Do you read food labels and take note of additives in your food?

I try to avoid as many processed foods as I can, but once in awhile (on every shopping trip) I will break down and get an old favorite or try a new guilty pleasure. When I do I mainly look for sodium and sugar. If the sodium content is higher than I feel it should be (a wholly subjective measure, but generally if it’s more than, say, 10% of the RDA per serving), then I’ll pass it up. Likewise if “sugar” (in any of its various forms) or “salt” is one of the primary ingredients, then I just pass it up.

I figure that if I only liked (or would like) the taste because of sugar or salt then I can give it up.

Except chocolate. I’ll put up with all kinds of ‘bad’ to enjoy chocolate. And ice cream.

Other than those two, I don’t really worry much about other additives. It’s sugar and salt that are more likely to do real damage to me over the long term, I think. I have concerns about some other additives and adulterants, such as mercury in fish, for example, but I don’t ‘worry’ about that, and I figure that most otherwise healthy foods have health benefits that outweigh the minor risk.

I don’t look at additives much, but I do look at cholesterol content. And, I do try to not eat a lot of processed foods. I eat more than I would like. I do think they are bad for you.

I’m a vegetarian – labels are my friends ;-)

Yes, for example, ice cream.

I used to but I stopped, as it was pissing me off way too much. I came to realize, that unless you eat things you cook your self, they will just try to poison you.

A can of Coca Cola has 35 grams of sugar in it, that is several heaped up table spoons of the stuff. Red Bull has 500% your recommended daily allowance vitamin b6 and 500% your recommended allowance of “2 upside down ‘h’ g” or something, I don’t even know what it is, but I’m sure it’s bad for me.

As for food, be it pesto, some microwave dinner, or anything else, it is all poison for the most part. You just can’t eat the stuff if you expect to live past 50, not really even once in a while.

The reason it pissed me off, is because every product is at it, filling it with such high amounts of salt, sugar, and other crap, that I honestly think it is impossible to eat it and be healthy, regardless of how hard you try to keep track of it.

If the product does not poison you with sugar it will do it with salt, if it does not poison you with salt it is going to be vitamin b, saturated fat, or something else.

Combine a few of these products over the course of the day, while trying to stay under 2000 calories, and you will be dangerously high over your recommended daily allowance for one thing or another.

Also, here is an interesting fact. There are over 50.000 chemicals in our modern day bodies that none of our grandparents would have had in their bodies when they were our age. (give or take)

The worst thing is though, that the bastards just lie to you as hard as they can. By law they must list the contents, so what do they do, they try to organize it in to an easier pill to swallow with devious tricks.

They will list on the box that it only has 22% of your RDA for fat, but then put in tiny small print that 22% is for every 100ml, turn the can around and you will see that it actually has 500ml, and that it works out to well over your daily allowance. Yet the front of the cover clearly says 22% RDA, with a nice green traffic-light logo next to it. The front of it does say serves 2 people, but even then it works out to well over half your RDA, and this is some sauce you are supposed to put over something that contains more crap. You will be lucky to get through your main meal of the day before you eat a dangerous amount of something, forget breakfast, a snak and supper added in to the mix too.

Anyway, I’ll leave it at that, and go see if I can cook up something healthy for dinner.

Better than that, I read the food itself…..alphabet spaghetti anyone?

No and no. But I know I should.

When I occasionally buy processed foods (ice cream, peanut butter and dry cereal), I do read.

The first ingredient these days seems to be corn syrup rather than sugar.

That’s pretty much what I meant by “sugar in any of its various forms”, @gailcalled. Here’s the Wikipedia article on Corn Syrup. At least you didn’t mention high-fructose corn syrup.

^^^Only because I am keeping my sentences as short as possible these days

No. I eat everything in moderation and try not to get too paranoid.

Certain things, like white chocolate, yes because I think it makes a difference when I cook. I check in general as well as I like to know what I’m actually eating and while I do make health related decision based on labels and various ingredients I don’t obsess about it. Let’s face it when I want a twinkie, I want a twinkie, unpronounceable molecular concoctions be damned.

I try to avoid processed food because I’d rather cook my own food, and because I can’t afford to buy packaged crap anyway. I still buy junk food for treats from time to time, and in those cases I don’t look at the ingredients list because I already know there’s lots of crap in there… That’s why it’s a monthly treat and not a staple!
But in general, I’ve been in the habit of reading ingredient lists and nutrition facts for years, being vegetarian AND diabetic. I try to get the most veg protein for my dollar!

I wasn’t thinking of sugar as being an additive. I was thinking chemicals, food dyes, ingredients I can’t spell or pronounce. My first answer still stands, I only consistently look at cholesterol content, I just fund it interesting that people may have defined it differently. If I buy a cake and the ingredients are sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, oil, milk, I would say there are no additives.

I put back on the shelf any food that contains sodium nitrate or nitrite – bad for my inner ear. I also avoid artificial sweeteners as much as possible, but that is just philosophical.

@RocketGuy That is something I did forget about, I don’t consume artificial sweetners.

Yes, I avoid processed food as much as possible in preference for fresh fruits and vegetables.

Thank you all for your great answers. My question was prompted by a doco series I have been watching. The presenter is acting as a guinea pig and is eating lots of foods with E numbers but also explaining the history and background to food additives.

@poisonedantidote, “Also, here is an interesting fact. There are over 50.000 chemicals in our modern day bodies that none of our grandparents would have had in their bodies when they were our age. (give or take)”. That’s disturbing.

The Dr who is monitoring the presenter said it’s difficult to eat more than the daily allowance of any of the E Number additives but many have not had a safe limit set. The Dr also said, and obviously most of you many of you are aware of this, he was more concerned about the high levels of salt, fat and sugar the guy was eating by consuming so many processed foods. This week’s episode focused on the preservatives.

Last week the focus was on colours and flavour enhancers and covered monosodium glutamate. I already knew this but some people might not know, E120 or Cochineal, Carminic acid, Carmine (Natural Red 4) which is approved in both the EU and US, is formed from crushed up beetles.

@RocketGuy “sodium nitrate is bad for your inner ear”. Can you expand on that? They covered sodium nitrate last night and historically (thank your lucky stars you weren’t born then) was produced from animal manure and urine. He preserved some pork from sodium nitrate he produced using this method and ate it! Ugh!

He also did a trial (that was methodologically flawed as far as I am concerned but still…) with people who are sensitive to monosodium glutamate. Monosodium glutamate occurs naturally in naturally occurring amino acid and is found in most foods.

Like most of you, I eat processed foods very sparingly and prefer to eat whole foods and we cook from scratch almost exclusively. If you are interested in this three part series it is called Food Additives: An Edible Adventure and was previously called E Numbers: An Edible Adventure when shown on the BBC. Worth watching if it shows up on your small screens. This concludes my long, wrap-up post and once again, thank you for your great responses. I have enjoyed reading your thoughts.

Nope. Couple reasons: 1. Ignorance is bliss because 2. Something will kill you. This is a conversation we have a lot at work because my boss jumps on every bandwagon there is when it comes to studies saying this and that. He doesn’t question them. So when the news broke this week about microwave popcorn, he stopped eating it. There are certain things I pay attention to, but it’s not across the board. But my end all be all stance it something is going to kill me, life is short, do what you want, eat what you want and live it the f*ck up!

I also make sure to wash all fruit and vegetables with exposed skin.

@YARNLADY Another really good point. Even the fresh produce can kill you. A client of mine, his business was natural pesticides, he even brought a new insect into America (which I am against, but that is besides the point) he told me never eat a Chilean grape. Hahaha. I do, but not too often. I guess he believes them to be poison.

Grapes from Chile are heavily sprayed. Other fruits, especially imported ones, that are drenched in pesticides.

Always beware of fresh fruit!

@gailcalled great link. The same gentleman told me Driscoll’s uses his product on their strawberries, so they are safe. But, I noticed Driscoll’s has organic and regular strawberries, so I wonder if only the organic ones use his product? Or, if the organic use luterall zero product for pesticides. I wish I could remember his name and comoany name. It was in the Tampa area, I should see if I can figure it out,

Compare a box of locally picked strawberries from unsprayed fields to the Driscoll’s…both organic and regular. They are different species. Driscoll ships its berries over 3000 miles to appear on my supermarket shelves. They all look like Dolly Parton. Too big, to blowsy and too slow to age.

@gailcalled Local strawberries are a different breed altogether. I agree with that.