The Incredible Arrogance of Thinking ‘Natural’ Means ‘Good’

Acg67

So I've explained why the natural fallacy is ill-informed, but why did I call it arrogant? It's arrogant because it suggests that the entirety of the natural world has been created purely as a service to humankind – that somehow the earth and everything on it grows simply for our pleasure or our consumption.

That's nonsense.

What's also nonsense is the chemophobic notion that "chemicals" are as inherently "bad" as "natural" products are good. Sure there are incredibly harmful chemicals, but it has been the past 100 or so years of chemicals that have helped to push our quantities and qualities of living to previously unheard of levels of luxury and length.

At the end of the day, what should inform our decisions is not the natural fallacy or chemophobia. We cannot simply assume anything we ingest, natural or chemical, is going to be good or bad for us consequent to its origins, and this holds especially true for those substances we ingest in the name of treating or preventing a medical condition.

Instead, we need to be reliant on evidence. While truthiness and thinking with your gut may work for Stephen Colbert; as far as your health goes, actual evidence goes a long, long way. And the only assumption that you should make is that if there isn't any evidence, it's best to tread cautiously.

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2013/08/21/dont-mistake-natural-for-good

Also Dr Bruce Ames on "toxic chemicals" fearmongering

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g1denSoAbc

VBnotbitter

Yes, yes, yes.

And in for the fun to follow

glin23

Agreed. There are many "natural" substances that are harmful.

Yanicka1

Humping this thread

snookumss

Exactly. I hate it when somebody thinks that something labeled all natural is ALWAYS so much better, just because.

WakkoW

Whatever! I know that natural tobacco is good!










J/k

snazzyjazzy21

Aw this thread is gonna be good!

Unknown

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ryry_

In for the roll

grimm1974

Every few years there is a new term that becomes the new trend.....lite, organic, natural. There is always some new label that comes out to sell product.

justlast

people seem to forget that arsenic and cyanide are as natural as apples.

chezjuan

Poison Ivy is natural... but I wouldn't use it as a topical skin cream.

jericalwhite

I LOVE that you are addressing. It's irritating that people or should I say "sheeple" don't even try to learn about these things, and instead just fully buy into it.

RubyRunner14

Bears and lions are natural but by no means healthy or safe!

Morn66

Funny, we were having just this (friendly) argument at work today. One of my staff is vegan like me but very much into the "natural" and "organic," which...Well, I'm not fussy about it. In fact, I don't care. If it's food I can eat, I eat it. She seems to think that she's going to "convert" me, but...Nah, my BS-ometer will prevail.

But anyway...*starts making popcorn in anticipation of the natural crowd's arrival*

MrsMX

Naturally I'm going to have to agree with the majority ...

nelinelineli

Here's my rant: My biggest issue on this topic is with the word "chemicals". Everything is chemicals - you, me, everything found in nature, purified or synthesized in a lab. The vast majority of deadly substances we commonly have are found in nature (cyanide anyone?). Similarly, many lab-made substances are identical to the "natural" products - for most the issue is quantity not quality (highly purified substances can be toxic not because they're different from the natural ones, but because we can consume high quantities - like fructose) . The only caveat here is that it takes a long time and a lot of studies to figure out if a newly made compound is indeed perfectly safe or has some unintended consequences, and at what dosage.

Wildflower0106

Poison Ivy is natural... but I wouldn't use it as a topical skin cream.

Ha! I was just about to post about how me and nature are not getting along right now because I am covered in poison ivy lol!

DragonSquatter

Naturally I'm going to have to agree with the majority ...

TheBaileyHunter

Naturally I'm going to have to agree with the majority ...

***

This image. It will give me nightmares.

Birds are evil incarnate. And THAT is just terrifying.

ninerbuff

Lol, we use chemicals to make our water drinkable. People use chemicals on their face to clean them or enhance them. Same as nails, and skin.
But somehow, not eating "natural" is the demise of why we are an overweight and obese nation along with more diseases. I'd start with over consumption first.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

LiftAllThePizzas

This also goes along with the "it has some usage in an industrial capacity and is therefore bad because of that." For example, if we found a way to use vitamin A as rocket fuel, or engine degreaser, or an antifreeze, or pesticide, etc, it would at that very instant magically become bad for you.

richardheath

You mean the whole world wasn't put here just for me??? :sad:

mmipanda

just depends how you define 'natural'. Naturally-occuring? cool. chemicals vs natural ingredients? bullsheet.


I'm pretty horrified by the way fruit is processed by the supermarket giants, so I buy local. Those shiny red apples? crushed up red beetles - http://www.cracked.com/article_15982_5-horrifying-food-additives-youve-probably-eaten-today.html

beetles are natural! Do I want to eat those apples? Hell no.

lacroyx

Lol, we use chemicals to make our water drinkable. People use chemicals on their face to clean them or enhance them. Same as nails, and skin.
But somehow, not eating "natural" is the demise of why we are an overweight and obese nation along with more diseases. I'd start with over consumption first.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

One of my coworkers at work likes to preach about her all natural diet. I remember a while back she said I was going to die because I needed to eat healthier. I pointed out how much weight I've lost and no longer have a need for the medications I was taking in the past. No longer diabetic, or have high blood pressure and cholesterol and my doctor said everything is looking great in my latest blood work. I then ask her how she is doing and what her doctor says. She shuts up and doesn't say anything. She's also nearly 80-90 lbs overweight, rarely exercises, but still is convinced she is much healthier than I because she eats "all natural".

jen_zz

I think people need to obsess less about these details when they should first focus on less consumption overall.

maillemaker

This is why I always try to put "natural" in quotes when talking about eating "natural" foods.

Everything in this universe is "natural" at it's fundamental level. And has been pointed out, there are many natural things that are not good for you. You wouldn't want to drink a glass of natural arsenic, would you?

But discounting the term "natural" in a fitness sense does a disservice to people trying to lose weight. Because there are definite benefits to eating "natural" (notice the quotes) foods as opposed to processed foods.

The number one benefit, to me, is that "natural" foods are typically less calorie-dense than processed foods. If you eat for pleasure, like I do, and eat until satisfied, as I used to do, and your diet consists mostly of processed foods, you will find it very, every easy to over-consume calories. But if you eat "natural" foods, you will find it harder to do.

What this means is that if you eat a "natural" diet it is easier to stay in your calorie allotment.

Can you over-consume calories eating "natural" foods? Of course you can. Especially if you want to drop some serious coin on uber-tasty "natural" foods like steak, or lobster, or shrimp, etc. But generally speaking, if you cruise through your grocery store's produce isle there isn't much there that is going to make you think, "Man, I'd like to eat all I can of that!" And even if you did eat all you could of many natural foods, you still probably wouldn't be consuming that many calories.

On the other hand, eat as many Doritos or Oreos as you can in a sitting and you can probably come close to your entire daily allotment of calories!

So eating "natural" means you generally get to eat more filling volume and experience the pleasure of eating for longer than if you eat processed foods.

The second big benefit to eating "natural" foods is that generally speaking, they have fewer carbohydrates in them than processed foods. This means they won't cause spikes and crashes in blood sugar that can often lead to feeling hungry soon after eating them. When you are trying to stick to a diet, hunger is usually what saps and breaks willpower. You might crave the taste of something, but if you aren't hungry, you can usually hold it off. But if you get hungry, you may be driven to eat, and then eat anything. So staving off hunger is a huge benefit to staying on a diet.

That's not to say that there are not sugar-loaded natural foods that can spike your blood sugar just like eating a cookie. For example, I put honey in my natural peanut butter. Guess what - that's basically sugar. Fruits also, as you would expect from being sweet, contain fructose.

So a diet of "natural" foods may keep you on a more even keel in terms of appetite control, especially if you eat the ones with natural sugar in them sparingly.

Maybe there is a better word that we can come up for these kinds of foods other than "natural". When I think of "natural" foods, I think of foods with ideally one ingredient. If you killed it to eat it, it's probably "natural", and it's probably better for your diet to eat than something with an ingredient list that reads like a chemistry set.

Acg67

just depends how you define 'natural'. Naturally-occuring? cool. chemicals vs natural ingredients? bullsheet.


I'm pretty horrified by the way fruit is processed by the supermarket giants, so I buy local. Those shiny red apples? crushed up red beetles - http://www.cracked.com/article_15982_5-horrifying-food-additives-youve-probably-eaten-today.html

beetles are natural! Do I want to eat those apples? Hell no.

Do you want to be eating hydrogen peroxide in your local organic apple? Cause you are

maillemaker

I think people need to obsess less about these details when they should first focus on less consumption overall.

Eating "natural" foods generally does this for you automatically. In addition, they generally don't cause spikes in blood sugar that can lead to willpower-sapping feelings of hunger.

For people used to eating to satiety, switching to a "natural" food diet will generally make it easier to still maintain some measure of satiety while eating than otherwise.

WendyTerry420

Well, I guess I am arrogant because I do think the world belongs to its inhabitants. I agree with everything else though.

dbrightwell1270

I've always been baffled by the "it's all natural" pitch and how people can believe it. I knew a girl who used metabolife and would always say, "It's all natural so it's good for you." I'd follow up by asking if mercury, uranium, or lead were good for her too.