What does the word “natural” mean? Something that comes from nature? Does it mean something that isn’t created my humans? Well, with that question in mind, what are natural flavors and are they really “natural”? Companies now a days advertise their products as being “all-natural” or “naturally flavored”; but, are they really telling the truth?
Many people have different definitions of natural, and so do the companies advertising the products. People, however, think that all-natural foods with natural flavoring is healthier and better for you. The company, “Nature Made” is a great example of how people may be thinking that everything “Nature Made” makes is healthy. Guidelines of anything “natural” usually just applies to flavoring, so if there
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Natural flavors can also make its way in your organic food too. If organic food is at least 95% organic, the other 5% can be natural flavors added in. Foods such as these organic cheese crackers have “natural cheese flavor” in them while the rest of the list is consisted of organic ingredients (See picture 1).
Not only that, but even sodas are trying to make their products natural (See picture 2). As pictured, one of the ingredients in the “natural” soda is acacia gum. No, they didn’t put actual gum in the soda; but, acacia gum is actually used as a demulcent. It is used for healing wounds and is shown to reside in the early deposition of plaque. Lastly, the most common place to find food with natural flavoring in it is just in normal food that isn’t organic or claims to be natural. Yogurt for example, contains natural flavors as well (See picture 3 on the next page).
However, natural flavors can mean MSG (monosodium glutamate), which is a flavor enhancer that amplifies the savory taste of food. Knowing this, almost all the food you can purchase at the grocery store is not 100% natural, even if the labels say it