What, Exactly, is a Serving of Oreos?

Since I last wrote a blog post (yeah, I know it's been awhile) there was Hurricane Irma, a mass shooting and wildfires in Napa.  When I wrote that last blog post, I was sitting in a Florida hotel. A few weeks later everyone had to evacuate that same hotel, a student in my university studying to be a teacher was shot in Las Vegas, and my uncle was evacuated from his home in Napa, California.  It's been a whirlwind. It's been hard to keep perspective.  If three national events could hit home for me, I can only imagine how you are feeling.

So, I did what I do in a crisis. I turned to Oreos. However, before I peeled back the plastic and the scent of chocolate mixed with vegetable shortening combined in some intoxicating formula wafted toward my nose, I did want any normal, hurting person would do. 

I took a poll.

Whenever I start questioning our common humanity, I consult my friends and colleagues who use comfort food to numb out.  That is when I began contemplating the requisite serving size of Oreos to comfort the soul. 

I can bet you've done this at some point of your life.  It may not have been an Oreo, untwisted to expose the cream, waving the cookie and cream concoction beneath your nose before scraping the frosting off with your front teeth.  But, I can bet you've lingered over some food, felt it melt on your tongue, noticed as the taste lingered long after you swallowed to just feel better, to feel some small comfort.

I asked several people how many Oreos make a serving when you need to forget the world for a moment. I found that in general everyone buys a full size package of Oreos when needing to numb. No 100 calorie pack, no single packs from the 7-11. Nope, they pop for the whole package, even if they only three and put the rest in the pantry for the kids to consume after school.

It's funny how we can turn to something so small and trivial to make life seem a little better.   It's also funny how the act of eating an Oreo can make the world OK, just for a moment. Through my poll I found that many people eat Oreos to make things better.  As I asked around I found out that there are at least four more ways to eat an Oreo than I knew about.  There is of course, twisting off the top, dunking in milk, and the straight up bite.  I found out about peeling one apart and eating the chocolate cookie first, throwing away the creme filling to lesson the guilt from the binge, of course that means you can just throw away the cookie and only eat the creme, and stacking them together and make a tiered Oreo bite. 

It was my mentor (a person I have looked to for years to help me find balance in work and life, and who believes, as I do, in the fight to be socially just) who really made me think about the answer to the proper serving size of Oreo cookies.  He said, "Nancy, don't you know there are only three servings in a pack of Oreos?" 

"Just three?" I questioned.

"Yeah," he quipped, "the first row of Oreos, the second row of Oreos and the third row of Oreos. Three servings to a pack;  you are guaranteed to numb out."

Great.  Now, I've got to run out and buy Tums.

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