T.G.I. didn’t throw up

As I carefully scanned the ingredients list on the back of a packet of T.G.I. Friday’s Cheddar and Bacon Flavoured Potato Skins Snack Chips to make sure they were vegetarian, I couldn’t help but feel like a bit of an idiot.

People tend to want to know why someone who they’ve just discovered is a vegetarian came to make that particular choice. I’ve had that conversation hundreds of times, and frankly, I’m happy to keep on doing it. In my experience, yes, a handful of the most persistent people just can’t accept the fact that you’ve made a decision they can’t agree with. But most of the really inquisitive people I get to speak to are on the fence themselves, and I’m happy to give them the indirect encouragement they might need.

But when it comes to “health reasons,” which is one of the most common assumptions people tend to make, I guess I can’t claim any high ground. Sure, the vegetarian lifestyle is generally more healthy, provided you do it right, but that doesn’t mean you can’t occasionally make a few perfectly acceptable but nonetheless unhealthy decisions.

I mean, look at these ingredients! Potato and/or tapioca starch? Unspecified cultures and enzymes? Yellow 6 lake, whatever the carcinogenic hell that is? I’m surprised I’m not seeing “that fat substitute from the nineties that shattered America’s bowels, even now, in the age of Obama, if you can believe it” among the rest of this filth!

And you know what? That’s what I get. I’ll be the first to admit that I bought this snack for comic value as much as anything else. So basically, my own fault, right?

Posted in Uncategorized