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Should you be able to pronounce the names of product ingredients?
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I like to be able to recognize what the ingredients are, I won't buy bread or crackers if I don't know what the heck is in them2
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Does this mean that asthezenarya wrote: »hippiesaur wrote: »I'm a biologist, so I know all this stuff. That means I can eat anything, right?
As a chemist I will agree with you
Another chemist chiming in! Go us for being able to eat anything, lol.
PS the latter (type A and B ) is being used in Botox Type H is the deadliest toxin in the world1 -
Lolinloggen wrote: »Does this mean that asthezenarya wrote: »hippiesaur wrote: »I'm a biologist, so I know all this stuff. That means I can eat anything, right?
As a chemist I will agree with you
Another chemist chiming in! Go us for being able to eat anything, lol.
PS the latter (type A and B ) is being used in Botox Type H is the deadliest toxin in the world
I have had it injdcted twice into my pyloric sphincter so I guess I kinda have eaten it.1 -
I can sound my way through ingredients on food labels (it's really not that hard), though I might accent the wrong syllable, I'm sure I come close enough.
My tongue trips every time I try to say "real weird".
I'm not sure what my point is other than the fact that being able to pronounce things doesn't prove anything, and that learning phonics when I was a kid was helpful.3 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »I can sound my way through ingredients on food labels (it's really not that hard), though I might accent the wrong syllable, I'm sure I come close enough.
My tongue trips every time I try to say "real weird".
I'm not sure what my point is other than the fact that being able to pronounce things doesn't prove anything, and that learning phonics when I was a kid was helpful.
Your tongue is just trying to save you from using an adjective (real) when you should be using an adverb (really).
You should reward you tongue with something really delicious when that happens.5 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »I can sound my way through ingredients on food labels (it's really not that hard), though I might accent the wrong syllable, I'm sure I come close enough.
My tongue trips every time I try to say "real weird".
I'm not sure what my point is other than the fact that being able to pronounce things doesn't prove anything, and that learning phonics when I was a kid was helpful.
Your tongue is just trying to save you from using an adjective (real) when you should be using an adverb (really).
You should reward you tongue with something really delicious when that happens.
Grammatically incorrect foods are the most dangerous.4 -
Confirmed.
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It's also sad that people will eat things with no consciousness as to the ingredients8 -
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Should you be able to pronounce the names of product ingredients? (that we eat)
YES.
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It's also sad that people will eat things with no consciousness as to the ingredients
What if those ingredients you don't understand are actually good for you and you are missing out?9 -
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Bottom line is, what you put in your mouth is one of the few things you have complete control of. It would be irresponsible to not know what it is you are digesting. Regardless if you can pronounce it or not, if you dont recognize it, look it up.2
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It's also sad that people will eat things with no consciousness as to the ingredients
When I see something I don't know on a label, I look it up. I got a tiny computer that fits in the palm of my hand that lets me do it very quickly.
You're mistaken about the choice you're actually facing. It isn't "Should I buy this bread with an ingredient I don't recognize or not?" It's actually "Should I remain ignorant or should I educate myself?"12 -
It's also sad that people will eat things with no consciousness as to the ingredients
You do realize that things like apples and bread are also comprised of thousands of ingredients right?
The issue I have with the anti-processed-food types is that they seem to be completely missing the point. You look at a "processed food" label and you see a list of 16 ingredients many of which have difficult to pronounce names and the response seems to be "look at how many ingredients this has, that is so many and I don't know what they are". Then you look at a label from an "whole foods" "organic" whatever product and it lists "Apples, Oats" and you think...just two ingredients and I know what they are, great.
Here is the issue though. The processed food ingredient list is a complete list...it has 16 ingredients but that is all it has. It isn't that it has a ton of ingredients it actually has very few ingredients which is why it is possible to actually list them all. In contrast whole foods like "apple" or "oats" don't actually list out the ingredients because whole foods have thousands of ingredients and it would be completely impractical to list them all out. But issue is it gives the false impression that somehow whole foods are simple while processed foods are complex when actually it is the complete opposite. If you have a drink that is flavored with fructose refined from corn until it is a syrup comprised almost entirely of the molecule fructose then that is a simple ingredient...if, on the other hand, you flavor a drink with a fruit juice then there are going to be hundreds if not thousands of ingredients in that. Almost all (like 99%) of "processed" ingredients are just purified plant products that take those thousands of ingredients and select out the one or two "active" ingredients in a refinement process. They are by definition much simpler. When you get those thousands down to one then you can just call it by its actual name, like amylopectin or some other name that scares people when it shows up on boxes.
That isn't making any sort of value judgement on it. I just have the smirk a bit when someone says "I want to know exactly what is in my food" and on that basis they choose the whole foods. You have no idea what is in an apple. "Apple" isn't a descriptive ingredient...it is just a name we gave a fruit that has thousands of ingredients in it. Almost everything you eat you have no idea what is in it. If you truly want to know exactly what is in what you are eating then you'd be better off eating processed foods because they tend to have specific engineered ingredients. If you eat high fructose corn syrup in it then that is exactly what that is, a syrup mostly comprised of the molecule fructose. Does eating what you know make that somehow the better choice? No, it doesn't....and that is the point. It is a silly argument to make.
Honestly I don't even think it is the point right, I think most people who say that are actually saying they want to eat whole foods that have been part of the human diet for hundreds of years because they are unsure or do not trust the introduction of processed ingredients that may or may not be at considerably higher concentrations than what would be found in "natural" whole foods. But that has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not you know what is in your food or whether or not you can pronounce it.
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Do you think that a criteria for a safe/healthy product (food, health, or medical) is that it contains ingredients you can pronounce? Isn't this more a reflection on the language skills of the consumer than the efficacy/safety of a product? (This could be scary since the average American tests out a 5th grade reading level.)
Would you use a product that listed any of these ingredients?
ergocalciferol
cholecalciferol
nicotinamide riboside
dihydrogen monoxide
On a related note, most people can't pronounce my last name. Does that mean that I'm dangerous?
I absolutely would use products with those ingredients.... I was a Microbiology major/Chemistry minor 20 years ago. Side note: there are very few chemicals that I cannot pronounce, except for the molecule Aluminum (don't know why but can't say that word so I use the British pronounciation: aluminium). I also know one person that has never been able to pronounce CABERNET.0 -
Yes pronounciation seems such a silly criteria - pronouncing something and understanding what it is are 2 different things.
Like I said before I could have a lisp and not be able to pronounce spinach - that doesn't mean I don't know what it is.
IRL I often read out pathology results to patients - for the life of me I just cannot pronounce sebhorrheic keratosis. Have been dealing with such results for years and I know darn well what it is - but still can't pronounce it right.2
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