Consuming Interest
Unfood for Thought
By LESLIE ADRIAN 'CONSUMING INTEREST'S' agent in the US has just come through with yvhatl take to be a warning about the latest fad there: described by a writer in the Reporter (which I am glad to see is nourishingly mightily, re- butting the notion that journals of opinion can- 4Si'S not flourish in that climate) as 'the non-pro- ducts: The trend began with Metrecal (Metercal, here), and has now produced a shoal of other no-food foods which my correspondent likens to the sucker fish on the flanks of a shark.
The whole emphasis, now, is not on nourish- ment but on the lack of it. Tinned fruit, to be dietetic (the vogue word), is sweetened not with Sugar but with 'non-nutritional cyclamate cal- calm.--Saccharine (by any other name you Slenderella has introduced low-calorie lams, apple, grape and strawberry. There is a '44:aryl-sweetened dietetic cranberry sauce by Ocean Spray; and an orange marmalade by Louis Sherry which, the makers boast, contains only 1 to 1.5 calories- per teaspoonful. Jello--- even Jello--have caught the contagion : they have produced a low-calorie pudding coyly named D-Zerta, with imitation vanilla, raspberry and lime flavouring. And there is a non-fattening salad dressing marketed under the name Diet's .Delight.
There was a time when the object of calling cream cream was to ensure that no substitute lacking cream's nutritive qualities would be in- flicted on the public. If--as this trend suggests— cream is going to become a rude word because of its nutritive qualities, I give up.
My correspondent sounds another warning, but I fear it is one which need not lose us any sleep. Having perfected a system whereby it is possible to dial direct any part of the US from any other part, the telephone people there are understand- ably anxious to tap new markets; and they have devised a Princess plug-in phone for teenagers, in pink, blue or gold, with a small, lightweight receiver designed for interminable conversa- tions, and with a built-in night-light, presumably designed for dialling in the dark. What happens then, apparently, is that the telephone company leave the parents alone for a decent interval after the Princess is installed in the teenager's room; and then return to suggest to the parents that as their telephone seems to be continually engaged, would they like a second line? By this time, they would. But 1 somehow feel it will be many years before the poor old GPO catches up with the demand here for single lines, and can spare the time to meet teenage demand.
But there are some good new ideas on the US market. Johnson's, the baby-powder people, are selling special children's band-aids, with gay circus animals and clowns in bright colours painted on the outer and visible side; children clamour to wear them, and they reduce the traumatic effect of the sight of broken skin and flowing blood. And Drente' have brought out an electric shoe-polisher that is no more difficult to install than an electric shaver, consisting of a couple of bristle brushes on a spinning steel cylinder, with enough space between brushes and floor for the insertion of a shoe.
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