Snack Attack!

I have to laugh at what passes for "healthy" in America nowadays. Not that I'm an educated nutritionist by any stretch of the imagination, but I just have to take a step back and look what average Americans are consuming on a daily basis. The other day I was at work and, to slake my sweet-tooth I was nursing that afternoon, I tore open a FiberOne bar. Ok, so clearly General Mills is trying to market this thing as a healthy snack. As advertised on the box, it contains "35% of your daily value of fiber! 9 grams of fiber per serving!". First of all, yes, we get it, this thing's got fiber. But, just for fun (because I'm all about fun), let's acknowledge the fact that this thing is DROWNING IN CHOCOLATE! And I'm sorry, but I get that granola is healthy in theory, but I don't think that a handful of oats that have been roasted in a bucket of oil and bound together by dried, evaporated cane juice is exactly the most natural/nutritious snack. It also doesn't help that something about the size/ingredients in those things make you want to eat like 17 in one sitting. Anyway, I think I had two of those bad boys and was sugared out the rest of that afternoon, big surprise.

So after that I just started paying closer attention to other "healthy" snacks. The people I work for are are very "west side healthy", which I'm pretty sure is a concept I just made up. They love the notion of health food from their shaded, upper-class west side bubble. They bought these snacks for the office the other day that cracked me up. Basically it was a bag of these little nut clusters that were stuck together by this sugary, mollassesy substance. I had them and they were certainly TASTY, but holy smokes I checked the label and those things are LOUSY with sugar. However I love the packaging: The bag had some groovy swirly colorful logo with all these lame buzz words: "Organic (ok, fine)! Gluten Free! Wheat Free!". Ummm I mean yeah no kidding, it's a hunk of walnuts deluged in sugar, last I checked that was generally a wheat/gluten free snack. You could also melt some brie over a pound of salami and dip it in butter and that would also be wheat/gluten free but that doesn't mean it's good for you. But you know, why be healthy when you can be trendy!

And even outside the arena of "faux health food", it's just alarming to look at mass produced snack foods in general! Dovetailing with my previous post about living on a budget, I have DEFINITELY had to compromise my eating habits to live within my means the past 30 days (by the way you guys, you should have seen my face when I checked my account to see that my paycheck had finally cleared: think the photo of Ted Bundy in the courtroom after his sentence was declared. But like, happy).

But yes, having to eat 3 bags of Goldfish crackers before you leave work to "fill up" for the ride home is pretty dark. PS on the subject of Goldfish, I love the "made with real cheese" tag on the bag: as if someone is in the market saying to themselves "Oh I don't know, I don't want to fill up on crackers...oh it's made with real cheese! I'll buy 5!" It does seem a bit counter-intuitive though to think that eating well would be an especially expensive feat. But I think the key to eating well is eating simply. Have an orange, a handful of almonds, some grains or rice, drink some juice etc. I don't think you have to spend $19 on vegan nachos in Venice or Silverlake to take care of yourself. Just as long as I look at the ingredients on something and it isn't pages long I think it's ok. And I'm always skeptical about things with "natural flavors"...what the hell does that actually mean?

Anyway, my month of poverty is now done so i can go back to my usual little routine. But you live and you learn, eh guys?