Squeezable tubes of yogurt snuck up on me so fast I didn&8217;t see it coming.

But according to a recent Associated Press article, that&8217;s exactly the point &8212; that our food be faster to prepare and consume than ever before.

It cites frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches among the products that, apparently, have found a market among people who don&8217;t have time to pick up a jelly knife but do have the time to operate a microwave.

And I thought we had gone to Hades in a handbasket when those breakfast T.V. dinners with scrambled eggs and sausage started appearing in the freezer case. I mean, how long does it take to scramble an egg? Think about it.

Even my husband, who doesn&8217;t mind taking the time to construct the perfect sandwich, has given in to the lure of soup in heat-and-go containers.

One of my all-time favorite quotes is featured in the same article.

Kara Romanow, a consumer products analyst at AMR Research in Boston, explains that ultra-convenience foods are all about our need to have it right now, whatever &8220;it&8221; happens to be.

&8220;If you can have spray butter,&8221; she said, &8220;isn&8217;t that better than having to cut butter and melt it before you use it?&8221;

That&8217;s definitely a sign of the demise of a civilization. I think Rome had spray butter just before it fell.

Now as anyone who knows me will tell you, I have been, up until right recently, the queen of foods you can eat in 15 minutes in your car or at your desk.

But &8212; doctor&8217;s orders &8212; I&8217;ve had to carefully balance my diet, which means, horror of horrors, that I must actually use my stove. That appliance must feel, all of a sudden, so loved. We never talked any more.

And I&8217;ve realized something &8212; that in addition to being more healthy, meals and snacks we must actually put some thought, time and effort into preparing force us to slow down, at least somewhat.

Maybe that&8217;s what&8217;s wrong with this whole picture. We&8217;ve become so busy in our daily lives that we can&8217;t stop to make a sandwich. Now that&8217;s just crazy.

While I&8217;m not a big cooking fan &8212; never has been my hobby of choice &8212; I can appreciate that it&8217;s something many folks genuinely enjoy.

For them, the very rituals of selecting, preparing and presenting foods is a joy in itself. Convenience foods would be the antithesis of that.

And fast food doesn&8217;t hold a candle, taste- or nutrition-wise, to Grandma&8217;s stew recipe.

Ultra-convenience foods are nutritionally bankrupt, with a few being pumped full of added vitamins and minerals to compensate.

As the AP article pointed out, these space-age foods often cost significantly more on the store shelves than other, more natural foods.

And as a soon-to-be mom, I worry that children are acquiring a taste for these foods that may supplant their taste for more natural, slower-to-prepare, healthier foods.

As least, as natural as PB&J or an egg or &8212; talk about convenient food on the go &8212; a piece of fruit such as an apple.

Then again, ask me when the baby gets here and I don&8217;t have the time or energy to peel a banana.

Nita McCann

is city editor of The Natchez Democrat.