Men Live on Mars Bars

I am sitting here sipping a nice thermos of coffee, entering data, memorizing a poem, trying to write a new one, and munching on a small package of low calorie cookie crackers. They are a sensible snack choice in many ways: sweet, satisfying but not filling, portable, aerodynamic, and of course trendy. So I'm all for snacking smart and all for companies making it easier for ordinary people to make better choices, but if I have to watch another ad like the recent one of a stampeeding herd of women chasing after, overturning, and ransacking a truck carrying 100 calorie cookie packs, then I might just have to start a boycott. And that would be a shame becuase I like the taste, especailly the little lorna doone ones, oh my. But shouldn't we be offended? Are women (only women remember becuase there wasn't a single man in that mob worried about his dress size) really that obsessive and ravenous and crazy when it comes to food? Well, maybe, in a way. Women are repressed eaters. They are allowed small packages of perfectly portioned food, they are told to indulge in premade desserts served in small plastic bowls. They are told in many advertisements not to feel guilty about eating such and such nutritiuos product, which of course implies that women do feel guilty and should feel guilty about everything else they eat. Meanwhile men are still to eat like men and this too is a disservice if it encourages them to eat more than is healthy. But these marketers know what they are doing clearly by tapping into the seemingly ancient ideas of the ways men and women should eat. I'd like to think that as the organic natural health food craze slowly takes over ideas about food will level off, but I fear that the indulgence of sweet things like chocolate will become shameful and thus secret and only done in miniature sized cubes made from a sugar free coco like powder. I think it would be better if both men and women were allowed to realize there is a balance to everything and that bad greasy food stuffed with peanut butter ripples can be off-set and deserved when paired with fruits and vegetables.