For Lent, I gave up Snickers candy bars. That may not seem like a very significant, nor a serious, Lenten sacrifice … and it is not, cosmically. But it is, for me.

I consider Snickers the best candy bar ever invented. Whatever is second is a distant second. Maybe the Baby Ruth. As a candy, only M&Ms are in even in the discussion. (See my top 10 candies list from 2008.)

For long periods of my life, perhaps up to 10 percent of the calories I took in on a daily basis came from Snickers bars. I loved them that much. Particularly when frozen.

What makes Snickers special?

I think it is the combination of sweet and salt that is at the root of it. “Sweet and salty” comes up all the time when gourmands sit around chatting. One, then the other. The Snickers bar has both. The sweet is the chocolate and the caramel … but the caramel also provides the salt.

Then you factor in the peanuts, which give you a little jolt of protein, (and the nougat, which does I’m-not-sure what), and a Snickers actually represents a fairly useful nutritional source. Yes, very caloric, at 270 calories, but other candy is just as caloric without being nearly as tasty.

(Note: I am not being paid by Snickers or by Mars Incorporated for any of this. I am just a huge Snickers fan. Anyone who knows me can vouch for this.)

For stretches of my life, my breakfast has often been two or three “mini” Snickers, frozen.

I had fallen back into that pattern here in Abu Dhabi, recently. (Yes, Snickers available here; available nearly everywhere I’ve ever been, aside from Italy.)

I was trying to get away from that pattern when Ash Wednesday rolled around. Actually, it was the next day, and people were talking about what they would give up for Lent (many of them serious sacrifices, like meat or carbs or TV) … and I knew I had foregone Snickers on Ash Wednesday, and I decided I would do the 40 days. And I did.

I can’t say it was an enormous sacrifice. I ate other, lesser, candy bars.

The more severe tests came on the days when I worked longer hours at the office than I anticipated, and my lunch bag had long been exhausted.

Snickers has an advertising campaign about “not letting hunger” get to you. Something like that. And it is a valid ad campaign. Snickers can tide over a person like no other candy bar. Maybe it’s the peanuts. You can be quite hungry, and you eat one (of the two) Snickers bars you carry around in your backpack (yes, I do that) … and you can hang on another two or three hours without an actual meal. Yes. It is true.

So, I can’t say it was a great moment in Christian self-denial, but it meant a little something to me. It made me think about the season, and that’s a big part of it, is it not?

I hope not to get back into my Snickers-inhaling habits … but I have just had one, and I have another half dozen in the freezer right this moment, and another two in my bag, and if I feel the need … I’m going there. Hard to deny the best.