A reader offers a little levity for the sweet of tooth:

"In a noble post-Halloween effort to not let excess candy go to waste, I was just idly opening mini packages of SweeTarts looking for those of the purple or pink variety. I throw out the yellow, greens, and oranges without a second thought. I've been doing that ever since I was a kid, and I am under the impression that I'm not alone. Reds and Purples were always the top choice, whether you're talking SweeTarts, Pixy Stix, Pez, Smarties, Nerds, or Tootsie Rolls (though Chocolate was also favored in the latter). I even believe they used to make giant SweeTarts that were pink and purple only. I realize that they have introduced the raspberry "blue" flavor relatively recently, but I find it terrible, so it gets tossed as well."

"In past years, I recall routinely getting 2, and sometimes 3, of the coveted berry colors in each 3-piece package. Today I found them much harder to come by. Could it be Nestle has been increasing the proportion of undesirable tarts so that people would go through the candy at a faster rate?"

"I proceeded to open a total of 21 packages, and found only 17 Purples and Reds. That's only 27%! I'm virtually certain that I had been getting close to 50% a few years ago. This is mighty unscientific so far. Does anyone have any more data to share? This is really the lowest of the low, if true."