100 Calories

What is so magical about a 100 calories? Are consumers being led to think, "Oh, it's only 100 calories. I can eat that."

In an effort to be more fit, I'm watching what I'm eating and trying to get more exercise. (I think until the day I die these edicts will rule my life.) So I'm reading labels and counting calories and carbs. Looking at salt content and comparing protein grams to fats. That in itself is a mental workout. Too bad the baggage I carry at hip level doesn't directly fuel the old mental machinery, but I digress.

For the past week or so the ads with the skinny women enjoying their 100 calories have caught my attention. And I wonder just how much enjoyment they are really getting from their decadent sneak of a snack. First of all in that 100 calorie bag of almonds there is 12 nuts if you're lucky. For me this was a wake up call. I have eaten an entire can while comfortably wrapped in a blanket, reading on the couch. And those new Girl Scout cookies, Cinn-a-spins, you might get 15 teeny tiny cookies per sack. Just enough to get you interested in more. The hundred calorie granola bars are so small they have to inflate the packaging with air so they aren't crushed into a 100 one calorie crumbs. Lo cal chocolate bars are more wax and air than chocolate. After tasting one, I have pretty much sworn off chocolate. That might be a good thing.

In the end, maybe it would be better if we skipped the fancy packaging, and the 100 calorie promises to thinness. After all it would take only 15 packages of Cinn-a-spins for me to passively eat through my recommended caloric intake for one day. That's like eating 15 normally large cookies. I could eat that in the time it takes me to blog about those 100 calorie packages.