There were so many times when I was younger that I had a conversation with my mom that went something like this:
Her: "Okay so I know we've been buying these granola bars for years, but we need to switch to this other kind because I just read online that there's actually high fructose corn syrup in them."
Me: "But Mom, we just switched to this kind a few months ago. You have to stop changing your mind about what's healthy and what isn't. Can't we just stick with one thing?"
The same thing would happen with everything from shampoos, to dish soap, to all sorts of products we buy for the house. And when I was younger, this used to annoy me.
As a much more informed person today, I finally feel like I'm seeing how much effort my mom put into finding safe and environmentally friendly food and other items for my family. While I found it aggravating that she kept researching the ingredients in our products rather than just seeing the "eco-friendly" label and buying it, I now realize that she was steps ahead in the environmental sense. This led me to question why we should have to jump through hoops just to find out if companies are really selling us what we think they are. I know this relates to my earlier post about greenwashing, but I think it proves that if we are willing to dig around and learn which products to trust, we can show manufacturers that we won't fall for their tricks anymore. It will increase the pressure on them to have environmental integrity so that people keep buying their products.
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