I gave up cereal and sugar in my coffee in 2013. When I was recovering from being sick last month I was craving cereal with milk. Had some then but I probably will not going forward. I still don’t have sugar in my coffee and probably never will. I have cable TV so I can watch the local baseball. I only go to the bank because their app stopped working. Don’t use bar soap.
I use placemats as it keeps the tablecloth clean. My table setting is like @BunsenBurner placemat, vanity fair napkin folded. I keep a ceramic napkins holder in the middle of my kitchen table. I would use cloth napkins daily if I could get my H to switch.Paper towels are kept next to the sink.
Two of my kids wear a watch. I wear my watch daily and would feel naked without it.
I think cereal has become out of fashion as it is carb heavy without much nutritional value. I don’t have milk in my house nor do I have juice. My S is the only one of us who drinks juice. None of my kids drink milk. I’ve always hated milk and I realize without consciously thinking it I never pushed them to drink milk.
Avocado toast is definitely in fashion. The coffee shop next to my hair salon sells a large piece of multi grain bread toasted with avocado, radish and an optional hard boiled egg. They charge $11 for it. At this same place you can get your latte with oat milk. The place is packed all hours of the day.
I’ve never used paper towels as napkins, unless we run out of napkins. It never occurred to me to use paper towels. I would not want to set my table with paper towels.
But I just asked my 23 yr old D and she never buys napkins. In her reasoning she doesn’t want to spend money on two things. Guess it starts out as an economy issue.
Unless you are buying super cheap paper towels (which I don’t care for) I bet even nicer paper napkins are more reasonable than paper towels.
A roll of paper towels can last about 2 months at least in my house since we use rags and kitchen towels for most cleanup jobs.
It’s not that napkins are cheaper than paper towels. It’s about having to buy napkins on top of paper towels.
In our house we have both paper towels and paper napkins, although we don’t use paper towels at the table unless we’re out of napkins.
What I find distressing is the annoying number of people who apparently have/use neither one. I can’t count the times at someone else’s place when a meal, snack, or drink is served and there are no napkins or paper towels anywhere in sight. Are we supposed to wipe our mouths on our sleeves? It would never occur to me to serve food or drink without some sort of napkin.
I’m still fighting my husband’s habit of grabbing a paper towel even though I have a stack of (Costco Vanity Fair) paper napkins stacked in a holder RIGHT THERE on the kitchen table. Not only does it feel tacky to me to use paper towels as napkins, it means I’m forever running out of paper towels and of course, I’m the only one who seems to change the roll. I’m never giving up that fight, LOL.
When it comes to guests, I always use cotton cloth napkins. If you take them out of the dryer promptly and fold them, ironing isn’t really necessary unless you are even pickier than I am. I do iron all my holiday table napkins once a year in November when I set up the board in front of the tv and watch a movie while I do it.
“It’s not that napkins are cheaper than paper towels. It’s about having to buy napkins on top of paper towels.”
That literally saves about 5 seconds in your life while at the store. 
I’ve given up cereal. It just has too many calories for the nutrition in it. I’ve also cut way back on carbs. Greek yogurt, eggs, avocado, etc. are much healthier and fill me up longer.
We stopped by kiddo’s place in Fremont to help them fix the grill. I had out TJ loot in the back of the car, and asked if she wanted anything. She fished out avocado, salmon, TJ breakfast potato patties, a bottle of 14 Hands blend, a bunch of frozen veggie sides, bananas, and some carrots. Did not touch a single sweet thing - she declared a war on added sugar. Big kid also does not keep sweet things around the house. So at least in my very limited circle of millennials, overly sugary foodstuffs are a thing of the past.
^That’s cool! Sugar was so hard for me to reduce, but I’m eating very little of it now. My main indulgence is two Halloween-sized chocolate pieces after dinner. Boy, do those taste good!
I’m a low class and tacky paper towel user and lovin it.
I find it hard to believe that any generation of Americans is drastically reducing sugar intake. My last US visit was to a conference in San Diego. I visited a big supermarket looking for a) cereal with less than 10% calories from sugar, and b) full fat unsweetened yogurt. Both VERY difficult to find.
A well-documented trend is reduction in whole milk consumption in the US especially over the past decade. Unfortunately there is a big increase in “things that are white and have nothing to do with milk” as substitutes, missing a chance for actual dietary improvement.
Same here. I’ve actually stopped eating all grains recently. If I really want a bowl of “cereal”, I put a heaping spoon each of ground flax seed and almond flour in a bowl, add a tablespoon of chia seeds and one of raw sunflower seeds. If desired I add some blueberries or raspberries (I buy them frozen.) This is satisfying for hours and has lots of omega-3 and fiber.
As to chocolate, I went from Lindt 78% cacao to 85% to 90% and when even the 90% tasted too sweet, I bought a 5 lb. bag of Scharffen Berger 99% petite baking squares (which have no sugar; the other 1% is bourbon vanilla.) I have one square in the afternoon as a snack. I love the taste and even the mild bitterness is very pleasant-- the way a cup of black espresso is pleasant. I lost my taste for sugar in chocolate; it seems extraneous now.
“I find it hard to believe that any generation of Americans is drastically reducing sugar intake…I visited a big supermarket looking for a) cereal with less than 10% calories from sugar, and b) full fat unsweetened yogurt. Both VERY difficult to find.”
Not sure what store you visited but it isn’t that hard to avoid if you avoid processed foods.
Cheerios. As far as yogurt, my local grocery stores carry at least 5 brands of unsweetened full fat yogurt. You just need to buy it in the large containers not individual serving sizes.
I think there has been a recent trend back towards whole fat dairy products.
As far as cereal goes, my favorite “cereal” is a bowl of oatmeal.
I’m surprised about not finding full fat plain yogurt in San Diego. I’m in another coastal Ca city and I have no problem finding full fat plain. It might be more difficult to find in the individual size. I buy the bigger container in full fat plain in both Greek and regular style. Faje and Chobani also make Greek full fat in individual containers. At our smaller chain and Sprouts and Whole Foods they carry many brands off full fat plain in individual sized containers.
I did find plain Cheerios, but that isn’t exactly dominating shelf space. There are 18 types of Cheerios, and most seem to be in 30% sugar range.
But if you are using paper towels for utility and for napkins, you will be buying paper towels “on top of paper towels” because you will use them up twice as fast.
Seems like 6 of one, half dozen of another.
Low or no added sugar cereal (e.g. original Cheerios and store brand copies, plain shredded wheat, plain oatmeal) and plain yogurt (both whole and skim milk) are not hard to find in grocery stores. But they are the minority of offerings these days.
I’ve given up sugar for the most part, and have no trouble finding sugar free yogurt. Things like spaghetti sauce can be a bit challenging, but I’ve found a few brands with no added sugar. Finding store bought salad dressings with no added sugar or artificial sweeteners is next to impossible. Processed foods are usually full of sugar. Because I don’t tolerate carbs well (I struggle with metabolic syndrome/insulin resistance), sugar free cereal isn’t any better on my blood sugar than sugar free cereal; both are refined carbs, which don’t agree with me.
But you are correct that hidden sugar is ubiquitous in our society; it’s mind boggling. I’ve been to restaurants where I ordered Brussels sprouts or cabbage, only to realize after a couple of bites that they were prepared with added sugar. We are in a bad place when we feel we need to put sugar on fresh vegetables in order to make them palatable.