Variety is the Spice of Life

by Mark R. Vogel

Who would have thought there would come a day when traditional Frosted Flakes would come in a "low sugar" variety? Shall we call them Semi-Frosted Flakes? Something else is flaky in this picture if you ask me.

This entire hodgepodge is the product of the marriage between capitalism and a spoiled populace replete with food neurosis. On the one hand are the food manufacturers endeavoring to create every permutation of their product in an interminable crusade to increase their market share.

So if they add raspberry ice tea to their product line they'll boost sales 2%, and if they add a ginseng tea they'll squeeze out another 1.5%, and if they make caffeine free versions of both they'll get another 2%, on and on ad nauseam.

Ideas for new products however, don't always originate in the mega-corporations' think tanks. As previously alluded to, it is often society's latest food craze that drives producers to jump on the bandwagon and cash in.

First we vilified sugar, then fat, then red meat, then salt, and now carbohydrates. Somewhere in that timeline caffeine became a bad guy too. Subsequently we now have foods that boast "low" or "no" versions of these substances.

Moreover, in addition to identifying the enemies, we sought to ascertain who the heroes were as well. We decided that fiber, whole wheat, beta-carotene, anti-oxidants, and omega-3 fatty acids, among others, wore the white hats.

Consequently the American entrepreneurial spirit met the challenge. Foods that were already naturally high in these nutrients were advertised as such. Foods that were not were either fortified with them or processed in a way to maximize them.

But then a new round of villains appeared. They were not discrete substances but specific food cultivation techniques deemed unhealthy.

Once again, big business responded. Now we have free-range turkeys, hormone free chicken, organically fed cows, farm raised fish, and organic vegetables.

Now you can understand the trend in recent years of increasingly larger supermarkets and the birth of the mega-mart. They need the extra space for all the varieties of these products!

In the end many would argue that it is the consumer that benefits from this process. That we are bestowed with more choices and it's always beneficial to have more options. Well I had every option under the sun but the one I wanted while looking for my Pepsi.

So I went with the no-cal, no-sugar, no-salt, no-caffeine, unflavored Pepsi, otherwise known as water. But of course I had to choose from the spring, mineral, naturally sparkling, purified, or glacial.