Sunday, August 30

#35 - nutrition boost


While walking with a shopping cart in your local grocery store during some off-hour time period, you notice some movement at the end of one of the aisles. Walking over to investigate, you see three whimsically dressed elves trying to get your attention.

You are understandably started by this, but after backing up a bit, you sense that the elves pose no threat. On the contrary, they look as friendly as can be.

The elves tell you that they would like to offer you a gesture of goodwill, as they have been doing to any other customers who have happened to pass in the last hour or so. You are asked to pick a food item. Whatever you choose will from this point forward have the nutritional value of raw broccoli (a serving of your chosen food would contain the vitamins, minerals, and calories found in a serving of broccoli).

The fine print...

This change in nutritional value will apply only to yourself.

Your selection should be a food in its final prepared form (cake) rather than an basic ingredient that would not be consumed on its own (flour). However, something like chocolate chips (that can stand alone as a food item) would work.

Whatever you choose will still fill you in the same way it does today, though overeating it would make you feel like you ate a lot of broccoli.

It should be noted that others may take notice of an increased intake of the chosen food item, leaving you to come up with some sort of explanation.

Broccoli as you know it will be left unaffected.

After hearing the elves explain things, and having your questions answered (resulting in the information listed above), you decide to take them up on their offer. You also figure it would be a good idea to avoid seeming rude, not sure how the elves would take a polite refusal. What food do you ask them to boost?

10 comments:

jo. said...

hmm, my first thought was something meaty, and then i thought about chili cheese fries.. but i think i'd want something that would be something i'd eat regularly, all the time. i'm going to go with fried tofu.

Stephanie said...

i was tempted by a cheese fries as well, but i think i'll go with baked potatoes. yum.

Mike said...

Such responsible choices so far.

I'd pick cookies. Hands down. No doubt. If I could only pick one kind of cookie, then it would be chocolate chip cookies. If people judged me, I wouldn't care... I get to each chocolate chip cookies and get the nutritional value of broccoli!

My second choice would be ice cream. If I had to pick a specific kind, it would be Ben & Jerry's Phish Food. Yum.

I think my third choice would be french fries. I actually don't really like them that much, but they are served with SO MUCH that I think it would add 5 years onto my life...

Seriously, I am sad this is only a thought lab and not reality. If I see any movement in the grocery store, I think I will always be hopeful three whimsical elves appear.

Angela said...

Tiramisu. Or nachos. Or brownies ... This is so hard. I'm gonna go with brownies. I think this is the best thoughtlab ever.

Holly said...

There are several factors that I think would go into my choice - first of all, since broccoli is so healthy, like Mike, I'd definitely want to choose a food that in its current state is pretty horrible for you. Otherwise, I'd only be switching nutrients rather than adding them. Second, I'd probably choose a food that would not be a main course (such as hamburgers, for example), otherwise I'd be losing protein, and, let's face it: eating a ton of raw broccoli could cause some negative side effects, too...

So, that said, I think my choice would be cookies, too. They're just such a perfect food yumminess-wise, why not make them good for you? I don't think I could pick a favorite kind, but there are no bad cookies, really, so maybe I'd turn it back on the elves and have them choose if a choice was necessary.

Unknown said...

I'm with you, Mike. Though I have a weakness also for potato chips so that might be a wise choice. However, if I had to choose only one variety of them it would not be nearly as helpful as chocolate chip cookies or cookies 'n cream ice cream.

Chris said...

Ice cream. If I had to be more specific, vanilla East Coast Custard... or maybe something from Mitchell's.

French fries are also a good choice because, as Mike pointed out, they are served with almost everything.

Matt said...

I think originally I was thinking of some sort of dessert (ice cream, cookies, or brownies), but french fries is a great choice. They're ubiquitous!

But, without the chance to discuss it with others, cookies probably would have gotten the nod. It would turn me into Cookie Monster.

Unknown said...

My initial thought was cheese, because the amount that intake is rather surprising. It's just so wonderful and is usually smothering everything these days, and it's the best thing on crackers, and you can't forget that it is the main ingredient in cheeseCAKE.

The problem, however, is if i have to pick a specific kind of cheese and not just all cheeses. In which case I would like to change my answer to french fries (guilty pleasure #2).

Unknown said...

Woah! This is fantastic! Ice cream please! : )