portions of foods including fruit, yogurt and hard-boiled eggs. New pots will include more protein and vegetable options, the company says.
The makers of Siggi’s yogurt were surprised to discover customers drinking it as a first breakfast.
The fast-growing habit seems to have caught the giant food industry by surprise. Food makers have focused on persuading us to eat breakfast food all day, such as cereal for dinner and oatmeal for an afternoon snack. Meanwhile, consumers have expanded their appetite for what passes as breakfast food as restaurants serve up grain bowls and even salmon and chicken slices during morning hours. Multiple breakfasts are often celebrated in social-media posts, with more than 87,000 posts on Instagram using #secondbreakfast.
Food companies see the second breakfast as more than just a conventional coffee break. Jimmy Dean last year introduced a line of microwavable hash browns stuffed with ingredients including sausage and cheese and bacon and veggies to target the growing “midmorning meal occasion,” says Tracy Fadden, director of marketing for Jimmy Dean, a unit of Tyson Foods Inc.
Since people often eat breakfast while doing something else, like driving or typing, portability is crucial, Ms. Fadden says. The new hash browns come in a “crisping sleeve,” an engineered paper wrapper that helps microwave heating and doubles as a carrier so people can eat it with one hand. No need for plate or fork, Ms. Fadden says.
Restaurant chain Pret A Manger is adding small pots of items like hard-boiled eggs to appeal to second-breakfast eaters and others.
Second breakfasts have long been popular throughout Europe, and even Bilbo Baggins, the protagonist in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” relished them. Americans in recent years have adopted the practice by eating multiple small meals in the morning, says Darren Seifer, a food and beverage industry analyst for market researcher NPD Group, which tracks when people eat. Americans still typically eat around 8 a.m., noon and 6 p.m., but upticks in eating are also happening before and after the traditional breakfast time, he says. “We’re still having lunches the way we typically would, and dinners, too,” says Mr. Seifer. “It’s breakfast that’s getting more fragmented.”
The increasing popularity of multiple breakfasts is boosting sales of convenient breakfast foods. Sales of frozen breakfast entrees rose 24% over the past five years, according to Nielsen. Meantime frozen breakfast sandwiches have risen 30%. “It’s a smaller format that fits in your hand while commuting and fits the idea of the snackification of breakfast,” says Jordan Rost, Nielsen’s vice president of consumer insights.
Enthusiasts should be mindful of how those meals fit into their overall day’s consumption, says Gary Foster, chief scientific officer of Weight Watchers International Inc. Weight Watchers doesn’t have an official stance on how many breakfasts its members eat, but advises that sticking to a daily eating pattern often brings weight-loss success. “It’s energy in and energy out,” Dr. Foster says. “If yesterday I was eating one breakfast, and today I’m eating two, you might need to cut out an evening snack- you have to make trade-offs.”
[Brilliant, that's all you need to do  And cutting out other snacks will happen effortlessly after jacking up your blood sugar with a bagel to start the day]
Nature Valley’s granola cups look like a cookie and, General Mills says it works as a second breakfast at the office.
Kara Cozier, a 39-year-old distributor for a health and wellness company who lives in of Waxhaw, N.C., says she usually eats a healthier lunch if she starts her day with two breakfasts, usually eggs, toast, avocado and pinto beans at 8 a.m. followed by yogurt, fruit and granola at 10:30 a.m. “I eat better because I’m not starving,” she says. “At lunch, I’m more likely to have a salad and not grab a bag of chips because I’m ravenous.” She started doing this when her twin daughters were young and hungry midmorning. She realized eating at that time worked better for her, too.
Second breakfasts tend to be smaller and slightly more savory than first breakfasts, says Jeanine Bassett, vice president of global consumer insights at General Mills Inc., which owns cereal brands including Cheerios, Wheaties and Lucky Charms. This year the company launched Yoplait Dippers, a line of Greek yogurts packaged with snacks for dipping. Vanilla bean yogurt comes with oat crisps; chipotle ranch yogurt with tortilla chips. “It really skews second breakfast,” Ms. Bassett says.
The company’s new Nature Valley line of granola cups, which are made of peanut or almond butter poured over oats and nuts, also target late-morning eating because of their healthy slant and bite-sized form, Ms. Bassett says. “This is about food that I can eat when I’m working at my computer, when I need something smaller that’s less messy and less involved.”
Once an afternoon staple, pistachios are branching out into the morning snack lineup.
The Wonderful Co.’s pistachios are usually eaten in the afternoon, but the company aims to expand into what it sees as the fast-growing morning-eating time, says Adam Cooper, vice president of marketing and insights. “People want a morning snack that sustains them until lunch,” he says.
To boost easy workplace eating, this month the company is rolling out its first pistachio snack packs, in 1.5 ounce portions, and a new campaign emphasizing the nut’s high protein and fiber content and low calories.
Yet can Americans be swayed to munch on salty nuts in the morning? “We’re still trying to build it up,” says Mr. Cooper.
Write to Ellen Byron at ellen.byron~wsj.com
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