The fact that Fig Newtons occupied a middle ground is probably why grocery store ads of the day list them under different categories: sometimes cookies, sometimes cake, sometimes crackers, sometimes biscuits. The Newtons, then, were the bridge, the big-brand snack world’s intermediate step from things like graham crackers (which originated as a health food in 1880) to cookies that had no pretense of being good for you.

It’s useful to remember that in those early days, cookies as we know them now weren’t mass-produced: Oreos and Lorna Doone, two of the first examples of what most modern Americans people would unhesitatingly call cookies sold on a national scale, both debuted in 1912, more than twenty years after their figgy predecessor.

The matter of fanciness also cannot be understated-the filling is not just a slop of compote but a filling of “the finest selected fig jam,” which in other ads from the era are listed as “genuine Smyrna Figs.” There’s a sense of grandiosity and exoticism.

Every packaged food, we’re told, tastes great and also “Contains magnesium, an essential nutrient” or “Now has 4% less fat!” The front of a Cheerios box is dominated by a photo of the cereal in a heart-shaped bowl, with a big banner reading, “Can help lower cholesterol.” There’s nothing subtle there except for the smaller text that says, “As part of a heart healthy diet.” And while Fig Newtons, in the old ads, don’t call out such an explicit link to wellness, they’re clearly banking on the fruit’s long-held reputation as a digestive aid, high in fiber and generally, you know, Good For You. It’s a classic snack company branding maneuver that, of course, remains pervasive. Second, the figs are billed as a double threat: “luscious” in headline, “healthful” in the kicker. Let’s note a few things here (which are echoed in other ads and articles of the period).įirst of all, they’re advertised as cakes, not cookies, although many other ads and articles from back then list them as biscuits, which is to say part of the broad family of things that in the USA we now separate into cookies and crackers. In the late 1890s, they become one of the primary products of a new company called National Biscuit Company, which you know as Nabisco. Roser developed a version of the treat made with a fancy new machine that “worked like a funnel within a funnel the inside funnel supplied jam, while the outside funnel pumped out the dough.” Roser called them Fig Newtons, probably after the town in Massachusetts ( other theories abound). But how do you categorize a Fig Newton? There are plenty of snacks whose identities are hard to pin down, but this one’s been in flux for more than a century, constantly evolving from junk food from health food and back again-not because the recipe has changed but because the surrounding culture has, its views on what’s “good for you” forever shifting, veering, and doubling back around to where it started.īackstory: fig rolls, as a basic concept, were probably brought to the USA by immigrants from Great Britain. What the hell is a Fig Newton? I mean, yeah, if you’ve had one, you know what it is: the cookie-like stuff on the outside, the fig jam stuff in the the middle, the rows lined up in a plastic tray that’s wrapped in bright yellow packaging. Fig Newtons The basicsĪ cookie or a cake or a cracker or a biscuit, maybe? With fig paste inside. This got me thinking about what snacks get categorized as “healthful,” which inspired this week’s theme. I’ve been listening to the podcast Maintenance Phase lately, which is basically deep-dive backstories of specific diet and nutrition fads, but also includes episodes about particular foods or ingredients, including Snackwells and Olestra. Store-bought Fig Newtons have a bunch of weird and unneccessary ingredients in them.Hello, Snackers. If you don't know how to read an ingredient label yet and want to eat healthier, I highly recommend learning how to do so. Nowadays, Fig Newtons are just called 'Newtons' because they sell a lot of different flavors! Ingredients In Store Bought Fig Newtons If you've never had one, fig newtons are basically a soft bar filled with fig puree.įig Newtons were actually named after the town of Newton, Massachusetts. I feel like people either love or hate fig newtons.

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