Why We Like Mini-Treats

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Brian Wansink, Professor and psychology researcher at Cornell, recently commented on an article in the New York Times about why we're so obsessed with mini-desserts: mini-cupcakes, cannolis, macaroons, and the like, positing that “Smaller treats give people license to eat it all, which is a very powerful thing,” he said. “Psychologically, it’s exciting and comforting.” Basically, we're more satisfied by eating something miniature and unhealthy, than less energy dense and healthier, not to mention we don't feel as guilty about it (even if we eat 5).

Full disclosure: it's Halloween time and my eyes widen whenever I see those little Snickers or the mini Reeses peanut-butter cups. The same craving does not bestow itself upon me when I see the normal sized candy bars checking out at Duane Reade. Plus they're cute, and you can lose track of how many you eat, it was probably about 3, right? Yup.

My critique: mini-cupcakes. I'm so over this fad. It's just CAKE. That's all. But now I get it. All of those people whose brains have convinced themselves they don't eat cake get a free pass when it comes to cupcakes. 

I'm rooting for the macaroon market. 

The Door to the Secret Garden

The violin has elicited nostalgia that cannot be expressed through words but I am going to make an attempt: In a dream I had last night I felt like I was walking through the door to a secret garden, into a thought process hidden away for years, only to find myself in an odd space between my consciousness during youth and the current frame of mind. It felt like one of those dreams where you find a secret room in your apartment that you never knew was there, and the discovery is exhilarating. I was 12 again. Navigating my peers, and seeing them through the lens of my innervating and sprouting ego. I was 12, but I was 25, at the same time. I saw that deep inner me again. I was interacting with friends, I was seeing myself with old classmates, trying to insert myself in conversation, my 25 year-old self was asking my 12 year-old self, have any of those traits expressed then carried over to now?

I remembered the feeling of 12, the almost constant state of question marks and the noticeable distance from those older and wiser. Now that gap is narrowing, yet my brain can still bring me back to that moment, to that uneasy but unburdened state of the youth, not knowing how to act and how to respond, but not having to know. Contently treading the waters and enjoying the water temperature. Nostalgia is an understatement, feeling presence of the inner me was opening a locked door to a garden of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen.

Happy Food Day NYC!

 

Today, Mayor Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Gibbs, Health Commissioner Farley, HRA Commissioner Doar and Food Policy Coordinator Kim Kessler commemorated the first inaugural Food Day. "Eat an Apple" declared the Mayor, standing at the Steinway stop in Queens and handing out free apples to passers by.

Official NYC Press Release

CBS Coverage

Crain's New York Business Coverage of Mayor's Commemoration of Food Day

New York 1 Coverage of Bloomberg Handing Out Apples

Official NYC Food Website

NYC Food Tumbler