Somewhere in the back of my mind I always figured that nutrition labels on food were just about liability. After all, litigation and the lottery have become the New American Dreams, so nutrition labels are probably written by teams of liability strategists, to cover food makers' backsides from class action lawsuits.
Although there are certainly people at the FDA worried about the flab-factor of many Americans, at the end of the day, it's pretty clear that nutrition labels are necessary because we've decided that food preparation is a chore rather than a pleasure. That the food which requires the least effort and least cost is "best" for our lives. So we outsource what we put into our mouths, to people we've never met. If we're going to do this, a food label is pretty handy, as is an ingredients list.
But lately I have been meeting more and more Chattanoogans - like Julian - who are trying to build their lives around making people healthier (and, dare I say it, happier!). Like John Sweet of Niedlovs Breadworks (his breads have 4-6 ingredients and actually taste like bread... instead of additives), and Erik Niel whose glorious fresh fish dishes are posted daily on the blackboard at Easy Seafood, and the Keeners of Sequatchie Cove Farms, whose food is part of a very natural food chain that begins with sunlight and ends with delicious eggs, produce and meat.
These days I am eating out of a can or a frozen cardboard box less than ever before in my life, and as a result, I don't have to squint to read the fine print on food labels. As an added benefit, I am also building relationships with people who make my food. And enjoying not only health benefits but also flavors that they've created... which are better than what I could get from a food processing plant halfway across the country.
