i think every junkfood junkie has a particular food to which they are, quite literally, addicted. i mean those foods that you are powerless to stop eating once you've started. even if your stomach starts to rebel, even if they no longer taste that great, you continue to eat and eat and eat until the bag/box/package is empty.


i actually have more than one, but all of them seem to follow the same nutritional profile: 99.9% sugar, .1% other. also, oddly enough, many of them are almost universally despised.


(1) Junior Mints - ok, i think most people are more or less ambivalent towards junior mints, so this one's not so controversial. nowadays it seems like the "normal" sized box is not enough to satisfy america's manly appetites, so they offer a jumbo movie-sized box as well as a super duper jumbo fatty-sized box. after a couple handfuls, you start to get a little queasy, but the box continues to call out to you until you consume each and every morsel of sugary glop. true story: i used to work near this drugstore that sold REALLY OLD junior mints. they were so old that the mints' typically gooey insides had crystallized into an unclassifiable crumbly, powdery substance. i loved them.


(2) Circus Peanuts - i personally don't know anyone else who enjoys these. admittedly, i only eat them probably once or twice a year myself, but sometimes i get an undeniable craving for artificially-flavored, enormous orange peanut-shaped oddities. maybe my brain is confused by the fact that these basically have the texture of sweet, fluffy air. but one or two is not enough, and i inevitably find myself on the floor, curled in the fetal position, with a sticky, empty bag by my side.


(3) Candy Corn - once again, this is something i don't eat frequently, mainly relegated to the weeks surrounding Halloween. but for me, candy corn is the most egregious example of this phenomenon. i can literally eat a pound of candy corn in one sitting, carefully separating the three colors with my front teeth. the link here is to Brach's, which is not my favorite, due to its slightly gummy texture. give me the cheapo store brand any day of the week.

-jfj