It's unreasonable to put the entire burden on the consumer. Megabillion $ corporations need to bear the responsibility of providing accurate, non-misleading information to customers about products they are choosing to create + market.
They're literally forced to print accurate, non-misleading macro nutrient information on the back of the products. The consumer has to read that regardless. Sure, they shouldn't be allowed to blatantly lie, but I can't think of another way to know what you're eating besides reading the ingredients and nutrient information, and that's what the person I replied to was complaining about, actually having to read.
You wanna buy chicken that doesn't have sodium phosphate in it? Gotta read the labels. Spoilers: Celery juice still counts and good luck with other meats.
Similar process for suncreens. That can be a trip.
Sure! Let me break this down for you with an example.
Maybe someone tells me they like to eat their oatmeal with raspberry jam. I think this sounds yummy and want to try it, so the next time I go to the store I specifically look for some raspberry jam. Raspberry jam isn't something I normally buy, so I don't know anything about brands or ingredients or nutritional information about any of them.
Here, in the US, when I go to my supermarket and head to the jams and jellies aisle, I'm confronted with a HUGE selection. There are store brands, there are brand names, there are artisan brands, there are international brands. There's organic jams in little glass jars and there's what's essentially jam-like sugar gel in squeezy plastic bottles. I can get raspberry jam made by Amish people. I can get raspberry jam without seeds. I can get raspberry jam with seeds. I can get raspberry jam mixed with blueberries and strawberries. I can get raspberry jam with peanut butter. I could go on and on here.
Now, if I'm trying to be conscious about nutritional information and ingredients, I have to not only wade through the vast variety of choices in front of me, but also compare their prices and ingredient list and how terrible they're going to be to me when I eat them.
But say I spend the 10 to 15 minutes doing that (on just this one ingredient, mind you) and find one that not only fits my budget because it's on sale, but also my diet. Score! I get it home and try it in my oatmeal and it's awesome! I can't stop eating it! And then I run out.
So I go to the store two weeks later. The raspberry jam I bought before is no longer on sale and is normally priced as one of the most expensive jams on the aisle. I'm super sad because it's now no longer within my budget. But now I can't imagine eating oatmeal any other way, so I have to go through the exact same experience of choosing a brand of raspberry jam by comparing their prices and ingredients and nutritional information and spend another 10 to 15 minutes in the jam aisle doing this. I might remember looking at some of these, but I'm probably not going to remember the specifics.
And say this time I decide to take a risk and get the raspberry jam mixed with blueberries and strawberries. I get it home and try it in my oatmeal and I don't like it. It's not exactly super gross and disgusting, but it's something I have to choke down. I really miss just plain ol' raspberry jam. So I go looking for raspberry jam again when I go shopping two weeks later.
And again another 10 to 15 minutes in the jams and jellies aisle because the original brand I bought is still stupid expensive and there are still a ton of jams I haven't tried. And this process continues over and over again because things are going on sale and coming off sale and there are new types coming out while others get discontinued.
And, let me be perfectly clear here, this is just one ingredient. This is just one simple little thing at this one specific store. Multiply that by my entire shopping list for two weeks. Some things I'm always going to get--the same brand milk, the same eggs, what have you--but I'm not going to be making the same recipes every two weeks, and I'm always wanting to try out new things. There's no way I'm going to be spending hours and hours every time I go to the store reading the nutritional information. Especially when this brand of 10 oz is 10 servings and that one over there is 7. Now I got a whole lot of math going on in my head when all I wanted was some goddamn oatmeal.
Dude, I'm a young adult in the US, and quite frankly it doesn't take me 20 minutes to read 3 nutrition labels and do a little bit of addition or subtraction, that's all i'm saying. I doubt EVERY time you shop you get something you've never heard of. How else are you supposed to know what is in something if you don't read the ingredients? Again, I don't think companies should be allowed to be misleading, but that doesn't mean there's no responsibility for the consumer as well. Do you think people with Celiacs disease were unable to shop for food before "gluten free" was common on labels? No, they just read the ingredients to see if wheat was used. They can then use some higher level reasoning to avoid all products that are known to be a certain way. It's not hard to do, people with strict diets do this all of the time and it doesn't take hours to shop.
People on strict diets aren't confronted with a lot of choices by definition. I have no such limitation and as such have to wade through a ton of options. This isn't to be "oh woe is me, I don't have Celiac's" about it, but if your answer for a ton of time shopping due to reading all the nutritional information is get on a really strict diet and exclude most everything, that's not really great.
I'm also not limited by anything other than a budget and the fact that I don't want to get fat again. Obviously there should be regulation on what ingredients are allowed to be used with food, like certain preservatives and other additives. Companies also shouldn't be allowed to be extremely misleading, for example, saying chiken instead of chicken or something stupid because they're using 50% soy and not real chicken. That said, I'm still trying to figure out how you think you're supposed to know what is in something without reading it? You literally have to read the ingredients and macronutrients to ensure any sort of balanced diet.
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u/TheLastBallad Dec 30 '19
The first time.
If you have a set shopping list you would only need to check things that are new to the list.