I am reviewing the usual short-order options at the breakfast counter and my eye strays over to the lunch board, and I see those magic letters: B, followed by an L, ending with a T. I have to be honest here: I love bacon. Who (among meat eaters) doesn't? It's salty, smoky, sweet, fatty, chewy, crispy... I mean it hits ALL of my major cravings. So I order one. The price is reasonable ($3.99) and and my food-addicted brain reasons "If it's cheap, it's probably small.")
Really, I think food addiction must seize control of the rational parts of the brain, because the voice of reason was totally hijacked by my cravings at that moment. I know for a fact that one of the problems in modern America is out-of-control portion sizes. And *bacon...* well, let's just say I could literally eat bacon ALL DAY LONG. So handing me a giant-sized BLT, with whole strips of bacon spilling out of each end, is the equivalent of trying to soothe a junkie's shaking with a shot of pure H.
Portion control, portion control, I chanted to myself as I walked to the car. I'll have only as much as I know I should, I "reasoned." So I had about half and very, very reluctantly tossed the other half in the trash, despite the suggestion in the back of my mind that I could have the other half later. Even if I could wait, that's still a whole giant BLT in one day, probably upwards of 1200 calories total.
Now that my craving has been satisfied, I can look back more objectively and list the pros and cons of this sandwich.
PRO
It's a LOT of BLT for the money. $3.99 for five thick slices of bacon on huge bread with lettuce and tomato- that is a substantial sandwich, and a great deal.
The bacon was VERY GOOD, as MOST BACON IS.
I ate bacon.
Ok, I that's all I have.
CON
I have lived a half-century, and have a preconception of what a normal slice of bread is. Let's be honest, many people have no idea what a size of slice was the norm until the obesity epidemic began. The answer is the little stuff, probably the smallest "normal" slicing bread one can encounter in the store. Yes, it's still there, the vintage stalwart of normal portions, but you rarely find it in the forms modern consumers demand.
Ironically "artisanal" breads hint at this amount of bread with its various shapes, because they are meant to be served in a variety of ways. Meanwhile the old fashioned sandwich loaf has swelled to twice its former size and then some. Looking at the bread this sandwich was make of, it is verging on two and half times the surface area of old-school sandwich bread. Another disturbing thing about all sandwiches made at this particular store is the bread is very- and I would argue, annoyingly- thick. Why? Well, it's all about value, wouldn't you say? Their pre-made sandwiches look HUGE in the display case. Why, look- it's only $4! For this massive sandwich! What a great use of my hard-earned cash!
But it's not a great use of your cash, because in the end you get fat eating huge sandwiches instead of human-scale sandwiches, and that gets VERY expensive in the long run.
Think of a sandwich as a human being. The size of sandwich you eat is the size of human you are making yourself into. When I was a teenager, I was introduced to grinders for the first time. These were the massive loaf-of-bread submarine sandwiches people who worked in shipyards ate. Their work was grueling, and they expended massive calories. Grinders were delicious and cheap. They NEEDED massive lunches to maintain weight. I remember going to the Sub Shop and barely managing to get through half a sandwich- a 6-inch portion. It seemed like a lot of food that just went on practically forever.
I didn't have myself cryogenically frozen- I have been alive and kicking in subsequent years and have ordered my share of subs. But the last time I went to my favorite joint, I was startled by the realization that nearly everyone was ordering a grinder's worth of food- the whole 12 inches- for themselves. Of course, they could be reserving half for someone else, but how likely is that? Wouldn't you order a separate half for your dining partner? To test my suspicion, I took extra time eating my own lunch, and confirmed that a few people who ate their sandwiches were going right ahead and plowing through the second half.
It doesn't take a PhD to understand why businesses offer value. Who wants to spend unnecessary money? the problem is, these are high, fat, salt and sugary foods that our bodies identify as sources of calories of the very rarest and most precious kind. Every neuron devotes itself to yearning for those foods if they are near, and try to talk us into eating as much of the beast as we can to fatten up for the lean times. The problem is, we don't have any lean times anymore. We don't grind rivets on shipyards- at least not many of us. Most of us sit at desks all day. We don't need the whole grinder. We need the sandwich our parents or grandparents would make us- reasonable portions that just fill us up, not stuff us to the gills.
The other problem with a BLT that I haven't mentioned yet is it's stacked with the salty and fatty sensations that bypass our innate portion control- while at the same time not possessing much in the way of vitally needed nutrients. As long as we don't satisfy that need, we will continue to be hungry until we do. Which means if your regular diet is kid food- burgers and fries and soda- you're probably hungry all of the time. The B in BLT should have probably been BEETS instead of bacon. But what short order place puts beets on a sandwich? Very, very few, and none with prices anyone can afford, like McDonald's.
Obesity is a conspiracy of large-scale food providers and preparers that has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. But what sort of people would imagine rampant obesity in anything other than their nightmares? Something to consider.
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