snugger

Reading this post over at Yarnstorm reminded me of one of my pet peeves.

Why, oh why do people label food as wicked? It’s not exclusively used for chocolate (I’ve seen it used in the context of potato wedges in one of our cookbooks, as well as ice cream), but that is most frequently what it’s used for.

Let’s have a look…

According to dictionary.com, wicked is:

1. evil or morally bad in principle or practice; sinful; iniquitous
2. mischievous or playfully malicious
3. distressingly severe, as a storm, wound, or cold
4. unjustifiable; dreadful; beastly
5. Having a bad disposition; ill-natured; mean
6. spiteful; malevolent; vicious
7. extremely troublesome or dangerous
8. unpleasant; foul

With the exception perhaps of number 3, all of those definitions speak to me as describing an animate object (though 4, 7 & 8 could be for both animate and inanimate). Something with a will of it’s own. Last time I checked, neither chocolate nor potato wedges were alive and kicking. Neither were they unpleasant or foul.

Perhaps the term has come into use because it’s common knowledge that if something is bad for you, you will invariably want to have it. Therefore marketing food as wicked means it’ll sell better? I’m not a marketing expert so I wouldn’t know. (Though I also wouldn’t put it past a marketing department to come up with something like that).

Perhaps really, they’re using this definition of the word:

9. Slang. wonderful; great; masterful; deeply satisfying

I have definitely tasted both wedges and chocolate that fall under that description.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure that the majority of the population see it that way. Or perhaps I’m just stuck in an archaic time warp thinking that words don’t change their meaning. Perhaps I really am the only one that hears that food is wicked and think they mean it’s evil.

Whatever the case, let’s assume for the sake of my rant that wicked = evil, and that most people would read it that way. What does that then say? Your food is very naughty. It is making you eat it so that you feel bad. It is making you eat it so that you put on weight when really you don’t want to. It is the axis of evil in your life! You are powerless against the mighty will of the Kit-Kat!

Um. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Your food is inanimate. It cannot make you do anything. If you ignore it you will starve, if you consume too much you will gain weight. If people can sue companies for giving them hot coffee, why not sue companies whose food made them overweight?

Please, don’t take that as a real suggestion.

Ok, and just to make sure you realise I’m a complete nutso about this particular topic, I’m going to introduce a quasi-religious bent to it all. Feel free to wander off now, though it’s almost over, promise. Two of the major chocolate producers here in Australia have in the last year or so introduced a new range to their product lines. One is called ‘Heaven’, and the other ‘Eden’. So we have a product named for the two places on, or off, earth where everything is perfect. As it was intended to be.
But you’ve been led to believe that it’s inherently evil.
Mmm hmm.

This is not a conspiracy theory, I’m just saying that it’s kind of insidious.

Ok, rant over. I believe we have one square of Green & Black’s mint chocolate left in the house. And I believe I’m going to eat it…