Natural Is Not the Same as Safe, A Little Fun for Friday

Well said, Heather! I try to buy everything minimally processed too.I totally agree with you about needing to learn basic cooking skills before worrying about other food issues. And while I'm a fan of raw milk and other raw foods, I try not to intimidate others with my views. I think the biggest problem with the raw milk debate is the push by government to tell us what we can eat. I guess if you look at it from a liberty stand point it is not so overwhelming. If someone wants to drink raw milk and eat raw cheese, let them. But if they don't want to eat that stuff, that's okay too.

This is pretty funny. Quicksand and tse tse flies gave me a good laugh!

Your mother was an elderberry! Sorry, couldn't help myself. :)

Caryn, my biology professor told me that about margarine, and we've eaten butter ever since as well. I do my best to stick with foods that have no MSG or other preservatives in them. I get lucky if I can find stuff with no sugar or added salt. I figure if I can buy stuff that's as close to the way I would make it from scratch, then it's good.

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"

Heh. That's what I think of every time I hear/see the word, elderberry.

As one of my med school professors was fond of saying, "Poison ivy's natural, but that doesn't mean it's good for you."

I love zombies. I love Home-Ec101.com. Nuff said.

i read somewhere that margarine is only one molecule away from being plastic...since then we only use real butter. my problem with "processed" foods is the stuff that is added or taken out of it...for instance..fat free or low fat mayo-what is that stuff that replaces the fats. or low carb bread - what did they take out of regular bread and what stuff did they add to make it "low-carb". personally, i always look to the ingredients listed and reject the item if i don't know what it is or how to pronounce it. on fresh produce i am also very cautious and check the label to see where it came from...yesterday i had sliced tomato that came from arkansas..delicious!

Hey now! What's a little arsenic among friends? And my son was pleased that you managed to mention zombies, yet again, on a home ec website. After all, zombies are people, too. Uh...were...people...um...

Rather than natural vs. chemical, I prefer to look at processed vs whole foods. I like to buy foods that are minimally processed, by which I mean that they are as close to God made 'em as I can get 'em. I'm not going to buy a whole cow, but once we bought 1/2 a side of beef, and had it cut as we wanted, wrapped & frozen. Not "enhanced with a solution" or irradiated. Just minimally processed into pieces we could use. I can't do that right now, so I look for meat in the grocery store that does not have anything added to it, and as far as I can tell, has not been irradiated.

For packaged products that I do buy, the first thing I look for is an extremely SHORT ingredients list with only things I can pronounce and preferably with only ingredients I could buy at a grocery store.

I love this - I often think of this when people are being too narrow-minded. Chlorine is an element on the periodic table - does this mean, it's an element found in nature? If so, I would add chlorine (bleach) to your list.

Very true Heather. Your readers should also be aware that just because a particular brand conveys the idea that they are natural (or organic, botanical, etc), you need to do your homework & check the labels. Cosmetic/skin care companies are notorious for this.