Beware of the label ‘Natural’ on your food label

Don’t get thrown off by the word “Natural” on a label

The word “Natural” seems to be the perfect marketing word for consumers who want to live more…well…naturally.

The fact of the matter is that the word “Natural” does  not have a strong governmental definition when it comes to food.

The word means as much as “real” does, when it comes to food marketing. Even foods made with High Fructose Syrup may be packaged as natural since the substance is derived from corn.  That’s what lobbyist are able to accomplish ignoring the very unnatural process it takes to make sugar from corn.
On the other hand, the word organic actually means something. And organic foods are often natural ( not all the times). Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act in 1990, which led to the National Standards on Organic Agricultural Production and Handling rule in 2000.
When a food is labeled organic, it actually has been deemed so through a federally approved accreditation process that regulates the food so that it has no genetic engineering, specific kinds of feed, rules for handling of livestock and so on.
Here’s an excellent document by the FDA on organic labeling.

To be clear, things that are minimally processed and come directly from nature are “natural.” These type of foods typically have only one ingredient, i.e. an apple.
If an apple is heavily processed, let’s say heated or chemicals added to as preservatives then that food is less natural.

On a slightly different note; A few weeks ago I was at a medical meeting called the Functional Forum:  Accelerating the Evolution of medicine , where they opened the event with the video posted further down.

Warning!!! It’s Hilarious!

Let me know what you think…