Breakfast
There is this wild eyed story that every morning Theodore Roosevelt ate a dozen eggs and a pound of bacon for breakfast. It's a crazy story and there's no record it ever happened. So where did it come from? It comes from a character named Goldfish who played a servent in the 1925 silent picture comedy, “The Man in the Box.” In the movie Godfish referred to a character that looked like Theodore Roosevel and said in a printed line, "This morning he ordered (Roosevelt) a big breakfastast. Said it was for you and then ate it himself.” Since TR was known for a robust appetite the line stuck, but it's no more real than knocking on wood will give you good luck.
A pound of cooked bacon is approximately 2,200 calories and 12 small to medium size eggs amount to about 800 calories. Together that would add up to a daily caloric intake of around 3,000 calories for just these two items alone. with the whole day ahead of him to really pile on. Just based on the bacon and eggs in one year TR would go from 185 to 310lbs.
Its not only ridiculously absurd, the truth is, at the turn of the 20th century the norm was a light breakfast. People had coffee, a roll, and maybe some cereal.
The large American Breakfast, as its called in Britain, wouldn't start until after 1920 after TR's death. Marketing genius Edward Bernays was hired by farmers to increase the sales of bacon and eggs. The first thing Bernays did was to convincee the country bacon and eggs was the quintessential All American breakfast.
To forge his arguement he commissioned a doctor to ask thousands of other doctors if a larger breakfast was healthier? Bernays found he could get 4,500 doctors to agree that big breakfasts were better and the best way to start the day. He took the results of his survey to the newspapers who, looking for a good story, printed the headline, “4,500 physicians urge Americans to eat heavy breakfasts to improve their health.”
Along with the headlines the press ran inviting images of bacon and eggs turning the combo into a breakfast staple. Today the US produces 2 billion pounds of breakfast bacon every year.
What about the truth? In his book “All in the Family,” Ted Jr. remembered mealtimes at Sagamore Hill as “the best education I had.” The breakfast table served as a place for "learning and vigorous discussion." Ted Jr. recalled breakfast was never a quiet meal. It involved conversation about current events, history, politics, and the books the family was reading. TR often read a book before breakfast and discussed it that morning. Below is a photograph of the dinning table used by the family while the chidlren were growing up. The set currently on display at Sagamore Hill was purchased in Florence by Edith and TR while they were on their honeymoon in 1887.
In his book “All in the Family,” Ted Jr. remembered mealtimes at Sagamore Hill as “the best education I had.” The breakfast table served as a place for "learning and vigorous discussion." Ted Jr. recalled breakfast was never a quiet meal. It involved conversation about current events, history, politics, and the books the family was reading. TR often read a book before breakfast and discussed it that morning.
So what did Roosevelt actually eat for breakfast. In his memoirs Ted Jr. wrote the breakfast menu was simple. He said his father typically ate a hard-boiled egg sometimes two. It had to be hard boiled nothing runny. He also ate something called a "Fat Rascal" that was like a British Scone frequently filled with raisons, or currents.
On occasion TR and Edith would have hominy grits and a few strips of bacon or a slice of liver and always a large mug of coffee, or tea sweetened with 7 spoonfuls of sugar. TR was known to drink four mugs of coffee a day.
This is a rare photograph showing TR drinking coffee and having breakfast. There are very few published photos of Roosevelt drinking coffee, or eating. This picture was taken in 1910 when Theodore Roosevelt visited Denver, Colorado and spoke to the state legislature and the Colorado Livestock Association.
