Yet another way to reduce your consumption of bite-sized snacks: behold, the “snack gauntlet.”

Oct 26, 2026

The Issue:

Bite-sized snacks pose a unique problem for the dedicated healthy-diet enthusiast. Since each snack is so small, it hardly seems necessary to resist eating one (Figure 1).

However, this can lead to a snack-devouring “chain reaction” in which a hapless individual finds themselves having eaten an entire 1lb bag of M&Ms. Regret!

Fig. 1: Snacks where each individual unit is inconsequentially tiny (e.g., a single potato chip, Skittle, or M&M) pose an insidious threat.

We’ve covered other practical proposals for reducing snack appeal:

“Make it more difficult to open the snack container”: https://worstplans.com/2022/04/11/binder-clip-snack-prevention-for-junk-food-avoidance-in-dieting/
“Put a gross plastic millipede in your snack container”: https://worstplans.com/2026/01/12/snacks-with-off-putting-object/

…but this new idea might be the best one yet!

Proposal:

The idea is simple: whenever you’re in a location that is in close proximity to snacks, such as your kitchen, just put on a pair of heavy steel medieval gauntlets (Figure 2). While wearing these inconvenient armored gloves, it will be difficult to consume a massive quantity of M&Ms without at least some time for self-reflection.

Fig. 2: This unwieldy Dark Ages hand armor makes it difficult for a wearer to effectively grab and devour a snack without either dropping or crushing it.

Conclusion:

This could be a practical and inexpensive way to reduce junk food consumption and improve the user’s fashion and self-image at the same time.

PROS: Provides protection from household hazards such as hot stoves, paper cuts, and raccoons.

CONS: Arguably a more expensive version of “just use chopsticks.” However, it has the advantage of still working even if you happen to be ultra-proficient with chopsticks.

Originally published 2026-10-26.