Background
Ok so why am I writing this? Well recently I bought some mandarins (imperial mandarins) and I didn’t realize that they were really really cheap until I checked the receipt… how cheap you ask? Well like 1.46 dollars per kilogram cheap. That’s so cheap you can get maybe 12 mandarins for 1.46 dollars depending on the sizes. So anyways, I’m like “These are really delicious mandarins let’s get more”. The next day I go right back to where they were selling these mandarins and guess what, they jacked up the price to 5.60 dollars a kilo. A 383% increase in price, what the heck. I just wanted to get my bargain mandarins :( Straight after that, I see a rip off chocolate egg thing with a toy inside. How much is it? 2.56 dollars. FOR ONE. If you compare that with the cheap mandarins, you could buy a kilo of mandarins that will last you for a week and still have 1.10 dollars left OR you could buy one singular trashy unhealthy chocolate egg with a toy you throw away because you bought it for the chocolate. Uh-huh.
Conundrum
Imagine you are a father of a family of three who is currently working to support this family and are getting 2.56 dollars per week as your salary. Yes that is below minimum wage and yes why would he be continuing this pitiful job if he is getting only this much amount of money, surely he would call the boss and tell him he’s quitting to find a better job. Well in another dimension where this is legal and he has one brain cell, imagine it’s another weekend where you just received your paycheck of 2.56 dollars. You need food right now because you and your family just finished the crumb of moldy bread you found lying in a nearby rubbish bin. So you leave your ten storey mansion and get in your limousine with your personal chauffeur in the drivers seat and head to your supermarket. This supermarket has only one shop called Coolworths which sells only two items. You guessed it, mandarins and chocolate.
They are selling a kilo of mandarins for 1.46 dollars and chocolate eggs with collectable plastic toys in them for 2.56 dollars each. With your 2.56 dollars, you could buy one of the chocolate eggs or 1.75 kilos of mandarins which might be around 20 mandarins (if we stick to the 12 mandarin per kilo of mandarins). Of course you would choose the 2.56 dollars worth of mandarins to feed your family because that’s… wow 3 mandarins per day meaning 1 mandarin per person (because you have 3 people in your family). If you were to choose the chocolate egg which is 20g of chocolate or 20g of chocolate and toy combined, you would have to split the chocolate (let’s say 20g of chocolate) between the three of you and a further 7 times for each day of the week. That is not even a gram of chocolate to satisfy your hunger. Unfortunately you chose the chocolate egg because you have one brain cell and you want to give the plastic toy to your child to make it happy.
But why should you choose the mandarins over the chocolate? Why is it the better option?
Reason #1: Mandarins are Healthier
Mandarins are full of Vitamin C because mandarins are citrus fruits, while chocolate has sugar, fat and carbs galore. Vitamin C which is also known as ascorbic acid (C6H8O6) is an antioxidant, in simple terms, it protects you against a variety of different things such as colds. That means that it could save you from going to the doctors and having to pay the super expensive fees they charge.
Mandarins also have 11 grams of sugar (this would vary depending on the size/variety) while the chocolate eggs contain 52.1 grams (this is more than half!!!) of sugar per 100 grams of each of these items. This could be a very good source of energy if running a marathon but eating 100 grams of the chocolate compared to mandarins is an increased sugar consumption of around 473%. Wow.
Reason #2: Mandarins contain water
At first you might be saying “duhhhh what do you mean π-thagoras you’re so dumb of course mandarins contain water are you the person referenced in the story that has one brain cell”. Well it turns out that mandarins actually are made of 86% water. That’s pretty insane if you only have 2.56 dollars to buy things because mandarins could be your source of food and water, while chocolate doesn’t provide any water so you would be shrivelling up like a prune after a few weeks.
Reason #3: Mandarins taste better
Mandarins can be slightly sour depending on the ripeness and variety of them. The “sweet” spot of the tongue is located at the tip, while the “sour” spot is 3/4 back behind the sweet spot. These spots combined take up around 2/7ths of the tongue. Chocolate on the other hand is only sweet (the chocolate eggs, other chocolate could be bitter). Therefore more of your tongue’s tastebuds are activated when you eat mandarins because of the different ways sweet and sour tastebuds are activated. Anyhow regardless, mandarins taste better.
Note: This is for entertainment purposes not to help you in your next test.