[01.05] - Conscious Consumer

The words seem disparate, I know; I can already hear the polarized negative associations. Conscious? Patchouli incense, frumpy dashikis. Consumer? Wasteful, greedy purchasers (or, if you’ve seen The Animation Show, the phrase “I am a consumer whore”).

Obscure film references aside, all of us are, to some extent, both conscious and consumers. And yet, often, we’re not.

We’re all consumers—we’re not churning up Jergens in the back room, or growing our own Fruit Loops. Without a doubt, we’re conscious of what we purchase. Those with medical, ethical or spiritual food requirements—Ital, Adventist, diabetic—know about scouring ingredient lists for lingering lard or surprise sugar. Even the less picky diner opts for bread that’s brown, not green and fuzzy, and grapes that aren’t grey. Yet, some mighty strange things are still stashed on foodstore shelves—and, consequently, home cupboards.

Take Lunchables. An average pack of these pint-sized kiddie snacks has more funky ingredients than a pimp has purple suits. Partially hydrogenated soybean oil (more harmful to heart and arteries than saturated fats); monosodium glutamate (can trigger allergic reactions, potential factor in hyperactivity and Attention Deficit Disorder). The best part? Sodium intake—up to 73% of the suggested daily limit, per serving. That percentage, of course, is for an adult diet; these tasty lunchtime treats are geared for children.

Why do such dubious pleasures wind up in our fridges and on our plates?
Is it because we want to fill our children with blood-pressure-raising, allergy-offsetting, attention-dwindling crap? Probably not.
Is it because food manufacturers are demon spawns hell-bent on the destruction of the human race? Plausible. But more likely it’s because they’re shrewd business people and we, often, are not shrewd buyers. We’re literate, but, for many of us, we simply don’t read.

Okay, yes, we do. We read the paper. We read the movie poster. We read books and facebooks and youtube search results and dozens (perhaps hundreds) of emails a week. That’s great. It’s also not enough.
Project Read, if it still exists, could really pull its weight by teaming up with a functional Ministry of Health for a label-reading campaign. I’m pretty sure if everyone read everything that went into or onto their bodies, certain products would start piling up and festering in the store.

Actually, though, literacy starts way before the supermarket stage. You don’t want to be rubbing down your ashy legs with cancer cream, or buying your boopsy toxic cologne; nor are you setting out to grease your head with pore-clogger #3.

This is where pre-purchasing research comes in hella handy, and it’s where the internet shines; sources like cosmeticsdatabase.com demysticize unpronounceable ingredients, explain their function and their possible health risks—or lack thereof.
Thinking that manufacturers will look after our health is outdated and naive. At the end of the day, what we consume has, 99% of the time, been labelled for our knowledge (and to meet legal requirements). If unhealthy products are still being made, it’s because we’re still buying crap, in spite of that information being provided. And sure, some people will still want to chow down on snack-shaped sodium or down endless bottles of liquid sugar.

But we should at least make ourselves aware of the contents and ramifications of what we buy. Then at least we can make educated choices—and maybe even intelligent ones.

- ja**ly