What Does Natural Mean Exactly?
Yesterday’s post posed a simple question about baking soda … is it natural?
After providing a little background information about the composition and sources of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), it was clear that there is a considerable amount of processing taking place in both the older Solvay process as well as the current processes to produce baking soda from the mineral trona.
But is it really the amount of processing that determines whether or not something is natural?
Let’s consider a few facts and see what we uncover!
According to the American Heritage Dictionary online, the basic definition for the word “natural” as an adjective is:
“Present in or produced by nature; and as used in Biology – Not produced or changed artificially; not conditioned”.
Based on this definition, my understanding is that for something to be natural it must either be the raw material supplied by the Earth system or a material existing in the natural material that can be extracted or refined without changing it.
So when we use a raw material directly, say salt as a preservative; nahcolite (mineral form of sodium bicarbonate) as baking soda; or fine grit mineral as an abrasive, those materials are indeed natural.
The other case I see as being natural is when we extract or refine a substance to purify without adding anything to the product such as extraction or refining of essential oils and even extracting components existing in a mineral (so long as nothing new is added).
Thinking back to the two processes to produce baking soda, when the Solvay process was being used to produce baking soda (which it really is not today), baking soda was essentially manufactured and not natural.
In the case of processing trona (Na3CO3(HCO3) – 2H2O), since the mineral contains NaHCO3 this is really a matter of extracting sodium bicarbonate from trona.
Because it is essentially an extraction process, today’s baking soda is indeed “natural”.
Do you agree?
Jim, After your post yesterday, the answer is in some question. I am amazed by the things which are sold as being natural and yet they are so often heavily processed. What’s with that? Therefore, it is incumbent upon the consumer to be knowledgeable about “natural” items. “Let the buyer beware.” Thank you for the useful information you are making available on this blog. It is becoming a resource for me.
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Hi5 folks – I disagree with these company’s who produce natural products and use or ad chemicals to the so called natural product – it should be labeled from or added to this natural product in bold letters so the consumer knows what is in the so called natural product – there is nothing wrong in the processing of a natural product for obvious reasons in the way of cleaning even refining certain products comes to my mind – but it should be stated so the end user can judge for themselves if certain products are what they expected when in the purchasing mode
Great post food for thought
Phillip Skinner
.-= The New Money Making Blog´s last blog ..5 Things You Must Have to Succeed in Your Network Marketing Business =-.
Hmm … I go agree that something can be called “natural” when the sole extraction process is something like squeezing juice from a lemon. However, extracting a specific compound (as in the example above) I am not so sure of. Separating two different compounds, theoretically, results in two completely differnt compounds. It’s really not like the juice and rind of a lemon being extracted. Then again, I was never big in chemistry.
By the way, you might want to change your font / background color to something with greater contrast. I had to highlight this post to read it.
I appreciate you,
Bill Tessore
“Natural” well it seems baking soda is!
Natural, biodegradable, eco friendly etc are all terms that are being bandied about with reckless abandon.
More food for thought…I purchased the other day Natural Recyled Knickers made from recycled Bamboo, marketed as eco friendly for our planet…Viscose/Bamboo/Elastane, Made in China. Very comfy too!
How ‘natural’ they are…I’ll leave that for you to work out.
Cheers
Julie
.-= Julie McClelland´s last blog ..Cravings | Unhealthy Food made Healthy =-.
It doesn’t appear that anybody is out there regulating ‘natural’ products. I agree that when there isn’t anything added to the product it is natural. Processes, chemicals, toxins, and I am sure quite a few other issues (I am not knowledgeable enough on the subject) make products unnatural.
It’s good to hear that the baking soda we have now is natural. I heard a good use for it (ladies listen up) from my hairdresser. Many of us use ‘product’ on our hair to style it or keep it in place. This builds up over time and baking soda helps remove it. I was told to wash my hair as normal and then apply baking soda and work it through. After, wash a second time (less shampoo needed this time since the hair is clean) and rinse. It works great and since I am using it on my head, I am happy that it is natural!!
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Hi Vicki,
Regulating … not really at least in this point in time. There are some independent certification groups (like Green Seal) that have developed standards and an approval seal to be displayed on products meeting those standards which is a start. Thanks for the tip on baking soda for hair care
Jim
Hi Julie
You hit the nail on the head with your second question (and that was part of my subliminal message
. The problem in using terms like natural, organic, chemical and the other terms is a matter of multiple definitions and a lack of understanding.
I recently came across a website for a company producing and selling a line or natural, organic, earth-friendly cleaning products that also uses the phrase “100% Chemical Free” on one of the pages (a chemist is one of the founders too!). Here’s my issue with that …. the only way something can be “100% Chemical Free” is when it’s an absolute vacuum! Virtually all matter in the world around us is chemical (the air is chemical with mostly nitrogen, oxygen and many other gases/vapors at lower concentrations)! Water is a chemical! Essential oils contains many chemicals! Are the people at that company stupid? Or are they trying to leave the impression that anytime you see chemical name on a product (rather than a common name) it’s dangerous? Hmmmmmmm
Thanks for commenting!