# Why does "natural" = "healthy" to people



## wendybyrd (Oct 7, 2009)

I'm still trying to wrap my head around how so many people equate natural with good-for-you.  People worry about the lye, is it natural, is it ok?  Remember folks, Cobra venom is 100% natural.  

So how did the phrase "natural" become synonymous with "healthy"?  It can't all be good marketing!  And how do we educate people that it is alright to use soap made with lye?


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## ShearDelight (Oct 7, 2009)

I'm curious as well..


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## carebear (Oct 7, 2009)

for people who take the time to think it through - it doesn't

what's more - defining "natural" is down right impossible.  petroleum is natural (it's from the ground and made of deceased dinosaurs!), everything is "derived from nature"  and everything (i mean EVERYTHING) is made of chemicals.

and what's more, even healthy stuff used wrong is dangerous.

there are no simple answers.


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## Tabitha (Oct 7, 2009)

I agree. Natural does not equal good and synthetic does not equal bad. Cat poop is 'all natural' but I certainly do not want it in my soap.


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## IanT (Oct 7, 2009)

lol yeahhh that good ol' fashioned American brain washing...

Id say possibly from countless hours of media onslaught on TV, billboards, radio etc...


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## TessC (Oct 7, 2009)

"Natural" is right up there with "green", in my opinion. So much of the greenwashing and green labeling hype is just that, hype. People want to feel good about what they buy, and having comforting words like natural, green, etc. give some people that warm fuzzy feeling even though they haven't looked into the claims. Some of the stuff that's labeled green will make you roll your eyes once you do some research on it.


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## donniej (Oct 7, 2009)

Plague, cyanide, arsenic, earth quakes, tornadoes.... yup, all natural   

It's a back lash from chemical processed everything.  The clothes you're wearing are probably petroleum, the meat you eat treated with antibiotics andf hormones, plants with insecticides and petroleum fertilizers.... the list goes on and on.  People are getting tired of the powdered and instant everything culture which began in the 1960's.  People want to reconnect with the classical ways of doing things, but this isn't always for the best.


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## ewepootoo (Oct 7, 2009)

I think the only way to avoid all the nasties in everything we eat and use in our daily life is to grow it yourself or make it out of the raw materials. I worked in the Malting industry for a few years and the barley that came in could have been sprayed with just about anything and once placed in the Germination boxes it was sprayed with a growth promotant so it would grow a 10mm shoot in 4 days.As it was being dried in the kiln it was fumigated with Sulphur Dioxide gas and then when stored in the silo's it was again fumigated with Pyrethrin gas. All this before it even went off to the brewery to make beer. Maybe it's not the alchohol in beer that kill's you in the end. Steve


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## IanT (Oct 7, 2009)

ewepootoo said:
			
		

> I think the only way to avoid all the nasties in everything we eat and use in our daily life is to grow it yourself or make it out of the raw materials. I worked in the Malting industry for a few years and the barley that came in could have been sprayed with just about anything and once placed in the Germination boxes it was sprayed with a growth promotant so it would grow a 10mm shoot in 4 days.As it was being dried in the kiln it was fumigated with Sulphur Dioxide gas and then when stored in the silo's it was again fumigated with Pyrethrin gas. All this before it even went off to the brewery to make beer. Maybe it's not the alchohol in beer that kill's you in the end. Steve





**** STRAIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


My dream is to own 100 acres I can farm up and turn into a yoga/bodywork/spa retreat... that would be soooooo awesome 

Id have my own veggies, fresh everything... maybe even livestock, a vineyard... start my own winery... oooo I could do so much.. 

I have seriously been contemplating bartering bodywork with this organic farm down the road for some fresh veggies weekly ... mmm goood 


EDIT:... yeah and i was the only college kid i knew with a full garden of culinary herbs on the balcony cause i would never eat out and cooked everything fresssshhh  MANGE'!


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## Tabitha (Oct 7, 2009)

Ian, I think that is called a hippie-commune LOL!


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## ewepootoo (Oct 8, 2009)

*Ian* I havent quite got 100 acres but i have raised pigs, cattle and chook's. I did not eat the chook's or the steers but the pigs were yummy. The free range eggs are the best, just got to keep the foxes away. I dont get much rain here so the vegie garden did not do so well even after the many tons of sheep manure I have dug into it. Living out here in the stick's is worth it's weight in gold and I hope I never have to return to the city. I am old enough to have been a hippie (but not a beatnik) so maybe I could start my own commune. Steve


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## artisan soaps (Oct 8, 2009)

..


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## cwayneu (Oct 8, 2009)

In the US, "natural" ingredients could be just about anything. There is no legal definition or guideline for the term natural in labeling. So basically it's a marketing gimmick.


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## ShearDelight (Oct 8, 2009)

cwayneu said:
			
		

> In the US, "natural" ingredients could be just about anything. There is no legal definition or guideline for the term natural in labeling. So basically it's a marketing gimmick.



Clark Howard was talking about this very thing this morning and reminded me of this thread.


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