They Just Can't Leave Well Enough Alone

Every day I come to my office and eat a Cookies 'n Cream-flavored Promax Bar. No matter what I had for breakfast, I get hungry for the Promax Bar as soon as I sit down.

I'm not that creative with meal planning. I've been eating the same kind of Promax Bar every day for a year and the same breakfast for the last 7 years. At least I stopped eating the same kind of Trader Joe's tortellini's for dinner 4 or 5 times a week when Ed started cooking. My actions are backed up by research, however, which shows that people think they prefer a variety of food, but really don't. When researchers asked people to pick out the yogurt/candy bars they wanted for the next week ahead of time, they picked a variety of flavors/types of bars. But when they got to pick what they wanted every day, they tended to always pick the same kind.

So last week Ed brought home a new box of my bars from Trader Joe's and there was new writing on the front: "All-Natural," along with the warning "Note: our white yogurt coating may exhibit minor color variations because we now use all natural ingredients." What???? You can't change the formula on me. If I wanted "all natural" I wouldn't be eating a protein bar, I'd be eating food. The new bars don't taste the same or have the same texture, so I might have to find a new morning office snack. I guess I shouldn't be eating that junk anyway.