Skip to content

You Betta’ Read Girl

We all know that reading is fundamental or so we have been told, right. Well, it is! Reading is absolutely necessary. Whether it is books, articles, or FOOD labels – READ and read thoroughly.

I should have read when I was in the store the other day BUT I took for granted that all things are created equal.

Okay, so here is a little backstory about me. If I am buying something that has a label – milk, plantain chips, coffee, beans in a bag (you never know), seasoning, soap, lotion, etc… I read the label. I want to know what I am buying – all of it. HOWEVER, the other day I bought some curry seasoning to make Curry Lentils and I grabbed the baggie off the shelf, quickly skimmed the ingredients and placed in the cart. While skimming I was looking for key words – leche (don’t they put that s*** in everything), carne, pollo, jamon, or hueves and none of that was listed in the ingredients. Good right?!

So I get home and I am preparing dinner. I dance over to grab the curry and cut it open. As I get ready to DUMP the curry into the pot, I pause and look at the label one more time. This time a little slower. Reading EACH word.

Harina de trigo, sal, curcuma, glutamato, comino, mostaza, azucar, culantro, jengibre…. and the list continues but I will spare you. I was okay with most of the ingredients, except for the glutamato (MSG) but I knew that in the store and decided it was for this one meal that I wanted to make.

I kept reading and got to:

Puedo contener trazars de proteinas de pescado, soya, gluten, lacteos, nueces, huevo y mariscos. I thought pescado, I know that word. Pescado, pescado, pescado – FISH! huevo y mariscos!! eggs and seafood – REALLY!!! This package may contain those things (insert sad face).

As a herbivore, plant-based eater, vegan by diet (whatever you wanna call it)… this is not acceptable for me. If I decide I wanna have some fish or traces thereof, I want it to be on my terms. But since eating things that have eyes and poop is no longer my story I would rather not have something, knowingly, that could contain it. So, needless to say we did not have Curry Lentils. I will have to make my own curry seasoning (which I have done many times in the states) or find one here in Costa Rica without all the extra. 

My lesson: read thoroughly, don’t skim a language you are not fluent in, yet, boo! Something else that resonated with me, yea Imma get all deep and what not, is never settle. I was going to accept something (MSG) that I do not normally accept and intentionally avoid because I saw a recipe and wanted to take a shortcut to make it and in the end, I didn’t even make it… SMH

Read. Never settle. Read. Never settle. Read. Never settle. Read. Never settle. LIFE is always teaching. What lesson, big or small, has life taught you lately that you want to share? Drop it in the comments – you KNOW I love to talk to you 😉

On another note: #TeamBz is having a GIVEAWAY.

There will be three prizes and three winners:

One person will receive a visor.
One person will receive a pair of socks.
One person will receive the ‘WE OUT’ tee.

For details and to enter click the link – https://gleam.io/6jvRb/teambz-apparel-giveaway. ‘

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.