Everything has best before dates stamped on them. Sometimes though, i wonder if it's more of a buy more crap gimmick than a safety issue? Lots of times you can just tell. If you go to pour milk onto your cereal and it comes out in lumps and smells like angry socks, you should probably avoid it. But, if it's just a bit off in taste and you can still mask that taste by pouring it onto something that has a ton of sugar and flavours, like fruit loops, you're most likely still good. What about canned soup? That has an expiry date, but i would expect that if it's not buldging and ready to explode chunks of putrid alfa-getty-o's across the room the second you touch it with a can opener, i think i'd give it a chance. I'm pretty sure there's a whole sect of the population that's banking on surviving on out of date Campbell's soup after the zombie apocalypse? Meat's easy to tell right? If it's green and fuzzy you have to throw it out.......or do you? Quite often, if it's just on the surface, it can be cut away and as long as you are cooking it to an adequate temperature it's pretty safe. Don't kid yourself, beef aged for 28 days is leaving the cooler with a bit of fuzz on it, i guarantee you.
If i had a best before date stamped on my ass, i think i would be past due. I'm not at the green and fuzzy stage of my life yet, just at the point where you give it a sniff when you open the container. When i was younger, and had hair and a somewhat decent body, i didn't really have the knowledge and seasoning, if you will, to deal with it properly. I think i might just be leaving the stage now when everything clicked. My hair loss seemed to be on hold. (although it still continued to get greyer) Plus, i had gained some of the smarts to do things to the best of my ability with the body that i had. Lately, i notice my hair starting to recede again. I'm tired more, and my wife keeps pointing out all the new wrinkles that keep showing up on my face. Also, while i'm just starting to figure out how to do things the way that they should be done, my body quite often doesn't live up to the expectation that i wish it would when imagine myself doing those things.
Now, i realize that everybody ages differently. People are like eggs, or milk, or meat, or canned goods in the pantry. Everyones best before date is at a different time. Sometimes, i am shocked to find out that someone is in their 70's because they look so young. But conversely, the odd time, you see the person who looks like a senior in their 40's. Lifestyle has a lot to do with it, stress is a big one, but i'm trying to keep fit and do things to keep my mind fresh. It's important to try new things and do activities to get your mind off the stuff that will eat you up on the inside if you let it. I still set high expectations and goals for myself. Getting them done now, sometimes just means i have to include a nap.
In the meat department, do they throw out the T-Bone steaks that go beyond their best before date? Not a chance. They get cleaned up, ground into hamburger, repackaged , and given a whole new life on the shelf with a brand new best before date. Maybe people are like that? Maybe if you can't be the T-Bone steak anymore, you just have to be hamburger? Thing about hamburger is, it's the most versatile thing on the shelf. Maybe that comes from age, maybe, to be the most versatile thing on the shelf, you need to keep evolving, repackage yourself, and start over with a brand new best before?
.............once, by accident, i drank one of those cardboard juice box thingys of V8 Juice that was a year and a half past it's best before date. And while the taste was a bit off, it wasn't enough of a concern to make me check the date until after it was empty. It didn't kill me, i didn't even get sick. Life just went on. I think i'm still good for a while.
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