Doritos: Then and Now

I was just reading a blurb in "Food and Wine" magazine about a Portuguese-born chef taking London by storm. The article asks this young star, Nuno Mendes, about his earliest memory of food.

The question captured my imagination...I wondered if I could recall my earliest food memory. I am quite certain my earliest food memory was one of the divine coddled eggs my mother used to make me when I was getting on to solid food as a tot, but I also quite vividly remember Doritos.

This was the early seventies and Doritos were relatively new on the snack food scene, having been introduced in the mid-1960's. Someone bought or brought Doritos to one of my parent's parties and I saw my older sister munching on them. I wanted to copy my big sis, and took one myself. I remember asking what these crispy things were, so foreign were they to my young palate. They were like kiddie crack, and I was probably on the verge of shoveling too many in my mouth at one time when my mother took them away. "That's enough," my mother said. I don't think I saw Doritos again until my teenage years, when all the kids had them at parties or barbecues.

My mom did not buy Doritos. Or soda pop. Or cereal with sugar. Potato chips were only ever on the premises for big parties. Peanut butter was a rare condiment, not a sandwich staple. Chicken nuggets either had not been invented or they were not allowed. Going to McDonald's was a semi-annual event to be savored like Christmas morning. Even pizza was a very rare treat, a very special delicacy reserved especially for sleepover parties.

And...get this...we were not health nuts. Good heavens, no. We didn't take chewable vitamins. Or sprinkle things with Brewer's yeast. Or (gasp!)embrace vegetarianism. We were just forbidden CRAP. When someone (often a parent) had gone to the trouble of creating a reasonably wholesome meal, it was an unforgivable insult to fill up on junk instead.

I am certain that most of my school friends' parents had similar standards. Due to those relatively healthy standards and the execution of the 1970's mother's mantra ("Go play outside, will you?") most of my school friends had the lean, muscular legs of first-year racehorses.

Fast forward to the present: childhood obesity is a national health crisis.

I think the difference is that kids have Doritos all the time now. Sugared cereal is many people's idea of "a good breakfast" (it says 'fortified' on the box, doesn't it??) Peanut butter (or Sunbutter) is the only sandwich many children know. Chicken Nuggets are considered a childhood classic. Pizza and the drive-through fall into many families' schedules at least once a week.

Many of us who are of parental age DO remember different health/food standards. I implore everyone to think of some creative ways to return to those arguably better standards.
We are busier than we used to be. It is really hard. But this is the national health of an entire generation. It is, quite literally, the future.

Wouldn't it be nice if your kids could remember Doritos as a one-off special treat rather than the regular snack they munched on every day after school before retiring to the Wii???