By Bob Condor
Chicago Tribune (KRT)

The alarm rings. You hit the snooze button. The alarm rings again. You hit the snooze button. The alarm rings. You wake up this time, take a shower, make some coffee, get dressed, rush out the door with a mug and maybe some toast or a cup of yogurt.

You get in the car and head for work, school, the train station parking lot or other weekday destinations. You start eating your breakfast as you go. Toast crumbs fall on your shirt. You might be spooning yogurt madly at traffic lights. The coffee spills.

Stop the tape! You probably already have taken your eyes off the road long enough to cause an accident. If you are the passenger, you still have struggled with trying not to spot your work clothes. At the least, in some ways the worst result, you are gulping your morning meal.

What you need is a commuter breakfast that you can consume with one hand. And let’s be clear, you should keep both hands on the wheel, but people sometimes take both off the wheel to eat. So the idea is simple: a nutritious, tasty breakfast without the mess or dry-cleaning bills. You keep at least one hand free to avoid car accidents or make for easier reading as a passenger. The commuter breakfast is good food that literally can be eaten on the run or brisk walk.

One more significant benefit: Reducing the mess and eliminating the logistical challenge of eating your breakfast with two hands means you can actually become conscious, bite by bite, of the food you consume. That is a plus by any nutritionist’s standards.

“People will do better to pay attention to all foods they eat during a day,” said Susan Allen, a nutritionist with a private practice in Lisle, Ill. “We need to give food the importance it deserves. Ninety-five percent of us don’t chew our food thoroughly, which means we are bypassing enzymes in the saliva that help greatly with digestion. . . . People think feeling gassy or bloated is normal.”

For Seattle-based dietitian Susan Kleiner, breakfast is important enough to wake a half-hour earlier to “enjoy the time, sit still and know I am eating.” At the least, she urges breakfast eaters to do just that.

“Breakfast is so important for the rest of the day,” said Kleiner, who has consulted for pro football and pro basketball teams. “I am a busy mom and career woman but just made the attitude adjustment that everyone in the house needs morning fuel. It puts you in a better mood, improves mental performance and helps control body weight. There is lots of data to support it.”

But she is realistic enough to know relaxed morning minutes are scant for many of her clients, which include Midwesterners who contacted Kleiner after reading her sports nutrition book “Power Eating” (Human Kinetics, $16.95).

“The truth is, I stopped eating breakfast on the run because I couldn’t stand the crumbs all over the car,” Kleiner admitted. “The ideal breakfast is one you eat sitting down without driving or watching TV. But you’re always better off with something rather than nothing.”

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DANGEROUS ROAD FOODS

An estimated 65 percent of Americans say they occasionally eat while driving. Seventeen percent said they frequently or always do. It’s estimated that 1 of every 5 meals consumed by U.S. adults is behind a steering wheel. All of which motivated the folks at Hagerty Classic Insurance, based in Traverse City, Mich., to develop a top-10 list of “Most Dangerous Foods to Eat While Driving.” Foods are rated according to the degree of distraction, degree of difficulty in eating with only one hand on the wheel and the food’s popularity. Here’s the list, from bad to worst.

10. Chocolate: “Drivers instinctively try to clean smears and stains instantly.”

9. Soft drinks: Tip too easily.

8. Jelly- and cream-filled doughnuts: They ooze; score one for old-fashioned variety.

7. Fried chicken: Greasy hands and never enough napkins anyway.

6. Barbecue: Messy; better enjoyed with cold beer and good music.

5. Juicy hamburgers: Condiments and fillings are likely to escape the bun.

4. Chili: How could it not be trouble?

3. Tacos: Always fall apart.

2. Hot soup: Enough said.

1. Coffee: Most dangerous in morning when drivers don’t want to spill on their work clothes.