What Is a Second Breakfast?

One breakfast is not enough for some who may prefer to eat more frequent, smaller meals throughout the day. A second breakfast is customary in parts of Germany like Bavaria and Zurich as well as in Poland, Austria, England and on farming homesteads across the globe — where the first breakfast is apt to have been just a cup of juice or coffee with some toast or a pastry. This is followed up at about 10:30 a.m. by a fuller meal to keep the tanks full until lunch in the early afternoon.

Second breakfast goes by a number of names, depending on where it is being served. In Germany, beer halls called bierpalast will often offer the meal, called zweites fruhstuck, which literally translates to second breakfast. It regularly includes a wheat beer, soft pretzel with mustard, and some white sausages called weisswurst prepared that morning. These sausages are a blend of pork, lamb and beef, and are so perishable that they must be eaten within about 12 hours of being made — a standard maintained by tradition and government inspectors.

In Austria, this meal is called gabelfruhstuck, translated as "fork meal." Held at about 10 a.m., the foods might be similar to the zweites fruhstuck or completely different. A popular alternative is called bauernfruhstuck, which is fried potatoes and bacon, topped with a scrambled-egg mixture coursing with tomatoes and cubes of ham.

In other countries, the foods are likely to be different but the intent is the same. Second breakfast is known as drugie śniadanie in Poland. The British call this meal "elevenses," while the term is jause to Austrians. Perhaps the most common westernized way to refer to this meal is brunch. Farmers in all of these places often partake in this tradition, largely due to the extended work hours and need for energy throughout the day.

The intent of the second breakfast is to spread nutrients more thoroughly across the day, which is a practice endorsed by nutritionists, fitness trainers and physicians alike. In Germany, perhaps the most devoted partakers of this meal, school children are accustomed to break for bread at this time of day, called pausenbrot. As adults, they continue the tradition with fuller, in-between meals, known as zwischenmahlzeit.

The types of foods served during a second breakfast depend on the culture and means of the server. In Americanized settings, this will include foods like eggs, bacon, pancakes, fried potatoes and toast. For those in Europe, the meal is just as likely to include standard sandwiches, fruits, pastries, crepes and puddings.