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If there's one thing I've grown to hate, it's food additives. I don't care what reasons for which they are present, they're an annoyance. Say all you want is normal white bread. Welcome to high fructose corn syrup heaven. Want some meat? Have some nitrates, too.

Oh, what's that? You don't want it? Well we have this other option but it's up to 5x as expensive, sorry about that. Plus they try to hide it sometimes, and certain nutrients aren't listed, which sucks, too.

Anybody else get frustrated over similar things while shopping?

All the time. I've been reading ingredient labels for my whole life, and visiting the US was downright frightening. We are very lucky that a lot of Australia's cheaper products have surprisingly little in the way of additives, but I'm seeing more and more "glucose syrup" which is often just the local branding for HFCS. And don't get me started on "vegetable oil" being soy, canola, and palm oil blends, now. There's a reason we do LOTS of baking in this house.

Living in America I'm quite used to eating my chemicals and food colouring thank you very much. *guzzles windex*

its not too bad where im from, but then again my diet considering of nothing but fruit and veg makes that possible i guess?

^ You're a vegan? What type of meals do you prepare?

Vegi, I just eat a **** load of fruit and soya.

I see. I wanted to try to go the vegan route but it's hard to think up a variety of food. I don't think I could just eat fruit and soy.

Vegetarian options are actually pretty vast, especially if you're okay with eggs and dairy. Go ahead and search for "easy vegetarian recipes" and if you want it to include a specific ingredient, add that to your search field. Something will come up. And assuming you're concerned about protein intake without all that meat, there's always other vege-friendly sources of protein besides soy.

^ Well, I'd really like to leave out animal products, but I'll give that a shot.[DOUBLEPOST=1420881406,1420881257][/DOUBLEPOST]To be more specific, another reason I find it hard is I want to leave out certain things like sodium, sugar, for example. I've got a pretty specific diet in mind so I never bothered searching much but there's nothing to lose.

Do you mean overall, or the refined **** that's added to pre-made foods? Because the body requires certain amounts of both sodium and sugar, which you can get from natural sources. ;)

Getting it from natural sources is fine, but tons of recipes I come across rely on a sugary or salty sauce, marinade, or whatever.

If you find a recipe which calls for a sauce you're not entirely keen on, try looking up a recipe FOR the sauce. Most of them (for example, teriyaki) are RIDICULOUSLY EASY TO MAKE and then you control exactly what kind of salt is in it (natural sea salt is good business, organic soy sauce two thumbs up, you get the picture).

^ Surprised I didn't think of that. Guess I was just thinking lazy, prepared versions, haha. Thanks.

I make my own seasoning mixes, too, think like Mrs. Dash sort of things. Now that we have a large freezer, I can go back to doing homemade stock/bouillon, too.

AI lamented the lack of availability for Stove Top Stuffing in Australia, so I homecooked a replica recipe. Look up "copycat recipes" if you need a brand name flavour. ;)

^ You're pretty hardcore with the cooking, AI's lucky. I don't think I can do that stuff.

In my attempt to eat healthy I've been eating egg whites with pepper, Applegate Chicken Sausage, and Chex with rice milk. Really getting old (and expensive as f**k).

You need to download the free Good and Cheap recipe book: http://www.leannebrown.com/

Ah, my favorite price!

I'm allergic to certain food colorings, namely yellow dye #5. I have a relatively rare, little-understood allergy in my esophagus where it constricts and sometimes I get food lodged in there. I don't choke, but I can't swallow anything, and it gives me this awful heartburn sensation.

That sucks. I bet it's hellish to search through everything for that but at least it's actually marked. Often they'll hide things like MSG or Potassium/Phosphorus. Full disclosure should be an absolute requirement if not on the label than by phone, web, and mail.

The worst part is restaurants. Sometimes I forget to be cautious and totally agree to have some yellowish sauce on the side. It's not until I'm a quarter way through my meal that I slow down and realize "Crap - I feel it. It's probably in this sh*t." If it gets bad, I spend a good ten-fifteen minutes in the bathroom trying to regurgitate or let it settle down in my stomach. It becomes more of a hassle if the bathroom happens to be for one person and a line forms and people start knocking, then I get anxious, which causes the sensation to feel worse - ugh.

It doesn't happen often because I've learned to be cautious but when it does. . .ugh.