The Nutrition Overlords Knowledge Bombs® - The ‘Natural’ Label: What In The Fresh Hell Does That Even Mean?!?!

Welcome to another edition of The Nutrition Overlords Knowledge Bombs®: Natural Label Edition

I promise to keep this one short(ish).

So you're walking down the aisle of your local grocery store and you pass by the eggs. Other than there being approximately 30 different brands, you notice some of them carry this fancy 'natural' label (and probably cost $2 more per dozen). So what does this ambiguous label mean anyway?

First, we have to break foods into one of two categories, because heaven forbid food labeling be simple. In the first group, we have meat, poultry, and egg products. In the second group we have everything else. When the term 'natural' is applied to meat, poultry, and eggs it actually means something! In the USDA's Food Standards and Labeling Policy Book (a joyous read, I assure you) under the Natural Claims section (page 116) it states that meat/poultry/egg products carrying the natural label must meet these two standards [1]:

The Nutrition Overlords Knowledge Bombs® – The Natural Vs. Artificial Flavor Smack Down

Natural vs. artificial flavorings, what’s the deal?

Both of these are terms regulated by the FDA (the term "all-natural" is a different story). The definition of a natural flavoring is anything derived or extracted from a "spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional" [1]. An artificial flavor is anything that is not derived from the items listed above, but rather synthesized in a laboratory. Don't freak out, it's not nearly as scary as it sounds! Read on to find out why.

So which one is healthier or better? Well, the answer to that isn't so simple. The first step is to understand that both natural and artificial flavors are just made up of various chemicals. This is not a bad thing! Everything is made up of chemicals. That banana you had for lunch, that avocado you ate for a snack, you, me, and Oprah are all made of chemicals. Chemicals = not inherently evil. The second step is to understand the basic principles of toxicology, or what the effects of chemicals are at certain doses. For example, we can all agree that ~90 milligrams of Vitamin C a day is healthy for you [2]. However, 10,000 milligrams a day will give you diarrhea, nausea, headaches, cramps and possibly kidney stones [3,4]. As the saying goes, the dose makes the poison [5].

Toxicology of Man-Made and Natural Chemicals