A Deliberate Consumer

[butterflydreaming]

Do you read product labels? Do you read the ingredients *and* the nutrition facts?

If you see salmon & mackerel listed in your Pocky ingredients, do you find out why?

Have you ever wondered why organic foods are usually made with sea salt, and if this is for any reason other than marketing?

Do you compare price per pound, rather than price per unit? How about total food value?

Did you know that marshmallows, McDonald's milkshakes, and Tillamook sour cream all contain gelatine? It's in the sour cream for texture.

If you have a choice, do you make a choice?

Comments

[graphxgrrl.livejournal.com]

I read labels, especially since I've been trying to cut out corn syrup and any hydrogenated oils that creep into every processed food on the planet.

I've also recently been working hard to buy local and organic, in that order. It makes no sense to ship organic products from the other side of the planet if you're trying to eat sustainably. Getting an every-other-week delivery from Pioneer Organics has helped immeasurably with that, as you can tweak your food order to reflect local considerations.

I think a lot more about my food in general than I used to, and while I used to be more of a price concious shopper than I am now I find that I eat and feel better if I'm concentrating more on the health value of what I'm buying.

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that we are in agreement on a lot of points of thinking, like going carless. Local ranks above organic, for me, because I prefer to support our local economy. Some of the small producers aren't certified organic. And some foods, like coffee, aren't local, but the roasters are.

I've been hesitating to go with vegetable/fruit home delivery (even though my roommate has been pushing for it for years) because I'm not much of a cook, and having languishing perishables increases my stress level noticably. I go to the supermarket a lot, and to the farmers' market when it's running in W. Seattle. I'm not sure how well the Euro style shopping is working, because while I don't have food going bad & being wasted, I don't plan what I'm eating for dinner very well. Something for me to work on.

A current goal for me it to think about food *less*, not that 80% of my habits are what I consider good ones.