Now, if you read our February blog, you know that our ingredient test didn’t get us as far as we were hoping. But I think this blog will help lead us in the right direction. It's time to ask our second question about the idea of naturalness: how is the word "natural" defined by experts? Once we figure out what the experts say natural means, we can really narrow down our search, check those ingredients again, and find only the most natural products out there. So, let's jump right in and learn what “natural” is!
I did a bit of research beforehand so that we can all take a look together (get ready for some definitions!) Here are a few examples that I found from the Merriam-Webster dictionary: “determined by nature; true to nature; having a form or appearance found in nature.”
Perfect, we're starting off well. Just like all great definitions, a form of the word being defined is used in the definition of the word. I guess, we ought to know what nature means then. Here’s what Merriam-Webster says: “humankind’s original or natural condition; the external world in its entirety; a kind or class usually distinguished by fundamental or essential characteristics”.
Okay… So just a few questions here… What was our original condition? And what exactly constitutes the external world? Is that everything outside of me? I’m not natural, but everything else is? I'm still thinking on that one... And I think we could all agree that the last definition wins the award for Definition Most Likely to Fit Every Single Word That Exists! I can hardly blame them though, I’m not sure how to define it myself. Still, it seems as though these definitions are less than helpful.
Let’s see what someone else has to say. What about the Cambridge dictionary? They define natural as “from nature; not artificial or involving anything made or caused by people.”
Actually, I like this definition a lot. It eliminates a lot of possibilities. They go on to define nature as “all the animals and plants in the world and all the features, forces, and processes that exist or happen independently of people”.
Taxonomists may argue that they left out our bacteria and archaea friends, but I’ll cut them some slack and assume that they are including those guys too. Now, I would argue this is a much better definition and provides more clarity as to what is or isn’t natural. If we made it, it isn’t natural. If we didn’t, it is natural. Easy!
However, the real-world isn’t quite that black and white… For example, if I add Miracle-Gro to my hydrangea pot, are the hydrangeas still natural? And what if my chicken feed is made of GMO corn that was treated with Roundup? Are my chickens still natural? What about their eggs?
And, if I’m being honest, my biggest issue with that definition is that natural products (like Paleo Products full line of simple, natural, and effective personal care products) can no longer exist. Because if we made it, it’s not natural. Personally, I’m not willing to accept this conclusion. So, let’s just take look at what some other experts think. How about the ones that regulate those “natural” products?
Let’s head over to the cosmetics industry. What do they have to say?
First, you should know that there is no official governing body for the cosmetics industry. Rather, it is partially regulated by the FDA. Most products, however, are never seen by the FDA, which is why you’ll likely recognize this phrase: “These statements have not been evaluated by FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”
In order to understand how the FDA defines natural, I had to do some more research. So, I went onto their website and here’s what they had written: “FDA has not defined the term ‘natural’ and has not established a regulatory definition for this term in cosmetic labeling. FDA also does not have regulations for the term “organic” for cosmetics. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulates the use of the term ‘organic’ for agricultural products…”
Great… So now, not only is there no such thing as a natural product, but there aren’t any organic products either... Maybe we should just stop here.
But I can’t give up that easily. First, I’d like to know what the USDA thinks.
So, here’s the definition of natural from their website: “A product containing no artificial ingredient or added color and is only minimally processed. Minimal processing means that the product was processed in a manner that does not fundamentally alter the product.”
Okay, well this is better! To me, this is a definition we can work with. Nothing artificial can be added and the product can’t be fundamentally altered. Got it. Sounds reasonable.
That is, until you attempt to define ‘fundamentally alter’. Who gets to determine how fundamentally altered something is? What if one person thinks it’s very altered and another thinks it’s barely altered? How can we distinguish between the two? I think we should test it with an example.
How about we look at coconut oil? There are many, many types of coconut oil. Even though they all come from coconuts... We have expeller-pressed, cold-pressed, refined, unrefined, virgin, extra-virgin, organic, fractionated, etc. So many types! And all of them are processed somehow. So, what’s the difference? Well, let’s look at a few.
Expeller-pressed means the coconut oil is mechanically pressed from the coconut at high temperature and high pressure. Cold-pressed means the oil is kept below 49°C during pressing and is not subject to any high temperatures throughout the entire process (thank you, Kimberton Whole Foods for those definitions). Refined typically means the coconut oil has been bleached and deodorized to remove flavor and odor. However, that doesn’t mean that it can’t be labelled as organic… The organic designation adheres to USDA standards for growing and producing the coconut trees. So maybe the coconuts are organic, but after they’ve been chemically altered via processing, is the oil organic too? And fractionated coconut oil is heated and cooled in a way that removes some of its fatty acids, so that after processing, the chemical makeup of the oil is different than the original. Sounds like some ‘fundamentally altering’ to me!
But out of all those options, where do you draw the line? At a certain temperature? Only certain chemicals? No chemicals? No processing? But then how do you get coconut oil…?
I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty close to where I started. Perhaps, by now, you can see how hard it really is to define what ‘natural’ means. You read natural claims every day. All those products that yell from their shelves, “Pick me! I’m natural!” But now what? Now you’ll have to question those products. Maybe they’re lying to you! Maybe they don’t know that they’re not natural. Or maybe, like me, they still don’t even know what natural means.
Want to read more? Come back in April, when our next blog graduates from “draft” to “final version”! We are going to track down whoever created this word in the first place! More questions to come!
Comments