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Originally Posted by ticktockclok I tried being vegan for a couple days, and then decided that its not worth reading labels my whole life, always cooking/preparing special foods, and never being able to eat out at all. It seems to me like the runner who runs for 3 hours a day and brags about the extra five years of life he's getting for all his efforts. |
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Originally Posted by Erin Pavlina You don't have to read labels your entire life.  It does start out that way, but once you know what's vegan and what isn't you just settle into a pattern of buying the same foods. You also get much faster at reading labels as a new product comes out. |
Reading the labels isn’t exclusively a vegan practice; I used to look at labels even before I was vegan, mainly to see how highly processed/refined something was (a long list of ingredients or a bunch of crazy numbers such as "248" and "621" usually indicates it’s been heavily processed) or just to get an idea of the nutritional information. I think it’s good to be aware of what you’re putting in your mouth (refering to what the food is made of, not just the general "label" you give the food), regardless if you eat animal products or not.
As Erin has said though, you don’t always have to read the labels, it’s just something you do until you learn to recognise what you would normally read on the labels by just looking at the food. It’s generally pretty easy to spot the healthy, nutritious food from the things you should probably burn in a sacrificial fire. Although you do have a point when it comes to “cooking/preparing special foods”. You certainly get used to it after a while, but I find I’m constantly aware that I’m eating something different to most people, especially when I see them frying up a steak or biting into some chicken. It doesn’t bother you, but it’s definitely a different experience.