food packaging

so... chilean food isn't exactly good for you. this of course, excludes fruits and vegetables of chilean origin. but i mean.. the FOOD... the empanadas, breads, sweets, candy, hotdogs, fried dough with sauce (sopaipillas) and greasy beef sandwiches. there's also a ton of packaged items. they sell these twinkie-like things with either chocolate or vanilla frosting. they have bags and bags of different chips and salty sweets. they have like 15 different kinds of chocolate (chocolates bars, truffles, bonbons, alfajors), sugary candies like gum drops, different flavored marshmallows, jordan almonds, hard candies, candied nuts (did you know the guys who do the nuts 4 nuts stands in nyc are chilean?), brownies, manjar or marmelade stuffed donuts.... the list goes on...

you know how you look at a package of chips while you're eating them in new york and they say they were made in seattle? well i got used to expect that sort of thing in the states. half the reason why packaged food has a bad rep and you can convince yourself it's gross. in chile though, you might look at your bag of chips and realize it was packaged only a few miles away or in a town two hours away. does it mean this stuff has less preservatives? no. does it mean it's any better for you? i'm sure not. does it convince you that it's not completely gross and almost kind of desirable? kind of... and that's the scary part.