Image courtesy of iLoveButter on Flickr
What do you mean, “What’s a VCR?” It was that thing before LaserDisk!
Okay, yeah, those crickets were completely justified.
Apparently, people don’t like reading boring information, even when it’s helpful, bordering on really important. This has prompted the FDA to revisit the 1990 Nutritional Labeling and Education Act’s findings on the reading habits of Americans when it comes to the nutritional info on the side of pretty much every packaged foodstuff.
In a nutshell, those habits are pathetic. They call to mind a public service announcement a couple years back that Anthony Edwards was in where he said, “I bet you know what my character’s name was in a movie that’s twenty years old. What was your child’s homework assignment yesterday?”
Fifteen years ago, only 13% of respondents said they’d ignored the labels on their food. In 2002, a full 30% of respondents under 35 had never read one, ever. At least a majority of the population as a whole do read them, for a variety of good reasons (nutrition, education, research, and so forth), but to counteract the declining readership trend, the FDA is soliciting consumer feedback to make the labels better and more effective. We’ve got just over two weeks (until October 23rd) to provide our comments.
If we spent a fraction of the time researching the stuff that actually goes into our bodies that we do poring over gear and strategies in the games we play, it would be a huge step in the right direction. As a certain soldier’s mates are fond of telling us, “Knowing is half the battle.”
[thanks to a Friend of SG on Facebook for calling this to our attention]
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I kind of feel like a jerk because I never read them. I have read some of them in the past, but I don’t really buy a lot of food that is mysterious to me. I tend to shop the outer limits of the grocery store, and I am not really interested in the nutritional information of celery. My best friend is like a walking calorie counter. When we used to live together and I would sit down with 6 oreos and a glass of milk she would walk up to me, look disgusted, and let me know that I just ate her entire amount of calories for the day. It kind of sucks the joy right out of it.
If that’s their whole caloric intake for the day, they need help, because it’s only about 450 calories. (And, no, I didn’t have to look that up, either.
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I am a compulsive label reader… sometimes I read them for crazy foods out of morbid curiosity… but yeah, anything packaged that may ultimately end up getting eaten in this house has had its label scrutinized at some point. Absolutely.