Back in the days before smartphones and tablets, I would take a magazine or book into the bathroom when I was going to be sitting in there for a while. Occasionally my business was urgent and I didn’t have time to grab some reading material before going in there. So, how would I entertain myself?
I’d read the back panel of one of the various cans, bottles, or boxes that we’d keep in there. Whatever I could get my hands on, I’d grab it and read the back label. Say I grabbed a can of Suave Fresh Aerosol Antiperspirant and Deodorant…
Of course, I’d have to get closer to read it..
So, we find out that the active ingredient in this is aluminum chlorhydrate, which makes up 8.8% of the total, and that the inactive ingredients are butane, hydrofluorocarbon 152a, cyclopentasiloxane, isopropyl palmitate, talc, disteardimonium hectorite, propylene carbonate, and fragrance. What is all that stuff? Hell if I know, but I read it off the back of the can. If I really wanted to know, I could look them up online. I’ll save that for when I get out of the bathroom, which will be really soon because by this time I was finished…
We’d do the same with cereal boxes, try to read the ingredients there. It would tell us that the contents of that box of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies were
- Rice
- sugar
contains 2% or less of:
- salt
- malt flavor
Vitamins and Minerals:
- Iron (ferric phosphate)
- niacinamide (vitamin B3)
- vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride)
- vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
- vitamin B1 (thiamin hydrochloride)
- folic acid
- vitamin D3
- vitamin B12
And having learned all of that, we’d grab our books and go to school.
Did you do this (read the ingredient lists of products)? Do you still do it?
The Sound of One Hand Typing 
I frequently read packaging for details about the product. I also like to know where the product was made or what company distributed it or anything related to that.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
LikeLike
Yes, I do this to this day and wonder what some of that crap is:) I have to buy things that have no sugar….everything has sugar!I found out even table salt has sugar!
LikeLike
Yep always been a label reader.
LikeLike
You learn a lot that way. I’d look up the compounds that were mentioned and find out what they did. I could have used the Internet in those days…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Speaking of reading boxes, do you remember Screaming Yellow Zonkers?
LikeLike
Have to admit there is always reading material in the bathrooom… often all those sale magazines end up there. As to reading cereal boxes, I never remember eating cereal as a child, but hubby often talks about how he always read the cereal boxes at breakfast.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So right! I usually had a book hidden in the bathroom. As a bookworm, my cousins would sometimes bully me and I would hide there and read unmolested… until my uncles needed to use it. But yes, when there was no book available, shampoo labels were our best friends.
You know, before I didn´t care about ingredients, until I got fibro, also my German friends taught us how normal it was for them to read everything on the label while shopping, and we learned to do it, too. Once I took half an hour checking the ingredients of the “natural yogurt” brands, when I finally picked one, the guy from the yogurt samples asked me which one was the winner and why, so I didn’t go as unnoticed as I thought. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like to read the ingredients of medicines – especially the ones that have real, say herbal ingredients as opposed to a bunch of chemicals…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do it a lot more now than when I was younger. I need to know what’s in it and the carb count for sure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good thing they’ve started printing the dietary information a lot more clearly now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I used to always do this! Especially with the backs of cereal boxes as a kid. We didn’t each have a smartphone so I would eat my cereal and read the box for the 20th time. Those were the days!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That was the reason you asked for a different cereal: you’d already read the box for the old one.
LikeLike
I remember when I learned the ingredients were listed in order of highest percentage of the total. Sugar or corn syrup was always way up near the top!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimes sugar or corn syrup is the first ingredient, in fact. Salt is usually pretty well up there, too. Pop is like that, too: carbonated water, high-fructose corn syrup, caramel color… the actual flavor is toward the bottom.
LikeLiked by 1 person
All the bad rises to the top!
LikeLike
i used to read them more often, but now my eyes are too bad and I would need to get my glasses. Thank you for the kind words you left on my blog for the loss of Sammy. XO
LikeLiked by 1 person
No problem on Sammy. Been there way too many times.
LikeLike
I do read lots of labels, and they are pretty interesting. Mostly I read food ones. Because of diabetes I check for the sugar content, the proteins, and carbs. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
By law, I think that has to be printed in larger type than the ingredients. Probably not a bad idea.
LikeLike
The print is usually too small so I look it up using my laptop. Some of the ingredients are concerning so it’s a good idea to know what you are eating.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Why do they make the print so tiny? Are they trying to hide something from us?
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Real estate”: there isn’t enough room for them to put everything the government requires on it, so they have to make it small to fit it all in.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think they are. 😎
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimes! Mostly I peruse the nutritional info…
LikeLiked by 2 people
The print on boxes is so small that if I really wanted to read the list of ingredients, id have to use a magnifying glass!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I always do this too! It’s funny to see the subtle differences between shampoo and liquid soap and bath gel… Though they’re all mostly water and sodium lauryl (or laureth) sulfate!
LikeLiked by 1 person