For years, as a dietitian, Ive been trying to tell my clients that the word natural means absolutely nothing.
Yet a recent survey found that 53 percent of U.S. shoppers would be motivated to buy a product if its labeled natural.
(Sigh.)
I understand where the confusion comes from, I think. Natural is such a powerful word. The dictionary definition-existing in or produced by nature; not artificial-is crisp and clear.
Yet the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not have a formal definition of natural as they do for organic . They do, however, have a longstanding policy. A food labeled natural should be free from artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, artificial preservatives, and color additives. The FDA doesnt address how a natural food can (or cant) be processed, grown, or raised.
See? Confusion!
To the FDAs credit, they tried to address this confusion. In late 2015, they government entity solicited comments from us-the American public-as to how they should define the term natural. But the comment period closed in mid-2016 and not a thing has happened since.
So consumers continue to believe in the persuasive power of natural.
In fact, the previously mentioned survey also shows how influential the claim natural is. Only two other claims on food packaging came close to having the same sway as "natural"-no preservatives and no high fructose corn syrup. Label lingo like low sugar , antibiotic free, free range, and grass fed appeared to only have the potential to influence less than half, sometimes as low as a quarter, of shoppers.
The obvious reasons why food companies love labeling their foods as 'natural is because natural sells-never mind that it has no regulatory meaning beyond excluding artificial additives, says Marion Nestle, Ph.D., Paulette Goddard Professor, of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University. The worst part is that many people believe that natural is equivalent to organic, a term that is highly regulated. Thats why there is so much pressure on the FDA to regulate the term. I cant wait to see what the FDA comes up with.
So the next time youre shopping the grocery aisles, remember that natural means nothing. Its doesnt make a food healthier-or even healthy, for that matter.