Labels

There’s been a lot of talk about labeling around Washington these last couple of months because of a bill to identify GMO’s on food products. They are still counting the results as far as I know, but it got me thinking about labels in general. The other week I spent a few days feeling pretty bad~ dragging, tired, slightly depressed for no apparent reason~ I thought I was maybe coming down with something, but after about 3 or 4 days I happened to look at my bag of coffee that I was whipping through especially quickly in order to find some cheap energy, and low and behold, can you find the offending word?

 Decaf. Seriously coffee packaging people, make the word ‘decaf’ obvious for heaven’s sake. Maybe a red warning label or wallpapered all over the bag…something. I usually shop in a hurry and what I saw was Organic, Italian, ground (and yes, I buy it ground to save myself some time because trust me, I go through bags of it quickly enough that it isn’t going to go stale on me.) Of course when I did actually finally see that dreaded ‘d’ word I had to laugh out loud which is something I don’t normally do when I’m home alone. I then went and got a triple Americano and felt like I’d just kicked a bad virus plus an episode of depression all in one sip. Here’s another label to make one think…

Can you parse out the food vs. the non-food? I was looking for corn tortillas and was surprised, to say the least, by all the added ingredients. Trader Joe’s has some that are made with simple, real food ingredients. They do have to be used within a few days but I’d rather use my freezer as a preservative than three different kinds of acids. You know when people say that some people, especially kids, react to preservatives and artificial sweeteners and colors and scents? This is what they are talking about. Those other labels come to mind, ADD, ADHD, Autistic, all those things kids are labeled who are also known to be more sensitive to additives in food. By the way, these tortillas are not ones I found at Trader Joe’s, but instead at a regular grocery store. Who knew labels could be so fascinating?