I draw the line at my breakfast table

I’ve had this burr under my saddle a long time. It’s going to get me in trouble, but when it comes to my own breakfast table, it’s time.

I’ve had a little note in my column ideas list for a long time that said “natural foods.” It’s always rankled me how that term gets thrown around carelessly in food labeling, in conversation and in recipes online and on television.

Recently, my wife, while justifying the purchase of several little bottles of flavored sweeteners, used that word. I asked her again why she liked paying more for the stuff and she used “that term,” it’s natural. She said the stevia in it came from a plant.

I would argue that my sweetener of choice lately, sucralose, also comes from a plant. Apparently, it starts with sucrose (table sugar) and alters it through a chemical process. Table sugar comes either from sugar cane or sugar beets.

The terms “natural” and “all natural” have, over the last few decades, cropped up all over and aren’t restricted to the health food store or even the health food aisle of your regular store. The mere mention of the terms add great value to a product it seems, even if they’re essentially or exactly the same as the brand name next to it that has been on shelves for years.

Many news stories and features over the last decade or so have pointed out repeatedly that the word “natural” isn’t defined by the FDA as is the term “organic.” Once the FDA got involved in defining organic there was no more messing around. If you were going to be labeled organic, by golly, you were going to be subject to inspections and fines.

Most people still use “natural” and “organic” interchangeably, however, with no regard to what they mean to your health, your food budget or the economy.

The other food term that folks toss around without thinking, but not as much as those first two, is the word “processed.” Suddenly processing our food is bad? Has anyone ever tried eating the cow on the ground where you dropped her with a rock — hide and all? I’m thinking that would be a little too natural for most of us and the hide, hair and horns wouldn’t have that much nutritional value.

I like my food processed at least to some degree, even if that only means I washed the tomato and sliced it myself. The sugar on your table took considerable processing as did the sucralose and the stevia sweetener labeled gluten free, Kosher Parve, non-GMO and natural.

I’m not a dietician, a farmer or a chemist, and I’m not going to tell you what you should or shouldn’t eat. Stuff labeled “all natural” can be quite tasty and sometimes even affordable. That organic tomato can be loaded with flavor with nary a bug on the vine. Packaged grocery items that don’t use processed flour or dairy products can be quite yummy.

All I ask is that you not turn your food preferences into a religion and don’t be foolish where your budget, your safety and the safety of your family is concerned.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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