What Does "Natural" Mean? Dictionary.com defines natural as "not
artificial" or "having undergone little or no processing and
containing no chemical additives." When I think of "natural" I
think of things "as Nature made them" - a tree, a flower, an
apple, a bunch of carrots. I can recognize natural products in
more or less their original form and can usually figure out
whether they're good for me or instead pose some kind of threat
(think "natural" poison ivy). Businesses have long appreciated
how much they have to gain by marketing their goods as
"natural." It's why they've plastered the word all over products
that, ironically, couldn't be farther from their natural
state...like "natural" cheese puffs, crayola-colored gummy
worms, ice cream that contains partially hydrogenated soybean
oil and cocoa processed with alkali, and cleansers, soaps,
toothpaste, and make-up that contain lye or lead. Products like
these slide by as "natural" because no law prevents any
manufacturer or retailer from claiming they are