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

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

M and I usually look at labels and ingredient lists (fish products make their way into an inordinate amount of Asian foods), but we ate a lot of Balance Bars before someone pointed out the words "fish gelatin" in the ingredients list.

More of a problem for him (I'll eat seafood), but it was still disturbing enough that I've dropped them as well.

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

There are kosher marshmallows that use fish gelatin. There's a rumor of gelatin free marshallows out there, but I have yet to find them. (I eat all manner of animal derived things, but I like to be able to feed my friends.)

[dkellis.livejournal.com]

If it's something to do with the price of the food, I usually make choices based on that, but as for ingredients lists, I do read them, but mostly because I tend to read everything I get my hands on anyway.

I don't think I've ever made a choice to buy or not buy a certain food because of nutritional considerations.

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

mostly because I tend to read everything I get my hands on anyway

I had a few dismaying surprises, standing in the kitchen reading the can or box of whatever I was already cooking. I started reading the labels while still in the supermarket.

[aquatwo.livejournal.com]

1. sometimes
2. yes, when #1
3. if, then yes. I've never seen it on any I've purchased and checked the 3 boxes I had on me to be sure.
4. not until I read this...
4b. ~shrug~
5. yes
6. yes
7. no
8. generally yes

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

I think it's great that I can say "check your Pocky" to my f'list. (I think it was the Pocky Dark that had the fish, and I'm pretty sure it's fish gelatin in the cracker.)

[aquatwo.livejournal.com]

i'll keep my eyes open for more...

[mimerki.livejournal.com]

Generally, yes. I'm more prone to reading ingredients than nutririon.
I do try to figure out weird ingredients, but I also accept a high level of wacky in some foods.
Price per pound, and ingredient lists. I will typically buy the item most closely resembling food.
I did know that.

I try to make real choices. I don't always, but I try to. I've discussed this basic question with raven_albion some, both in my journal and hers. I think there's a balance and I need to try to make the better choice most often, but that choosing to buy out-of-season asparagus is sometimes still the better choice...

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

That asparagus that L bought for sushi day was gold-plated, but it was also amazingly tasty as dinner (dressed with toasted pumkin seeds, crumbles of soft white Mexican cheese, and spices). I'm really bad about shopping frugally, which is a needed change that is taking a place of importance on the goals list.

[mimerki.livejournal.com]

The assorted Ravens have pointed out to me that it's really a poor use of resources to ship fruit & veggies very far. Now, we are pretty lucky, where we live, because we're not that far from sources of year-round veggies, but that only makes it less bad.

That in mind, sometimes out-of-season veggies are the light of my life and I would do anything to get them. That's just how it is.

Mmmm... asparagus...

[heidimo.livejournal.com]

yes.
now i need to grow more food.

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

I have the black thumb of death. Yard food always tastes better, but I can be happy with farmer's market for a lot of things. Not that I'm truly food virtuous.

I love the icon.

[heidimo.livejournal.com]

ty! wendy made it for me.

[rosencrantz319.livejournal.com]

I look at calories and amount of salt, especially with canned foods.

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

The sodium content in prepared foods is mysterious. How can a box of garlic and olive oil couscous have so much more sodium than the same brand's plain couscous? It doesn't taste any saltier than cooking the plain and adding my own garlic and olive oil.

High blood pressure runs in my family.

[amheriksha.livejournal.com]

I definitely check the nutrition facts, and then scan the ingredients for certain things. Like MSG. Had to give up avoiding that in Japan, but I keep a weather eye out for it anyways.

Wish I had done all of that this morning... My Starbucks sandwhich I grabbed because I forgot my lunch was 510 calories. T T

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

Eek! I've started stashing soup and canned fruit in my desk. The daily specials in the deli downstairs are tasty, but dangerous. (Like the gyoza...)

[amheriksha.livejournal.com]

I need to do the same... No more sandwhiches from Starbucks, I guarantee. . .

I think stashing some soup and crackers at the desk would be a good idea... For some reason, canned fruit always has one kind I hate. Like peaches. *knows she is a freak*

[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.

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

I read the labels because my Chemistry and Pharmacology classes were more than a little scary.

On the other hand, studying also made me realize how many people overdramatize, or make inconsistent decisions, because they don't know what they're talking about. These kind of decisions should be made consciously and because one is informed, not because "the TV said so". *sigh*