Chex Mix Up

August 14, 2018 5:46 PM

I just a whole 8.5 oz bag of Chex Mix without noticing.

I was tired and spaced out and ate handfuls and then it was gone. This is after a normal day of eating real food.
I do have health issues already -- easily upset digestive system and am not supposed to eat a lot of sodium because of kidney function issues.
So... I know I should not have eaten this bag. But how weird is this? I have always struggled with intermittent bingeing but I don't normally eat this kind of snack because of healthy/dietary restrictions.
Am I going to feel really ill?

posted by nantucket to Food & Drink (15 answers total)

Response by poster: 8.75 oz, actually.
posted by nantucket at 5:47 PM on August 14, 2018

IANAD but I suggest spending the rest of your evening drinking a lot of water (as long as that's not an issue with your heath concerns). You're looking at something like 1800mg of sodium from a bag that size, so you may end up feeling kinda dehydrated and grody -- 'sodium hangovers' can be a thing from salty snacks. Keep some water by your bedside and expect to drink more water in the morning.
posted by halation at 5:54 PM on August 14, 2018 [9 favorites]

We can't guarantee that it won't set off your particular health issues. But I've totally snarfed that much snack mix before and felt fine.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like you might be judging yourself a bit. I wonder if you can convince yourself to view this as, like, "Here's an opportunity to learn something about my body, maybe it'll suck and maybe it'll be fine and now I'll know" rather than "This was a fuckup that I'm going to deserve to suffer for."
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:55 PM on August 14, 2018 [26 favorites]

Do you feel really ill right now?

It’s not weird. You blew your diet for the day, that’s all. If you find that this type of snack lends to overeating, I would recommend not having them in the house (that’s about the only thing that works for me, at least).
posted by Autumnheart at 5:56 PM on August 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

So basically all snack foods like this are designed to keep you eating. The flavors and textures are specifically engineered to never (or try to never) let you get to the "overloaded" stage; the crunch and salt and crispness and tang are all very precisely calibrated to make another mouthful seem appealing.

Don't beat yourself up. It's no big deal, and the product did what it is designed to do. You might feel kind of bloated from the salt, but that stuff is generally easily digestible simple carbs. If this stuff makes you eat more than you want to eat, don't keep it in the house; or change the situation in which you ate it (in front of computer/TV/book is a great way to not notice what you're eating.)
posted by fingersandtoes at 6:02 PM on August 14, 2018 [11 favorites]

This is not particularly weird. I've eaten waaaaaaaay more junk food than that in one sitting before. I doubt you are going to feel ill although maybe your stomach will be a little unhappy about all that salt for a while—we're talking "mmm, that was not my best decision," though rather than "urgh, I need to go lie down," let alone "hurrrrarrrrggghh*BLARF*." Eating an entire family-size bag of chex mix to yourself is not a great health choice to make on a regular basis, but doing it once doesn't even register.

In fact, this is so minor that I wonder if there isn't
something else in play. Are you prone to anxiety? Do you have a difficult relationship with food in general? If you have something like that going on, I think that that's probably the main issue here rather than the chex mix per se.

But yeah, not weird at all and you are going to be just fine. You can relax.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 6:03 PM on August 14, 2018 [10 favorites]

Best answer: I was in Costco a while back, and a guy walked by with a Costco-size bag of Cheetos and joked that it was a single-serving bag. Eating the whole bag of a snack is so common, it’s practically a trope.
posted by Autumnheart at 6:05 PM on August 14, 2018 [9 favorites]

I'm sure you'll be fine and be kind to yourself. It was a one-time slip up. I do find that I'm much better with this kind of snacking when I put the desired amount into a bowl and eat from that, instead. Eating from the packaging, especially while doing something else like watching TV pretty much guarantees that I'll eat the whole thing. There are pints of ice cream that would have lasted a lot longer had I done that!
posted by acidnova at 6:34 PM on August 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

I did this on Election Night 2012! Chex Mix is designed for mindless eating. It's OK. I realized after the fact that my grandma always put peanuts in her homemade Chex Mix because otherwise it's solely composed of empty carbs you can continue to stuff into your body ad infinitum.
posted by something something at 6:41 PM on August 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

Up your water intake. That’s a lot of salt to take in all at once. Other than that (and maybe a bit of “bleh” feeling in your gut) you’re fine.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:45 PM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

I'm not a healthy person by any means but seriously this happens all the time, to a lot of people. The "serving size" is what they can get away with without scaring people off, it's not like a magical amount that you're supposed to be full from. Drink some water, have a salad tomorrow. Or don't, honestly. This is really not a problem.
posted by masquesoporfavor at 9:55 PM on August 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

I've eaten a bag of Chex Mix in one sitting at an airport when all the restaurants were closed. For some reason it's my go to in those situations - perhaps the cereal aspect makes me think it won't be that bad. Besides a general dryness from too much salt and a less than stellar bowel movement (convenient my flight was delayed!), I suffered no ill effects.
posted by bluefly at 4:23 AM on August 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone! As many of you astutely guessed, this kind of thing does tap into my larger anxiety. I'm still alive... :) thanks for the reassurance. Everyone's answer has been great, and I marked as "best" the one that made me laugh at myself out loud.
Still enjoying the anecdotes and information so please even though there is a best answer feel free to keep it going...
posted by nantucket at 6:38 AM on August 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

This is why they sell that size bag at gas stations and airports in the to-go snack sections-- tons of people treat it as a normal snack portion. Chex Mix is obviously not super great for you so I'd try not to make a habit out of it, but you are by no means weird for doing this.

The can't stop/mindless eating phenomena is why I can't buy a bag of chex mix/chips that is bigger than what I want to immediately eat :(
posted by geegollygosh at 7:48 AM on August 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

I saw that exact size of Chex Mix bag at CVS this morning and that’s well within the range of what most people can eat in one sitting without thinking twice. I think someone eating “in moderation” would measure out 1/3-1/2 bag; the suggested portion size listed on the package seems laughably tiny.

I’ve had bingeing/food issues in the past and two things help me. The first is to remember that processed snack foods are specifically designed to be as delicious and easy to eat as possible, so eating an entire bag of something is just the human snacky-brain doing its thing, not a unique failure of mine. The second is to separate the physical consequences of eating too much snax from the guilt/shame. Feeling bad about what I eat is a totally constructed feeling and doesn’t help me; feeling somewhat ill or tired or gassy is real, and is motivation for me to eat stuff that won’t make me feel that way.
posted by Metroid Baby at 8:52 AM on August 15, 2018 [4 favorites]