Cereal, America’s favorite work day breakfast, is next on the chopping block. What is this mystery substance? Where does it fall on the spectrum of liquid and solid based foods? The average American eats 14 pounds of this delicious substance annually. How many pounds of soup do you eat? If cereal is a soup, then we should be eating much more than 14 pounds of soup. Cereal is most definitely a soup, and I’m going to tell you why.

Let us start by defining this substance called soup. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, soup is “a liquid food especially with meat, fish, or vegetable stock as a base and often containing pieces of solid food.” If one were to follow the definition directly, it would be proven that cereal most definitely is not a soup. But then comes in our savour of this article, tomato soup. Tomato soup fits the Merriam Webster Definition even worse than cereal. Yet it is still a staple in the soup franchise. It has soup in the name! So, if this heated tomato paste is considered a soup, why isn’t cereal?

Now that everyone knows about how the dictionary lies, let’s talk about some more examples of a soup just like cereal. Gazpacho is a cold soup. Just like cereal, it has no heat, yet it is still considered a soup. So, what makes cereal any different? Cereal is a soup with milk as the broth and oats as the substance. If soup can be cold, then cereal can be soup, simple as that.

My final point as to why America’s favorite breakfast food fits the grouping of America’s favorite dinner food, is because why not? If a hotdog can be a sandwich (read my other article), then why can’t cereal be a soup? Are you really going to let this simple disagreement ruin your holiday season? Just because you and your uncle don’t agree doesn’t mean the whole family has to suffer at Christmas. Be kind, give a little.