大量的食物是由我們流行的零食推動(dòng)的

大量的食物是由我們流行的零食推動(dòng)的

Snack companies are doing well these days. The pandemic has brought an unexpected boost to sales of products that, prior to March, had taken a downturn. Bags of chips, boxes of cookies, ice cream, and other sweet and salty prepackaged snacks are suddenly flying off store shelves – and being restocked just as fast by employees who work for the companies that make them, known as "direct store distribution agents."

這些日子零食公司經(jīng)營(yíng)得很好。在今年3月之前，流感大流行曾一度低迷，但這次卻出乎意料地提振了這些產(chǎn)品的銷售。袋裝的薯片、盒裝的餅干、冰淇淋和其他甜咸的預(yù)先包裝的零食突然從商店的貨架上飛了下來(lái)，并且由生產(chǎn)這些零食的公司的員工以“商店直銷代理商”的速度重新進(jìn)貨。

Writing for the New York Times, Michael Moss reports that the pandemic has turned our kitchens into one big vending machine. "We may think that we turned a corner on our eating habits with all that sourdough baking we did, but Big Food isn’t about to let us off its hook that easily."

在《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》的一篇文章中，邁克爾·莫斯報(bào)道說(shuō)，這種流行病已經(jīng)把我們的廚房變成了一臺(tái)大型自動(dòng)售貨機(jī)。“我們可能認(rèn)為，我們的飲食習(xí)慣因?yàn)樽隽四敲炊嘟湍负姹憾霈F(xiàn)了轉(zhuǎn)機(jī)，但‘大食品’不會(huì)那么輕易地讓我們擺脫困境。”

LauriPatterson / Getty Images

A sales report issued this spring to Wall Street analysts found that the future is rosy for junk food snacks. The CEO of Mondelez International said, "In-home there is more grazing, more continuous eating, and snacking takes up a much bigger role." Not good news for our waistlines...

今年春天華爾街分析師發(fā)布的一份銷售報(bào)告顯示，垃圾食品零食的前景一片光明。億滋國(guó)際的首席執(zhí)行官說(shuō):“在家有更多的時(shí)間，更多的持續(xù)進(jìn)食，零食占據(jù)了更大的角色。”這對(duì)我們的腰圍來(lái)說(shuō)可不是什么好消息……

What's driving the change?

是什么推動(dòng)了這種變化?

There are a number of factors, not least of which is the obvious fact that we're all at home a lot more than usual and likely feeling less pressured to eat salad, rather than Oreos. There are strong emotions associated with life in lockdown, and food can be comforting; it creates a sense of normalcy. Apparently there's also surging curiosity about new products: "More than 40 percent of the soaring sales in Fig Newtons and Nutter Butter cookies came from first-time buyers."

有很多因素，其中最明顯的一個(gè)事實(shí)是，我們都比平時(shí)在家的時(shí)間長(zhǎng)，吃沙拉比吃?shī)W利奧的壓力更小。在禁閉的生活中會(huì)產(chǎn)生強(qiáng)烈的情感，食物可以安慰人;它創(chuàng)造了一種正常的感覺(jué)。顯然，人們對(duì)新產(chǎn)品的好奇心也在飆升:“Fig Newtons和Nutter黃油曲奇銷量飆升，其中超過(guò)40%來(lái)自首次購(gòu)買者。”

Not mentioned in Moss's article, but certainly experienced by myself, a parent who's working from home like so many others, is the endless struggle to keep children fed throughout the day. Pre-COVID, I'd send them off to school with a fully packed healthy lunch and wouldn't have to worry about food-related demands between 9 am and 4 pm. Now, the requests for snacks come at all hours of the workday, so I can understand why parents would have a sudden urge to stock up on fast, easy-to-distribute snacks.

莫斯的文章中沒(méi)有提到，作為一個(gè)在家工作的父母，我和其他很多人一樣，每天都要為孩子們吃飯而無(wú)休止地掙扎。在考維德之前，我會(huì)給孩子們準(zhǔn)備一份完整的健康午餐，這樣他們就不用擔(dān)心早上9點(diǎn)到下午4點(diǎn)之間的食物需求了。現(xiàn)在，零食的需求在工作日的任何時(shí)候都有，所以我可以理解為什么父母會(huì)突然有一種沖動(dòng)，去儲(chǔ)備快速、易于分發(fā)的零食。

Life in lockdown can be profoundly boring at times, so I imagine many people are purchasing special treats as a way to make things feel more exciting at home. I know I do this, buying a single bag of Miss Vickie's Sweet Chili and Sour Cream chips (a.k.a. the greatest flavor ever) every Friday night to eat during a weekly Scrabble game with my husband. We just completed our 16th consecutive week of playing, which means 16 bags of chips that I never would've bought otherwise.

“閉關(guān)鎖國(guó)”的生活有時(shí)會(huì)非常無(wú)聊，所以我想很多人會(huì)買一些特別的東西，讓家里的東西更刺激。我知道我會(huì)這樣做，每周五晚上我都會(huì)買一袋維姬小姐的甜辣椒酸奶油薯片(也被稱為史上最棒的口味)，和我丈夫在每周的拼字游戲中一起吃。我們剛剛完成了連續(xù)第16周的比賽，這意味著16袋籌碼，否則我是不會(huì)買的。

A commenter on Moss's article raised the topic of nostalgia, and how she, too, has found herself buying treats she never usually buys, likely because all of these are associated with her childhood. "I had noticed myself getting nostalgic in the supermarket, but hadn't connected it to a broader trend or to the pandemic." It's an interesting point that could be linked to purchasing trends, too.

一位評(píng)論者在莫斯的文章中提到了懷舊的話題，以及她是如何發(fā)現(xiàn)自己也會(huì)買一些她從不買的東西，可能是因?yàn)樗羞@些都和她的童年有關(guān)。“我注意到自己在超市里開(kāi)始懷舊，但并沒(méi)有把它和更廣泛的趨勢(shì)或流行病聯(lián)系起來(lái)。”這是一個(gè)有趣的觀點(diǎn)，也可能與購(gòu)買趨勢(shì)有關(guān)。

Regardless of why we're doing it, Moss wants people to realize that Big Food will be pulling out all the stops to keep this momentum going. Whether it's through more invasive advertising and engaging social media platforms, fiercer competition for shelf space, expansion into new markets, spinning products as healthier than they are, or presenting us with tricky situations that force us to buy things we don't need (think of the full online shopping cart that requires only an extra $5 to qualify for free shipping), we should prepare to be bombarded.

不管我們?yōu)槭裁匆@樣做，莫斯希望人們意識(shí)到，大型食品將竭盡全力保持這一勢(shì)頭。無(wú)論是通過(guò)更多侵入性廣告和吸引人的社交媒體平臺(tái),激烈競(jìng)爭(zhēng)貨架空間,拓展新市場(chǎng),紡紗產(chǎn)品比他們更健康,或展示我們棘手情況迫使我們?nèi)ベI我們不需要的東西(認(rèn)為完整的在線購(gòu)物車只需要一個(gè)額外的5美元,免費(fèi)送貨),我們應(yīng)該準(zhǔn)備轟炸。

Food guilt is never a good thing, and there's no point being hard on ourselves for decadent pandemic habits, but the key is not to fall back into those habits permanently. Processed, prepackaged snack foods should remain in the treats-only realm and not become a regular part of our daily diets. The easiest way to do this is not portion control, as the companies love to proclaim ("Take a pause between each bite [of Oreo], check in with yourself, and ask, 'Am I still hungry?'"), but simply not to buy.

對(duì)食物感到內(nèi)疚從來(lái)都不是一件好事，而且我們也沒(méi)有必要為墮落的流行習(xí)慣而苛責(zé)自己，但關(guān)鍵是不要永遠(yuǎn)回到那些習(xí)慣中去。加工過(guò)的、預(yù)先包裝好的零食應(yīng)該在治療范圍內(nèi)，而不應(yīng)該成為我們?nèi)粘ｏ嬍车囊徊糠帧Ｒ龅竭@一點(diǎn)，最簡(jiǎn)單的方法不是控制分量，就像這些公司喜歡宣稱的那樣(“每次吃?shī)W利奧的時(shí)候停下來(lái)，問(wèn)問(wèn)自己，‘我還餓嗎?’”)，而只是不買。