{"id":213,"date":"2009-09-03T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-03T21:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/03\/organic-vs-natural-labeling\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T19:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T19:04:13","slug":"organic-vs-natural-labeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/03\/organic-vs-natural-labeling\/","title":{"rendered":"Organic vs. Natural Labeling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nAre any of my U.S. readers also Costco members? If so, you will notice an interesting piece in the September, 2009, Costco Connection <\/span><\/a>about \u201ctruth in labeling\u201d when it comes to food products labeled as \u201cnatural\u201d as opposed to \u201corganic.\u201d In David Horowitz\u2019s column on page 13 he reminds readers that food products labeled organic are regulated by the government and those labeled \u201cnatural\u201d are not.<\/p>\n

What does this mean? According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), organic foods must be produced without using harmful, conventional pesticides, fertilizers that contain synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge, bioengineering, or ionizing radiation\u2014all of which can take a toll on your body and fertility. For organic meat, poultry, eggs and dairy no growth hormones or antibiotics must have been used in the animals from which these products came. For foods that contain more than one ingredient (packaged foods), at least 70% of their content needs to be organic before the product can carry the organic label. For packaged foods, there can be additional levels of \u201corganic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Products labeled \u201cnatural\u201d on the other hand are a completely different story. As Mr. Horowitz\u2019s column points out, there is only regulation over the term \u201dnatural\u201d when it\u2019s applied to meat and poultry, in which the USDA has requires that the meat contains no artificial ingredients or added color and is minimally processed (a process that doesn\u2019t fundamentally alter the raw product). That doesn\u2019t cover the use of growth hormones or antibiotics, which is prohibited in the organic variety.<\/p>\n

This is the only area the word \u201cnatural\u201d is regulated, and I\u2019ve seen that word slapped on to products that may appear to be natural, but one glance at the ingredients listed on the back verifies that they are anything but. I have a friend who worked as an executive in market research for a conglomerate food company and she flat out told me, \u201cnatural\u201d means nothing. We slap it onto processed foods for marketing purposes. More people will buy them if it says \u201cnatural.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not to say that all food products abuse the natural label; some do make the effort. But it\u2019s up to us, the consumers, to figure that out. The way you do that is CHECK THE LABEL. Always! Flip the package over and scan the ingredients list. If there is anything unhealthy listed, skip it. If there are too many ingredients listed, say more than five or so as a guideline, skip it. If you don\u2019t recognize what something is, go home and look it up on the Internet. Better yet, just stick to organic as much as possible.<\/p>\n

Finally, when it comes to packaged foods, keep in mind that just because it\u2019s labeled organic doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that it\u2019s automatically good for you. If organic cane sugar is listed as a first or second ingredient, meaning there is more of it than other ingredients in the package, then this is a sugar-rich item and not so good for you! You should be avoiding all processed sugar, even if it\u2019s organic.<\/p>\n

Also, if there\u2019s something you\u2019d like to see covered in this blog, let me know!
\nBe well and stay healthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are any of my U.S. readers also Costco members? If so, you will notice an interesting piece in the September, 2009, Costco Connection about \u201ctruth in labeling\u201d when it comes to food products labeled as \u201cnatural\u201d as opposed to \u201corganic.\u201d In David Horowitz\u2019s column on page 13 he reminds readers that food products labeled organic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-organic-vs-natural","entry"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/organic-label-15.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/organic-label-15.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"baileycom","author_link":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/author\/baileycom\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215,"href":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions\/215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fertilekitchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}