When did eating three meals a day become grazing all day?
What happened to breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
Driving to dinner from New Jersey to Chinatown, (we hit Chinatown once a week or once a day) my husband or I will say “Maybe we should stop and get a little snack so we won’t be so hungry when we eat.” The other one always says, “Okay.”
What happened to food?
Why do food stores have more shelves for snacks than for food?
Are cookies, crackers, chips, puffs. pretzels, popcorn, nachos, tortillas, nuts, trail mixers, rice cakes, fruit snacks, granola bars, potato chips, saltines, sunflower seeds, all seeds, poptarts, beef jerkys, kettle corn, biscotti, wafers, cheese sticks, and melba toast really food?
Why are we thrilled when the potato chip bag says only 60 calories per serving but if you read the small print—if you can see the small print—it says one serving is two potato chips.
Have you ever eaten only two potato chips? Especially if you’re alone.
What a thrill when the chocolate chip cookie bag says only 25 calories in one chocolate chip cookie but when you open the bag, one chocolate cookie is the size of a dime.
Why are snacks packaged so you can eat them in your car but you can’t open the plastic bag without a Hacksaw?
When did an apple or a banana cease to be fruit and become a dried snack?
Why do we need popcorn to watch a movie?
Why does every block in Manhattan seem to have a Starbucks, a McDonalds or a BurgerKing? So that we don’t have to walk a block hungry?
Why do they have snacks for sale on the check out lines of TGJ Maxx, Marshall’s, Barnes & Noble, Home Depot, Wegman’s, Walmart, and every store where you have to wait on line to pay?
In case you get hungry while you’re waiting to check out and you can’t wait until you get to the snack you left in the car?
Why am I getting bigger when seats on buses, trains, airplanes, and in theaters are getting smaller?
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and I’d love to hear from you.
About your world, your family, your joys and frustrations, growing up, growing older, even recipes– even though I stopped cooking–by request–years ago.
Goodbye until next time…
Hope your day turns out as well as I hope
(but doubt) mine will,
Gingy (Ilene)
G,
Everybody, I know has a allergy so they can’t eat this or that anymore. I have chosen to eat gluten free now, and my gut feels better n memory is sharper then
When I was clogged up with wheat. The only labels I read are the front of the pkg that says NO GMO, ORGANIC, GLUTEN FREE.
Healthy Hugs
Ar
Maybe this has to do with Second Childhood. Don’t some babies need to be fed every couple of hours? And don’t schoolchildren get a snack in school and then another when they get home? Maybe let’s just enjoy our second childhoods.
Perceptive and hilarious! My husband and I thought the same thing when we discovered pistachio iced pretzels at the gas station convenience store. And those supermarket aisles are definitely bigger, longer and full of more and more choices. I find I eat a proper sized meal, but am still hungry and go for snacks. Working on eating a bigger meal with less snacks. Goal: to eat a proper sized meal with little or no snacks. I can only hope.
Deliciously delightful, Ilene — thanks for consistently enriching our lives with your inimitable brand of mirth.
my daughter sarah used to ask for the last 5 chips if someone offered her chips….
Not eating doesn’t make me hungry …..Eating makes me hungry
I eat breakfast, lunch and from dinner on, there are continual trips to the refrigerator, freezer and microwave.
I love this. It’s so darn true. But the salty potato chips are soooo good. I enjoy everything you share so much! xoxo
When I cook or bake I sample the food as I go along. When I do it this way I make sure I have a lot of food al so I do not hav e to cook every day. However, I still have an appetite to eat every day.. Go figure…..
.
I thought I just submitted a comment, but I don’t see it.
This post is perfect. Funny, and right-on. A wow! Everything you say is soooooooo true. I am thankful I read your blogs. I am deeply thankful I know you.
LOVE, Nancy
I never thought much of cashews until I got older. Luckily, their price kept me from indulging too much UNTIL I discovered the huge tins of cashews at the checkout at our local Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Unfortunately, the tins have the seductive price of about $17.00.
Thanks, Gingy, for sharing your delightful views of life with us.
Love this! I had all my food for the day in a package on the way to work, breakfast, lunch and dinner all packed separately. It was going to be a long day. I looked at it and thought, “Who am i kidding, I could eat the whole thing before I even get to work!”
Then any time I’m bored, tired, angry, go right for the food.
Also getting tired of cooking, would rather read or play scrabble. I make one or two big things and have it all week.
I get these smart cakes by mail, only 38 calories, good for a snack.
https://smart-baking.com/smartcakes/
not a bagel, but only 38 calories, gluten free. XX
Dear Gingy,
You’ve really hit the nail on the head! How do you do it!!
Of course one can always refuse to walk down those snack-filled aisles. . . it’s called avoidance technique.
BTW on a more serious note (I just don’t know how to be funny the way you do )– when I was little my mother always gave us kids little tiny bags of raisins and nuts, in case of emergency cravings. I still do that when I travel, because I hate airport food so much. Maybe the bag isn’t so small now, but then the raisins and nuts keep for days in my handbag.
Thank you for your irrepressible funny bone.
Styra
Love this post. I’ve often asked myself the same questions while fighting the urge to pass this junk by. It seems that the junk food industry and the health industry are working hard to make us poorer and sicker and to make more money for themselves. That is why they all seem to be objecting to the new low carb lifestyles that are becoming prevalent out there. I, for one, am trying very hard to follow them.
Ilene…love this blog! I am showing it today to my TOPS weight loss chapter! If anyone want’s info on TOPS, let me know!!! Non-profit, international, only $32 annually.
Ilene,
I like “if you can see the small print.”
I was walking through Kroger over here in Ann Arbor and noticed rows and rows of candy bars at checkout. When I figure out why they do that, I will write about it. What IS the message in that? I’m having serious sugar cravings and find myself hungry every two hours now. I don’t need the market to help me along.
Much truth in your blog post. Thank you.
Hi Gingi,
Someone just asked me whether I’m more of a cook or a baker and I had to reach back in my memory to when I did both of those things. These days, living alone, the only thing I bake is banana bread so I won’t have to feel guilty about throwing out those blackened bananas and the only times I cook are when my family or close friends come for dinner and I would feel too guilty ordering out.
Congratulations for “Love, Loss, and What I Wore” getting into the new book “1,000 Books to Read before You Die”! I won’t read all 1,000 but I’ll reread yours.
Happy noshing!
Sally