Hi
Luminous_Rose
Honestly, the only thing I ever read on a food label is calories and serving size. I tend to trust that food products in the U.S. are fairly well regulated and generally safe.
And that's good if it's a concern to you. However, I've just always lived my life trusting that processed food won't kill you, but it's generally loaded with salt (a preservative). But I'm not on a particularly salt restrictive diet myself. In fact, I'm probably one of the bad people when it comes to sodium intake. I like salt. I douse it on watermelon and pretty much sprinkle it and pepper on most foods on my plate. I believe in what the Scriptures say about salt. God gave it to us to add savor to our food. Therefore, I don't fear it. Might I eat to much, as compared to most people? Maybe. Is that going to kill me? Maybe. If I didn't eat the salt would I live forever? No. I'd likely die about the same time I'm going to die from some over abundance of salt, is my take on it.
That's another truth of God that I take to heart. He has numbered my days. I'll get everyone that He has numbered for me and I don't want one less or one more. I'm 67 and raised a family and I'm ready to go home just as soon as He calls. I actually look forward to the next life because I generally hate this one.
If someone has special allergies, then it's up to them to watch out what they eat. Me, I have absolutely no food allergies. As far as I know I'm not allergic to anything. So, I guess that contributes to my laissez-faire attitude about food. As far as all the rest of your concerns, I'm afraid that I don't share that attitude about food. And I certainly don't feel like there is any nefarious action to mislabel or not put a complete label on our food. I don't share your understanding that 'so many people put themselves at risk with our food system each day because companies aren't required to label all their ingredients'. I've actually never felt or thought that I was in any danger in eating some processed food product.
So, I just say that to explain my position. However, as I asked in my OP, you seemed to have answered that you're one who won't be walking and chewing gum any time soon. That's ok. I just don't share that phobia about the foods I find stacked up on my grocery store shelf. I do try to stay away from processed frozen meal packages, but only because I'm mindful of my weight and prefer home cooked foods, and I'm a pretty competent cook, if I do say so myself. But in a pinch, I always have a half dozen frozen pot pies or Boston Market frozen dinners in my freezer for a fast meal. Maybe once or twice a month I'll use them.
God bless,
Ted
Lucky you, living the free "eat what I want" lifestyle, because you're able.
Most people have sensitivities or allergies, they just haven't been tested for them, they don't realize they eat a food that's affecting them in a negative way since it may be something slight that one may not feel like inflammation, or that person hasn't come across an offending food yet since there are of course, so many foods out there in this world.
I grew up thinking I had "no food allergies", too. Ate whatever I wanted basically for so many years. Changed slightly when I had anemia or when other chronic issues came into play, but I was still eating foods that I found out in my 30s were affecting me horribly through testing. About half way through my 20s, my mom quit wheat and felt a lot better, dropped a lot of pounds. My dad felt a bit slower at work, more brain fog when he had wheat so he quit. My brother's acne went away when he quit wheat. My sister got a lot of health things under control with avoiding wheat. When I did, I was a lot healthier than I had ever been in my life, but...I can't reverse the damage. That was like 25 years or so with eating wheat for like 3 meals a day nearly. Did so much damage without knowing it and now I have more problems to deal with.
Salt is honestly the least of my problems, it doesn't seem to be as bad when it comes from a reputable source. Some salts are super mineral rich, but of course, too much can be a bad thing for sure.
Of course our days are numbered. They all are. We have a 100% chance of death at this point, at some time. Although, if a person were to go off the deep end and eat junk all the time, I'd think that would shorten their life span and wouldn't be a good way to take care of themselves. Even with numbered days, I do believe what we do can increase or decrease our life span or impact it in a negative or positive way.
I have no real relationship with food. I don't have a favorite because I barely like any of it anymore. When everything you grew up eating is ripped away from you and you're sitting there pondering what's left because it's not much...
Allergies, when severe enough, can cause anaphylaxis and kill people. I think that's plenty of reason to thoroughly label foods, because people have actually died from foods being mislabeled, or deceptively labeled. Something that might have been able to be prevented wasn't and loss of life over that is tragic.
If you don't have allergies or food sensitivites yourself, I can't expect you to understand how difficult it is. You won't know what it's like to see your spouse come home with a face so swollen he can't see all because someone wanted to get back at him at work and leave intentionally leave the food he's allergic to at his desk. You won't know what it's like to suddenly be eating and a moments later, be having a seizure because of what you ate and then be out of commission for the next day (all because ingredients weren't properly labeled, or someone near you had an offending food and then they touched something that you touched)...or two..or three if it's bad enough you have to get a benzodizepine for that.
Perhaps you won't know what it's like to drop your child at a sitter's, declaring the allergies, and then gave your child something that they couldn't have and for the rest of the day, you're trying to help calm them down and recover with medicines and such, trying to soothe the hives they have all up and down their body.
Or when you take your kid to a birthday party and then some of the kids are eating foods your kid is allergic to and then goes and touches all of the play equipment nearby and you have to grab your child kicking and screaming, trying to punch you in the face, because they're upset you destroyed their fun and they don't understand why they have to leave...yup, all because you're trying to protect them from an allergic reaction, but that's the type of life that some of us have to live.
We have been kicked out of living situations because our food allergies were "too much of an inconvenience." It ticks me off, but I guess people that don't have allergies see it as someone else's problem, not theirs, when cross contamination is a real thing.
Our list is long, cooking something everyone can have is a daily struggle. It's incredibly limited and keeping foods we can have around is a challenge, and it's more expensive to eat the way we do, sadly.
I don't recall saying that about gum, but okay. There are gum's I don't have a problem with and ones I do.
za.investing.com
, thanks for posting 
. Processed food is a big culprit to this . Thing is MSG can go by different names :nag and that makes it tough to figure out if what you are buying has MSG in it .