More weird facts about your food

Siegel devotes an entire chapter to breakfast cereal, which leads us to a couple of tasty nuggets: As of 2014, cereal marketed for adults was, on average, 18 percent sugar by weight; cereal marketed for children was, on average, 34 percent sugar by weight.

The worst offender, apparently, was Kellogg’s Honey Smacks, which was more than 55 percent sugar by weight. Kellogg’s has since changed the recipe, so the cereal is now a mere 50 percent sugar.

That doesn’t sound healthy, especially for a product — cereal — that was created to promote good health. Grape Nuts, for instance, was originally promoted as a “scientific health food” that would help cure malaria, heart disease and appendicitis.

I want to conclude with a notion that is less a weird fact than a philosophy, as devised by the Greek sage Epicurus.

Epicurus preferred bland food to dishes that were highly flavored, because he thought that true pleasure could be found in an absence of pain. Simple foods ended the pain of hunger, while luxurious foods made the rest of the world seem bland in comparison.

The concept intrigues me, but I don’t think I agree with it. If the food is good enough, who cares if the rest of the world is bland?