The rhythms of our days may never be the same.
There was a time, if you can believe it when a respectable person could not have a little treat whenever she wanted. This time was, roughly, from the dawn of the republic to the middle of the 1980s. The American workday, menu, and social clock were oriented around meals, and eating between them was discouraged: If you were a child, snacking gave you cavities and spoiled your appetite; if you were an adult, it was kind of unseemly. There were no elaborate treats after soccer practice, snack trays on strollers, or tubes of yogurt. Energy bars were for athletes, not accountants. National parks did not have vending machines. Grocery stores did not have aisles and aisles of portable abundance. The phrases girl dinner and new flavor drop were totally nonsensical, instead of just a bit nonsensical. Libraries, classrooms, cubicles, and theaters were, generally, where you read, learned, worked, and saw La bohème—but definitely did not eat.
Some 40 years later, we are not just eating between meals; we are abandoning them entirely. In the three decades leading up to 2008, the average American doubled their daily snack intake, and the percentage of adults snacking on any given day rose from 59 percent to 90 percent, according to a comprehensive government report. In the most recent iteration of the same study, which ended in 2020 before the pandemic, that number rose again, to 95 percent; more than half of respondents said they consumed at least three snacks a day. According to a survey released earlier this year by the international snack-food conglomerate Mondelēz International, in conjunction with the Harris Poll, six in 10 consumers prefer snacking over traditional meals. The trend will probably persist: Younger people are significantly more likely than older ones to report skipping meals,
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