One is the Loneliest Number

I was picking up lunch at the café across from my office, and a basket of apples caught my eye. From about 10 feet away, the fruit looked shiny, waxed beyond perfection. As I got closer, I realized that they weren’t waxy – they were wrapped.

Are we so afraid of germs that we now require our fruit not touch any other pieces of the same fruit? I have an immune system deficiency and pick up other people’s colds like it’s a part-time job, and even I am willing to take my chances on eating naked fruit. Or, you know, wash the apple before I eat it.

However, this isn’t the first time I’ve noticed this trend. A couple years ago I was shopping in Chinatown and strolled over to the nut section, where I found a bag of cashews. Each cashew had been sealed in a cellophane wrapper. The only advantage I could imagine would be portion control. After five or six cashews, I would be like, “This is too much work. I’m tired. No more cashews!”

Still, I think there is is one product that benefits from individually-wrapped portion control.

When I was a kid, I would always see my grandfather eat two stewed prunes and one apricot with breakfast whenever we visited. (Of course, this was before Jaime Lee Curtis clued us in to the miracle of Activia yogurt.) But when I tried them at age six, I was clueless about their, um, positive gastrointestinal side effects. And they tasted wonderful! I dug in…and kept going.

My mom walked into the kitchen, saw me scarfing down stewed prunes, and said, “Um, Nancy? How many of those have you eaten? Let’s just…uh…put those away now.”

So keep your Activia - I'll stick with delicious prunes. Thanks, grandpa!