Little Debbies, the horrors of nutritional hell

Every week, usually on Saturdays, I spend an afternoon with my Mom.  Mostly we sit and talk about trivial things since both our politics and religious beliefs are at odds.  There is always freshly brewed coffee and a snack, which on some occasions she will have baked.  Mostly, however, she brings out the Little Debbies.  You know what I'm talking about, those snack cakes and cookies from hell.  To be honest, the word cake should not be used because the spongy substance Little Debbie calls cake is anything but cake.  She usually provides a choice, either Nutty Bars or Swiss Rolls.  Out of politeness I always eat one, two serving pack.  If I didn't she would ask "is there something wrong?" in the tone of voice she uses on those rare moments when politics or religion make it briefly into our conversation.

If I were to point out the Nutty Bars she was offering contained absolutely no nutritional value she would counter with "they're not supposed to be nutritional, they're supposed to taste good."  This means I mute my opinion.  If you were to check out their nutritional value on line, as I did, you would discover they contain a lot of sugars and fats and that's about it, no minerals (except for salt) and no vitamins.  As for their tasting good, I can't agree with that either.  When you make about 2 million a day you can't be bothered by a little thing called flavor.  Personally, I don't think there are very many people  out there who savor their Little Debbies.  No, I suspect it's more of a conditioned response: see it, unwrap it, and wolf the damn thing down.  When my Mom serves Swiss Rolls each one gets two bites.   The faint hint of chocolate left in my mouth must be artificial.  I don't really worry that much since one Little Debbie every weeks is not going to send me spiraling down into nutritional hell.

There are, unfortunately, people out there who eat them all the time.  Take a look at some of the supermarket carts you pass when you do you next grocery shopping.  There are carts with two, and three, and four boxes of Little Debbies.  People pack them in their lunches, and eat them for snacks when they get home from school, and they do this every day.  My Mom has a snack drawer filled with Little Debbies, and she replenishes it regularly.  Me, I try to avoid putting garbage in my mouth.  But then I think about my diet.  There's a lot of truth in that saying you are what you eat.  The real question is:  are you a Swiss Roll or a Nutty Bar?