Do you read/consider nutritional facts when buying food? (ingredients, restaurants, substances)

[Miaiam]

Please answer and elaborate.

[findinghope]

well i think we all know which food is better for us and which foods we should stay away from. but the fact is, i do still buy the "bad" stuff.
i try very hard not to buy them so that when i get a craving, i wont have it in the house. but some days, i just cant help myself.

[Nomadicus]

I read with a box of salt in one hand. Biggest concern is place of origin.

[Bunjee]

Absolutely nowadays. I think I've posted that I have a family member on dialysis so the renal diet is very strict. We're still in early days. It's taken time to really absorb things bit by bit. All that frozen chicken I used to buy because of price and convenience, thinking nothing of additives, I pass over now. 280g of sodium per serving? No can do. It's not hyperbole to say these are life or death choices.

So I'm watching what we eat closely though my own diet has no such restrictions. I can indulge, and do still, but I won't be regularly cruel by preparing food members of my family can't have, like having the smell of bacon or microwave popcorn wafting through the house, or leaving rich desserts in the fridge. Or having tasty junk in the pantry whose labels are basically poison letters. It's a like-it-or-not situation, but I'm doing fine with it.

[SATX56]

Only to make sure it's not a product of China!!!

[ambient]

You bet I do. My goal is to eat real, natural food, not artificial food-like stuff that is peddled by corporations with the support of the FDA for their best interests (certainly not mine). Here's what I try to avoid:

1. Heavily processed foods - no TV dinners or any of that crap with a ton of preservatives, additives and chemicals. Sodium nitrite and nitrates...not for me.

2. MSG (monosodium glutamate) - sort of an offshoot of #1 above. It amazes me how many cheap food-like substance producers cram this excitotoxin into the ingredients and expect me to touch it.

2. Trans fats - even if it lies and say "0 grams trans fat per serving", I know to look on the back for hydrogenated oils.

3. High fructose corn syrup - none of that for me.

4. Artificial flavors - I prefer my food to actually be natural food and not a science experiment.

5. Artificial colors - ditto. My food is the color of...well, food.

6. Artificial sweeteners - aspartame, nutrasweet, all that stuff...bad, bad, bad.

7. Overall sodium and fat levels - nothing too overboard.

8. Enriched flour foods - I don't avoid them entirely, but I make sure to get a good balance of whole wheat.

9. Soft drinks - gave up the strange habit of drinking gallons of carbonated acidic sugar water years ago.

Other restrictions I have: I try to eat as organic as possible. Grass-fed beef, chicken without growth hormones, natural milk and cheese without antibiotic residue in it, whole wheat bread without artificial conditioners in it. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables minus the pesticide and herbicide residue. Fried food only on occasion. Fast food restaurants, pretty much never.

As a result of all of this, I basically have stopped buying food at the local big chain grocery stores - those places mainly just sell dubious "food-like" substances that aren't really food to the unwary. Usually Trader Joes, Whole Foods, some other local places, and sometimes an organic fruit/vegetable delivery service. And my wife and I generally pack lunches to work and cook dinner from scratch - it's a good hobby. And we eat very well :-)

[Mooseketeer]

I always read the label, especially for provenance, whether it's organic ( I don't always buy organic but try to if possible), fair trade, humanly reared, sustainable sources, food miles etc... and here in the UK the food labelling has got a lot better recently .


For example all the ready meals in my lovely local supermarket are clearly labelled at the front for fat ( saturated and unsaturated) , salt, calories etc... green for low, orange for medium and red for high. I can look at packaging from a distance and know immediately whether I want to pick it up or not. Makes shopping a lot easier.

Our new government is also going to force the entire food industry to make labelling even clearer which I think is a good thing. I hate buying things with additives and artificial colours or made from MG stuff.

As a consumer I like to know what I am buying. Things we take fro granted like bread for example can be full of sugars, salt and even fat which is ludicrous.

I am a really careful consumer and do not like my money to go to companies whose ethical and environmental policies I disagree with for example if I can avoid it. Clearer labelling gives us a true choice.

[AnonChick]

It depends on what I'm buying. If I'm buying bacon, I expect it'll be bad for me, loaded with sodium and nitrites and artificial flavorings and colorings. So, I really won't bother reading the label on that. As long as it doesn't say "turkey" anywhere on the package, I know it'll be what I want. Same with ramen. I know it's crap. I expect it to be crap. No need to read the label there. Except - I like the shrimp one, and if it only says "shrimp flavored" and doesn't say "with shrimp" I'll get the other brand. I don't buy it for the flavor and actually I pour the boiled water in, drain it back out again to get rid of most of the flavoring, and add a little more water and just eat the noodles and freeze-dried bits of whatever those things are

HOWEVER...

When I'm buying cat food, "seasoning packages," ground meat, chicken, pre-made salad dressings - I read the labels. In cat food I want to know the ash content. In seasoning packages, I'll put them back if there's MSG in them. Ground meat and chicken I look for the date. Salad dressings I look for corn syrup/sugar.

So again, it really depends on what I'm buying. I mean, there is no label on a grapefruit. That won't stop me from buying one and frankly, I don't care where it was grown, as long as it's ripe and juicy.

[Capt. Cave Man]

When I go, not real often, I just get what I want. 90% of the time it is just plain meat and fresh veggies that will go on the smoker/grill. We just eat what we want, all in moderation.

I just went yesterday to a nice groc store and spent $250(now I need a new pair of underware) and only 1 thing had "ingredients", pepperoncini's. I know I have a cajun mix/rub w/MSG, but it doesn't bother us, plus I don't use a bunch of it.

Now, after info ya didn't ask for(sorry), to answer your question, yes/no. Nutrition is important, but so is fun. Not say'n nutrition is not fun.

[TKramar]

Nope. But I should look into high calorie foods.