Be Conscious of What You Eat

Posted by Brandon Harshe on December 10, 2007

One of the things I always do, no matter what, is read the ingredients. I don’t care what it is. It could be the healthiest, organic-iest thing around… I’m still reading the ingredient label. I’ve learned a lot about different ingredients and what they contain and whether they will be a benefit or a detriment. Because of that, I’m very picky about what I eat or drink.

In my opinion, the first step toward a healthier life is to read the ingredients. The way I look at it, if you look at the ingredient label and see a long paragraph of scientifically wordy items, avoid it at all costs. I’m talking about things you can’t pronounce, things you can barely read, things that end in -ine, -ite, ate, etc. It’s even worse if it’s a two-word ingredient and they each end in -ine, -ite, -ate, etc. If I see this, I put it back on the shelf… whether I’m at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, or Safeway. Who, am I kidding? I don’t shop at Safeway.

If you already have food at home that contain these novels of ingredient lists, and chances are about 100% that you do (unless you are a vegan-raw-foodist), look up what they are. Seriously, just Google it. You might be very surprised as to what you are eating.

Once you do find out what’s in the stuff you’re buying, you might reconsider what you have been buying. It’s not that exciting to find out that you bought something really tasty and it contained yeast extract… which contains MSG… which can give you a killer headache as it’s destroying brain cells… etc., etc., etc. At that point, you might want to reconsider what you are putting into your body by being a little more discretionary.

So, read ingredient labels, make sure you can pronounce the ingredients, and if you can pronounce them, make sure you know what the ingredients are.

From that point, you should be good to go!