Reflections on Snacks

Everyone notices how large Americans are when they return to the U.S. from Japan.  That's a given.  We hear about it all the time in the news media, and tackling obesity is one of the priorities of the Obama administration. 


That said, it's pretty different experience to watch Michelle Obama cut the ribbon of a new grocery store opening in North Philly than it is to reenter this country after living for 3 months among a NATION of fit, physically active, seasonal fruit and vegetable lovers.  Things just come more sharply into focus when you, as a 5'2" healthy gal qualifies as a land whale.  It's uncomfortable, it's undeniable, and it's an experience that's familiar to many who have traveled from the States to Japan.

This time, however, my observation didn't just stop at our collective girth.  One of the things I noticed first (and keenly missed!) was the wide availability of inexpensive (between $.50 and $1 per item) snack foods that included things like:

• calorie AND nutrition dense snacks (ex: rice balls wrapped in seaweed with broiled salmon tucked inside, vegetable or nut-based cakes and sweets)
• nutrition AND calorie devoid snacks (ex: Japanese equivalents of goldfish, cheetos and potato chips that are just as tasty but have half the calories)
• low sugar, low fat drinks (ex: juicebox milk, 100% fruit juice, an array of sugarless teas, small cans of lightly sweetened coffee, soft drinks that rely on flavorings other than sugar to create taste)
• small portion sizes of all of these snacks

I find myself craving a bottle of jasmine tea or a quick fix snack that will make me feel like I've eaten something that makes it easier to go about my day instead of something that makes it harder to go about my day.  In the U.S., I'm having to make these snacks myself, by planning a day ahead and brewing iced tea, prepackaging hummus and veggies, slicing fruit, or dividing a large bag of pretzels into smaller serving sizes.  That's all fine and well, if you have the time and the motivation to do these preparations, but it makes it difficult to get hungry and have to scrounge for food that won't have you sugar crashing or getting a salt headache in 30 minutes.  It's my opinion that it's worth making eating healthy an easy process.  Part of this involves making healthy, inexpensive snacks widely available and the norm instead of gourmet food for the few of us who qualify as health conscious.

In my first afternoons back in the States, here are some of the options I've found when snack-hunting:

• Huge sodas and huge bags of chips that aren't supposed to be consumed all at once but inevitably are.
• 500+ calorie baked goods at coffee shops.
• Equally calorie laden blended coffee and fruit drinks.
• No other tastes besides very salty and very sweet.
• High calorie snacks like protein bars, trail mix and granola products that are were (I think) originally intended for very active people to supplement their diet with a lot of calories really quickly.
• Sad, out of season, apples and oranges that taste like cardboard and look like they're displayed primarily to make people feel better about their purchases rather than to actually be consumed.

Anyway, just a few thoughts to share....  Photos of some of my favorite snacks to share below!