I’ve Been Cheeted

I try to eat healthy, but I have my guilty pleasures just like everyone else – and I’m not talking about an occasional piece of home-made cake, I’m talking about real junk food.  I don’t eat a lot of junk food, but I have an occasoinal craving for puffy cheese snacks like Cheetos.  This may be in part because I wasn’t raised in a junk-food house (thankfully) but cheese puffs were something I got at my birthday parties or as a very occasional treat.  I guess it’s sort of a nostalgia thing, and it’s a little embarrassing to admit to now.

So, when I was doing errands recently and found myself suddently starving and faced with the new Cheetos Flamin’ Hot cheese flavored snacks, I decided to try them.  I like spicy food and snacks, and we’ve established that I secretly (not so secretly any more) like Cheetos. 

I may have cured my Cheetos cravings for awhile with this one.  They are seriously bad.  I don’t know what the scary red-colored seasoning on these things is, but it doesn’t taste like any spice that I’ve had before.  It leaves a strong, almost bitter after-taste in your mouth and completely masks any of that fake-cheese flavor of the Cheeto itself (I know, I know, this probably doesn’t seem like a bad thing, but I wanted to taste the Cheetos).  And, for some reason, getting covered in red Cheeto dust seemed worse than getting covered in orange Cheeto dust (some things I just can’t explain).

My other beef with Cheetos is the website, and I guess Frito Lay is to blame for this one.  First off, the Cheetos direct website (which I’m not linking to as it slowed down my computer) looks like a scary video game.  The Frito Lay website looks like a health-food website.  Now, I’ve admitted to liking the occasional Cheeto but I’m not going to try to convince myself that they’re healthy – the snacks have little tag-lines next to them that say things like “Onion Free” and “Trans-Fat Free.”  But, seriously?  Trying to convince people that they’re healthy?  Showing a lady on a bicycle eating Frito Lay snacks does not make them healthy.  (The fact that they’re called cheese-flavored snacks and not cheese snacks should be our first hint).

Oh, well.  At least I won’t be reaching for any Cheetos – orange or red - anytime soon.

Tags: cheese puffs, cheetos, cheetos flamin' hot, Frito Lay, healthy, junk food, spicy