The world now welcomes worst nightmares onto primetime/daytime T.V., Thanks Recession

We've all had those dreams nightmares where there is the most beautiful table filled with the most delicious and aromatic food we could ever imagine and it's there for us and only us. We lift our hand to take a bite just to have it all disapear and to find ourselves waking up to the sound of an angry alarm clock knowing that the only food that is in our kitchen is a box of rice crispies and no sugar. 

Well apparently even though those are such annoying dreams, we (being the world) think it makes for great T.V.! USA Today is reporting that Scripps Network saw a 29% boost in ratings during 2009 thanks to the addition of food/cooking inspired shows. Which begs the question...why are we watching food and not eating it?

TLC chief Eileen O'Neill explains that "Culturally right now, food is a comfort device," and that the need to watch these shows is driven by the recession. In short, we're miserable and would binge eat but we can't afford to do so, so instead we watch all the food that we wish we could could be eating. Thus, successfully, making our lives into living nightmares.