When you first realize why ingredients matter and that you need to be aware of the ingredients in your foods and products, it's overwhelming, isn't it?
There are just SO MANY! How will you ever learn them all?
Trust me, I've been there, and I've felt it!
And I am by no means claiming that I'm now an ingredient expert, but I have learned one very helpful trick along the way.
Learn one ingredient at a time!
Yep, forget about all the rest, and learn just one ingredient.
This seems counter-productive at first. How can just one ingredient make a difference?
It makes a difference because then you know that one. And you won't forget it when you go on to learn the next one.
Let me tell you how I started out becoming ingredient aware.
I would look at a label and read everything on it. I would look up all those ingredients that I didn't know. I'd read about them and whether they were good or bad or indifferent.
And then, the next time I saw them on a label, I couldn't remember which were good and which were bad and which were indifferent.
I got nowhere for quite a while.
My one-at-a-time method:
What I do now is look at a label and read until I find the first ingredient that I don't know. Ingredients are generally listed in order from the largest amount down to the least amount, so looking for the first ingredient you don't know will have the most impact because there's more of it in the product.
I look up that ingredient – where it comes from, the effects it has on my body, whether it comes from nature or a lab, what products it's commonly used in.
Then, for a while, I look for that specific ingredient on labels. If it's good, I seek it out. If it's bad, I avoid it.
Only when I feel like I know and recognize that ingredient do I look for the next ingredient I don't know and start the process again.
Now, when I learn a new ingredient, I really know it, and I will recognize it forever hopefully.
Knowledge isn't worth much if you forget it.
Take the time it takes to actually learn, and you'll be much better off for it!
Ingredient awareness is something I'm passionate about, and we talk about it a lot in my free Facebook Group.
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