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.

[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.

[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

[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...

[heidimo.livejournal.com]

yes.
now i need to grow more food.

[rosencrantz319.livejournal.com]

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

[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

[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.

[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*