Welcome to the home of Noah Brier. I'm the co-founder of Variance and general internet tinkerer. Most of my writing these days is happening over at Why is this interesting?, a daily email full of interesting stuff. This site has been around since 2004. Feel free to get in touch. Good places to get started are my Framework of the Day posts or my favorite books and podcasts. Get in touch.

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Food is Too Easy

Consumerology has some interesting thoughts on what the real causes of American obesity may be. Especially interesting to me was this point about the ease of preparing meals:

As the cost associated with food preparation drops, the number of meals (i.e., snacks) increases and the type of meal shifts.  (I wrote about this earlier this year.)  Microwave ovens make it easier to eat popcorn (or worse), so we do.  Frozen tater tots are a snap as a side dish with that meat loaf but not worth the effort if you have to make them from scratch.  If you think this is hooey, consider this: nature’s ready-made snacks are fruits and veggies.  Better food preparation technologies have made it just as easy to open a bag of chips as to peel a banana.

December 26, 2009