Natural, what does that mean? Within the confines of each of us is a place where we are all certain that we have an active, working and accurate definition of what the word natural means. In truth, the different ways that natural is qualified, quantified and cajoled has more to do with the perspective of the person using it than the context in which it is used.

The average consumer sees the word natural as a panacea for all that is good and right in the world. To them something that is natural comes directly from nature. It is raw, unrefined. It becomes a component of magical proportion because we often believe that natural is equivalent to perfect.

I dont dispute that nature has myriad examples of perfection. It is important for us to recognize that the most magnificent examples of natures perfection are only perfection because they are imperfect. Dont we secretly all love snowflakes because we are certain there are no two that are alike? The Hope Diamond is famous for the perfection of its beauty. Lets not forget; it is the contamination of the pure carbon by boron that makes it so elegantly blue. The perfection of a pearl is the solution of an oyster to an irritation, a less than perfect circumstance. Dont the most fabulous rivers meander to their destinations? I have lived on a farm for many years and I know you all arent gonna get on board for this one but water that has been purified to the extent that there is nothing in it other H2 and O can never be compared to the taste of cool, crisp and refreshing good ole dirty well water.

It is these types of images that are conjured in the average consumer when they see the word natural on a label. Too often they do not exercise reasonable thinking. Nature is full of compounds that are lethal in their original states. Nature can be bad. We know this; still, we find it difficult not to be romantic.

Big business knows that we find it difficult to resist the romance of nature. You cannot turn around without seeing the new reformulated natural concoction. It often will have some rare botanical you have never heard of that is the latest miracle thing. The fact that we havent heard of it makes it exotic. Its just all so seductive. Corporations have even taken to breaking synthetics down to their component parts so that they can appear natural. Who has time to really decode what they tell us?

Its time for humanity to find the time to consider ingredients and the ramifications of what they do. We have let the convenience of products that have indefinite shelf lives coddle us into turning a blind eye. We have let the pursuit of the fountain of youth (the timeless euphemism for our fear of death) convince us that injecting toxins, plastering toxins all over our bodies and ingesting toxins is a fantastic idea. We have let supply dictate our demands. We have abdicated the power of the consumer to the manufacturers. Manufacturers are more than willing to sell us the shiny, the pretty, and the obtuse even if it kills us. They do so without regard for whether they hasten us to that point which we so desperately abhor.

Special interest label readers, people with allergies, vegans, vegetarians and some dieters are typically vigilant about their specific interests. They are the best consumers in some ways. Unfortunately, the general public because of their enthusiasm discards some of the important knowledge they can share. An avid omnivore might not heed the warnings of a zealous vegan because they assume because their dining habits are not the same that they somehow dont have anything important to say on the subject. To be trite, its the baby going down the drain with the bathwater. Vegans should not allow themselves to become complacent. A product can be strictly vegan and still be poison.

To the marketer, natural is just another term equivalent to buy me! Was it one of the big manufacturers that told us that all of the mainstream skin care products had ingredients that appeared in the breasts of women with breast cancer? This fact has not translated into direct causality in all instances but it is darned suspicious. It is enough to raise a drawn on eyebrow.

Nature provides us with many solutions to several challenges of the modern world. They are not generic solutions. A botanical that has antibacterial properties may be effective for its appointed use at one amount, ineffective at other amounts and toxic or at least irritating at others. One size never fits all.

We cant all be chemists but we can at least be skeptical of what a manufacturer tells us on their label. We all think we know that ingredients are listed in order of their quantity. If we knew that at the 1% level ingredients can be listed in any order and we recognized that we dont know where the 1% level begins on the list, wouldnt we be a bit more hesitant to purchase the aloe lotion just because it has aloe at the end of the list and a big picture of an aloe vera plant on the cover.

In short, (I know its a little late for that) we have to find a way to not allow marketers to exploit our fears and ignorance to the extent that we are willing to leap head first into the abyss. Be careful; read labels.