It Must Be Good For Me, It's All-Natural

In recent years, marketing has shifted to accomodate a more and more health-conscious audience. From foods that are low in fats to those that claim to give you better athletic performance, every product these days seems to be aimed at the new, health-minded individual. Perhaps the most dubious of these marketing ploys, however, are promises of all-natural or organic products.

First of all, what do these terms mean? For the most part, they can't possibly mean that a product has not undergone some sort of processing, otherwise supplements wouldn't come in a nice pill form.

Perhaps it refers to the ingredients. The logic behind such marketing is the assumption that anything that occurs in nature must be good for us. Then again, there are tons of compounds
and plants that occur naturally that aren't so good for us. Both carbon monoxide and hemlock occur naturally. For that matter, so do grizzly bears, but you don't see everybody rushing out to buy one. Come to think of it, though, it wouldn't really surprise me if people did. I can imagine it now:
"Have you seen Tammy? She just went on that new organic WonderBear diet. She just got her her all-natural grizzly bear yesterday, and the pounds are literally sloughing off."

Personally, I don't put much stock in the all-natural and organic taglines. Sure, that supplement you're taking has all-natural ginseng, aloe vera extract, and kumquat oil, all of which make you more youthful, more energetic, and, of course, more virile. However, it often even says on the packaging that such claims have not been proven. Despite such disclaimers, gullible consumers continue to buy. Naturally.