Being a Better Consumer

I've been an on/off vegetarian for nine years. My fiance´ and I eat mostly vegetarian meals eating meat/fish once or twice a week. When I was vegetarian I always felt guilty using film (I'm a photographer stuck in the old ways of analogue), but it was the one thing that I could not give up. Now I just figure that your diet should be about what YOU want to eat. For me that means a minimal amount of meat and plenty of fresh fruit and vegetable and lots of tea. 

I recently read an article about a woman with an enviable figure only living by one rule - not to eat anything that her grandmother wouldn't have heard of. No additives, preservatives, sweeteners etc. Our bodies find it easier to digest food in it's purest form, so despite what companies say, margarine is not good for you. In fact, if you put it in front of a dog it wouldn't even recognise margarine as being a type of food. So, I'm going to try and live by this rule, or as close to it as possible, I am partial to a giant bag of chilli heatwave doritos every now and again! 

I plan to shop for food as responsibly as possible and grow as much as I can this year. I am also really conscious about other products I buy. Sainsburys is always (and has always been) my go to supermarket, they don't test any of their own products on animals (which I feel there is never an excuse for in this day and age) and this symbol will appear on their products:

I'm also very pleased that there is now a Lush in Canterbury!! I'd often found a lot of their products difficult to use (mainly bath bombs and shampoo bars) but the few things I've bought recently are great:

- 9 to 5 cleanser

- twilight shower gel

- toner water

- grease lightning spot treatment

I also picked up a couple of their tote bags for myself and a friend which are really good quality:

It may seem hypocritical that I'm not vegetarian but am against animal testing, but I think there is just no excuse for it, there are thousands of chemicals that can be used in household and cosmetic products that do not need to be tested on animals and that are currently used in hundreds of products. Yet brands are money hungry and never happy and feel the need to make us want to buy things that are 'new and improved' and that by buying these products we will have perfect skin, yet these are all just marketing ploys to try and make us buy unnecessary things we don't need. 

Do you try and be ethical/animal friendly with what you buy? Are there any good brands that you can recommend? I'm always on the look out for ethical, animal friendly brands. 

Thanks for reading : )