Monday, September 28, 2009
There is no legal meaning for the word “Natural.” The FDA does not regulate this
word and just because something is labeled this way doesn’t mean anything. Often it can mean that a food is not good for you. Lard is natural, butter is natural, sugar is natural, high fructose corn syrup is technically natural as well as a host of flavorings that are extracted from natural products through highly complicated processing.
A good example of this is the recent advertising campaign by the company that makes the soda 7UP. They claim to have removed all “artificial ingredients” from their drink. This is debatable as some feel that high fructose corn syrup is not “natural.” Nonetheless, soda with all that high calorie sweetener is bad for you and labeling 7UP “natural” is misleading in my opinion.
Even some of the organic products that are on the market use flavorings considered
“natural.” This often adds up to nothing more than a highly processed product.
If a package is labeled “natural” it should actually be cause for wariness on your part and not a feeling of reassurance that the product is good for you.
