Welcome to Debate Club! Please be aware that this is a space for respectful debate, and that your ideas will be challenged here. Please remember to critique the argument, not the author.

Should you be able to pronounce the names of product ingredients?

1235

Replies

  • Vikka_V
    Vikka_V Posts: 9,563 Member
    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 them
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,572 Member
    Vikka_V wrote: »
    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 them

    Thank god for google then, huh? :)
  • Lolinloggen
    Lolinloggen Posts: 463 Member
    edited November 2018
    Does this mean that as
    thezenarya wrote: »
    Deviette wrote: »
    hippiesaur wrote: »
    I'm a biologist, so I know all this stuff. That means I can eat anything, right? ;):D

    As a chemist I will agree with you :wink:

    Another chemist chiming in! Go us for being able to eat anything, lol.
    Does this mean that (as a microbiologist by training) because I can pronounce Bacillus anthracis and Botulinum toxin I can eat it too?
    PS the latter (type A and B ) is being used in Botox Type H is the deadliest toxin in the world :o
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    Does this mean that as
    thezenarya wrote: »
    Deviette wrote: »
    hippiesaur wrote: »
    I'm a biologist, so I know all this stuff. That means I can eat anything, right? ;):D

    As a chemist I will agree with you :wink:

    Another chemist chiming in! Go us for being able to eat anything, lol.
    Does this mean that (as a microbiologist by training) because I can pronounce Bacillus anthracis and Botulinum toxin I can eat it too?
    PS the latter (type A and B ) is being used in Botox Type H is the deadliest toxin in the world :o

    I have had it injdcted twice into my pyloric sphincter so I guess I kinda have eaten it.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    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.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    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. :smile:

    Grammatically incorrect foods are the most dangerous.
  • Vikka_V
    Vikka_V Posts: 9,563 Member
    glassyo wrote: »
    Vikka_V wrote: »
    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 them

    Thank god for google then, huh? :)

    Yeppers! I do Google that *kitten*...(sometimes)
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,950 Member
    Sloth2016 wrote: »
    Confirmed.
    6rercnxgoci3.jpg

    This may be the only upside of having forgotten some of the finer points of the Cyrillic alphabet in the past 30+ years -- not being able to perfectly pronounce everything on that label is a great excuse not to eat can o' jawbones and teeth.
  • bojack5
    bojack5 Posts: 2,859 Member
    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.
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
    lorrpb wrote: »
    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.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,926 Member
    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.