Organic food myths

One of my biggest pet peeves is the thought that products that are “natural” or organic are better for you. I struggle with the word “natural” all the time. What does it mean? I see it on products like cheese all the time. How is any kind of cheese products “natural”? Doesn’t cheese have to be made and processed? So processed food is natural? Or does natural mean all the the chemical compounds are from living organisms? Natural is a pretty generic term used mostly for marketing, and doesn’t mean much. Anything on the planet could be natural, or not depending on your definition of natural, if you trace it back to it’s elemental form. And just the fallacy that natural is good for you is just wrong. Arsenic, mercury, poison ivy and even lightning are all natural, and defiantly not good for you.

Then there is the whole organic thing. There is little difference between organic and non-organic products. In reality, organic products probably contain more pesticides and fertilizers than non-organic products do because they have to use less efficient, organic pesticides and fertilizers. Brian Dunning’s latest InFact video explains the difference between organic and non-organic products, and he explains it way better than I can.