RE: Label reading. Do read them?

[cat1116]

Not always, but more than sometimes - if that makes any sense
Just recently added a new app to my iphone called something like "fooducate". You can scan the code on the package and it comes back with information on that particular food item. The title of the app sounds funny, but it helps to guide you to purchasing other items that might be even better for you. I couldn't imagine scanning every item that we put in the cart that day since it was merely an hour or two that I had downloaded it to my phone. Maybe a couple weeks/weekend grocery shopping trips and we'll get better at using it.

I try to look for the lowest sodium count for breakfast/lunch items that I
would be stuffing in my tote to take to work. Sometimes the lowest count for calories isn't always going to be as low for the sodium content. I personally like to keep it under 600mg per item - per day. If one item is kinda high for breakfast, my lunch hopefully will be way less than half of that. I've looked at some soups and some other items that looked really tasty but when I flip it over and see that it's like 1300mg of sodium, I reluctantly put it back on the shelf. Begrudging the slim, young person behind me who picked it up and put in their cart.

[tdna]

I went to a store that I usually don't shop at and was looking through their vegetarian section. Even if you choose to ignore all the other crap this contains, it's pretty blatant to label it vegan right next to fish oil in the ingredients. I'll assume, at the very least, the vitamin D3 isn't vegan either.

[CSD610]

I have read food labels for years so when I had to change Sneakers dietary intake when he was diagnosed with diabetes it was not a big issue.

[missik999]

I guess I am kind of a geek but almost as soon as I learned to read I started reading labels. I can remember pointing out to my mom when I was in second grade that the boxed blueberry muffins she sometimes made had no blueberries at all in them, the only fruit was apple and then artificial blueberry flavor was added.

[Mooseketeer]

I always read the labels on foods I am not already familiar with. If you need a chemistry degree to understand it I tend to pass !

It astonishes me sometimes how many ingredients there will be in something incredibly simple which should at most have three or four. I am not keen on artificial colourings, additives and all that kind of crap.

Luckily my wonderful local supermarket has wonderfully simple and easy to read labels when it comes down to fat, salt and calories for example ( a traffic light system in big letters on the front of the packaging, Red, Amber and Green which makes life easier when you are trying to work out what is healthy or not).

I remember seeing a block of cheese once in a supermarket which had about 20 different ingredients. Apart from Milk, Rennet and Salt what exactly does cheese need ? For some cheeses a little vinegar or lemon juice to curdle the milk , apart from that I really don't understand what could add to such a beautiful simple product...

You know you are in trouble when your sausages list meat as one of the minor ingredients along a long list of garbage.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by missik999

I guess I am kind of a geek but almost as soon as I learned to read I started reading labels. I can remember pointing out to my mom when I was in second grade that the boxed blueberry muffins she sometimes made had no blueberries at all in them, the only fruit was apple and then artificial blueberry flavor was added.

excellent point: This is like buying cheese but it isn't really cheese. I have had more discussions with friends about this. They think, just because it looks like cheese and is in the cheese dept it must be cheese, pure and simple. Or how about the sugar added to so many things today? Reading labels is important, even though I have to admit, I do not always do this.

tdna, I guess being a vegan really takes specail care as there are so few things that are truely free from any animal products.