Going food shopping is a real adventure these days. When I was a kid I remember being sent to the grocery for one of about five items we ever ate at my house; milk, meat, bread, eggs and the dreaded can of spinach. This was before supermarkets were built and other products had to be invented to fill them. For what other reason would you put something in your mouth called "funyuns" or "poptarts"? Of course, as the youngsters will point out, when I was a kid dirt hadn't been invented yet either, but that's another column.

Some of the changes are welcome. As a diabetic, I have to be careful to avoid sugar intake. That isn't always easy these days. You'd be amazed at how many products have sugar that you wouldn't know about unless you read the content labeling. Virtually all cereals are laced with sugar before you even think of adding any in the bowl. I'm particularly amused by the label that says "No sugar added". You can find this on things like fudgesicles. I don't undertand the distionction between things that have sugar and those that have "none added". If something has sugar in it does it not stand to reason that it has been added? The only product that has sugar without adding any is sugar itself. In fact, the only product that should be able to claim no sugar had been added is sugar itself. Other products containing sugar must have had it added. If not, when was it not added? Questions abound.

I also find it interesting that premium prices are charged for products that have had an element removed from them. Seems to me the fat they take from skim milk could be churned into butter and sold under separate cover. Shouldn't that make skim milk cheaper than whole milk? Go figure.

There's been another addition to grocery shopping lately; the loyalty card. Those are the little cards or keychain tags they give you that entitle you to "extra' savings at your favorite grocery. Now this seems like a pretty good idea on the surface but I found the downside to it. I misplaced the keys that had my tag on it the other day before going to the store. I had quite a list too. Each time I dropped an item in my basket that was going to cost me 30, 40 or 50 cents more because I didn't have my card, it hit me like a body blow. It ended up actually discouraging me from buying everything on the list because I didn't want to feel cheated. Leave it to me to find the downside to discount pricing.

I hope you've enojoyed reading this column. No punctuation has been added.