If Nature Drank Soda...

In yet another round of food industry semantics, PepsiCo has reformulated their lemon-lime soda Sierra Mist as Sierra Mist Natural.  In response to market research claiming consumers are more likely to buy "natural" foods and beverages, PepsiCo has changed the Sierra Mist formula, eliminating high fructose corn syrup as well as chemical preservatives, reducing the beverage to "five simple ingredients and nothing artificial".  In fact, their new ad campaign (into which PepsiCo has put an undisclosed dollar amount equivalent to a "full year's worth of media investment"...which, lets face it, is probably a TON of money) features "nature" discussing its cravings for the drink, followed by the tag line, "The soda nature would drink if nature drank soda". 

Blatant anthropomorphism aside, this seems the most recent example of big food business playing off consumers' assumption that "natural" equates with "healthful".  In fact, eight fluid ounces of Sierra Mist Natural contains 25 grams of "real" sugar (the original Sierra Mist had 26 grams of high fructose corn syrup) which equates to over 75% of the USDA's allowance for discretionary calories from added sugars (assuming a 2,000 calorie per day diet).  What is "real" sugar? Most likely a blend between cane and beet sugar, although the "real" just supplies consumers with another syntactical stumbling block (or mental comfort--"real" standing as a value judgment for "good").

Speaking of fun food industry word games, the Corn Refiners Association is petitioning the Food and Drug Administration to change the name of high fructose corn syrup to something that the American public doesn't equate with "unhealthful evil,"  namely the much more benign "corn sugar".  Essentially, the corn industry is worried that we consumers have realized that the huge amounts of added sugar they put in everything aren't necessarily good for us; they think if they can use some fancy footwork they will effectively pull the wool back over our eyes by disguising added sugars under the much nicer name of corn sugar (corn, after all, is natural).  The scary thing is, they are probably right.

NYC or bust!

After another Time Warner internet snafu (put them on the list of things I don't love about NYC) and a lovely month on the West Coast (which I still personally feel is the best coast but I'm working on my bias) I'm back in New York and ready for fall.  Had you asked me in August what I love about NYC I would have been hard-pressed for an answer...the humidity gets to me--I don't do well in it and don't pretend otherwise.  The city is sticky, smelly and generally overrun with confused tourists and the disgruntled locals who lack Hampton-getaways.  But this last week running around getting ready for school, watching the city refill with the post-labor day rush of New Yorkers working back into their city routines I have to admit, I too heart NYC.

They say that culture is so ingrained in our everyday lives, such an integral part of how we live, breathe and eat that we are hard-pressed to observe it from within.  Within classical genres of academia the study of foreign cultures is a fine balance between "going native" and maintaining the objective eye.  It's the minutiae, the tiny details you don't realize that define your role within (or outside of) a culture.  Die hard West Coaster that I am, I could swear up and down until I'm blue in the face that I will never succumb to being a "New Yorker" but that would be a lie...it's rubbing off.  Here are three things I forgot I loved about NYC:

1) Bagels.  This is kind of a no-brainer--you don't have to be a New Yorker to love a good bagel.  In fact, you can get them anywhere in the world so what makes NY bagels special? They're big, they're doughy, and if you ask a bagel-purist to toast it for you they will scoff at you as if you are from Nowheresville, Nebraska and not the apartment upstairs.  Thick with cream cheese or as the ubiquitous breakfast sandwich bagels are one of NYCs great contributions to Americana.  Trust me, they are just better here.  

2) Jay-walking. I didn't realize until I came back but I never press the crosswalk buttons here...why? Because most intersections don't have them (and for those that do, the buttons are decorative pedestrian placaters)! Lights are timed, crossing is on-the-light or as-you-dare.  You have to admit it's slightly more sanitary that pushing buttons touched by who knows how many overeager kiddos and impatient elderly. (Begs the interesting question: are crosswalk buttons at all effective in the age of computer-controlled traffic signals or do they exist merely to satisfy some primal urge to exert control over our environment?)

3) Street-music.  Nothing like being serenaded by the orchestral sounds of Metro buses, taxi horns, FDNY sirens and subway saxophones.  It can be loud and obnoxious but it is easy to forget how enjoyable it is to sit in Washington Square Park and listen to impromptu street shows while the city whirs by.  Welcome back and welcome home indeed!