Crunchy

Crunchy is a lifestyle that prioritizes natural and sustainable living practices, such as eating organic food, composting waste, and using cloth diapers. The term comes from the crunchiness of granola, another label for people who embrace aspects of hippie-like alternative living.

The crunchy movement grew substantially in the 2010s, leading to many blogs and social media influencers (often moms) touting the lifestyle (promoting their products and concoctions). The community largely rejects mainstream food, products, and medicinal methods that the greater public has accepted. Instead of conforming, they do lots of "online research" to do what feels best for them.

Because they are so zealous about their lifestyle, they often protest the government and large pharmaceutical companies ("big pharma"). For example, they may refuse to vaccinate their kids and instead make natural home remedies for treating sicknesses.

Gamers may describe a game that requires a lot of thought and decision making as crunchy. This term is meant to evoke the image of gears crunching in a gamer's mind, as they process the possible decisions they could make.

Crunchy is likely an offshoot of the word number crunching, which describes the act of doing a lot of math. However, in crunchy games, the many decisions that players need to make are not always math-based. For example, Magic: the Gathering (MTG) is a crunchy game that does involve math, but also involves many non-math decisions. (So. Many. Decisions.)

Gamers who love intricate analysis and planning tend to like crunchy games, while those who prefer quick and simple gameplay tend to not. Crunchy games can be especially tough for noobs to get into, as the games' many choices can cause analysis paralysis.