The Fine Print

 Always read the fine print.

As old fashioned as it sounds (who reads those enormous terms of service pages?) it really pays to read the fine print. 

Even the most conscientious of us get lazy or make a mistake sometimes. I just did and BLECH! do I regret it.

I don't know how it is in other countries, but here in America you have to read food labels in detail if you want to have a marginally healthy diet on a realistic food budget for real people on real world incomes.

It was rainy, a little chilly, late after work, I was hungry, I had to go to the store or a few basic groceries, I love soup and a small tub of lobster bisque was sitting there right next to the produce looking pretty tempting I must say. It was less expensive than canned so I grabbed it. 

It was disgusting.

Not spoiled, it just tasted terrible.

Way, way, way to SWEET. I never expected a seafood bisque to have sugar in it at all, much less way, way, WAY too much sugar. Sugar in a lobster bisque was so inconceivable to me that it never occurred to me to read the label. And Americans wonder why we, as a country, are overweight and well on our way to type 2 diabetes.

If you buy your family's groceries, you can learn over time which products meet your dietary needs and how to get that product at the best available price. It's work. It takes thought and effort. And it takes a huckuva lot of fine print reading. Look at the serving sizes. Look at the ingredient lists. After you develop your shopping repertoire it's only a problem if a product changes a recipe (looking at your Vlasic. What kind of unhinged lunatic puts sweetener in hamburger dill chips?) and when you are trying something new. 

I dropped the ball and my taste buds and my taste buds are paying the price.