\u201cDelicious,\u201d \u201chearty,\u201d \u201cnutritious,\u201d and \u201cwholesome,\u201d are just some of the buzz words used to catch your eye in the supermarket. But nothing is as overused and fraudulent as the term \u201call natural.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since all natural<\/em> has no official definition, Big Food uses it without the least little concern on anything it cares to, including products that are so blatantly unnatural that companies have been sued for using the term. Kashi brand, owned by Kellogg\u2019s, is one example. While the company settled several cases instead of going to court and paid out close to $9 million (much of it going to \u201creimburse shoppers\u201d a small fraction of their purchase price), Kellogg\u2019s only promised to clean up its language, not the Kashi ingredients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Kashi California class-action lawsuit, settled in 2014, involved falsely advertising cereals, bars, cookies and crackers as \u201call natural\u201d or made with \u201cnothing artificial\u201d when they contained, according to the complaint, \u201can array of chemicals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The court documents also stated that Kashi shakes are \u201ccomposed almost entirely of synthetic and unnaturally processed ingredients\u2026\u201d many of which are \u201cshocking.\u201d Also mentioned in the complaint was this interesting tidbit: \u201cDefendants (Kashi) also added several highly process excitotoxins to its products that are hidden sources of monosodium glutamate, a.k.a. \u2018MSG.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We recently checked out some Kashi products starting with Kashi GO Original cereal. The very first ingredient is soy protein concentrate, which always contains manufactured free glutamate (MfG), the very same excitotoxic, brain damaging, glutamic acid found in all flavor enhancers including MSG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kashi GO dark cocoa contains even more MfG-containing ingredients, namely lentil protein, pea protein and natural flavors. Many in the \u201cGO\u201d lineup, in fact, contain soy, lentil or pea protein \u2013 all sources of MfG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Kashi Go Protein Waffles aren\u2019t any better, containing whey protein concentrate (said to be organic, so that makes it an organic excitotoxin!), and natural flavors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after the class-action cases were settled, an odd array of feel-good Kashi stories started circulating. \u201cEat This, Not That!,\u201d for example bragged about the \u201c10 things you don\u2019t know about Kashi,\u201d such as how they \u201chelp farmers\u201d and are \u201cfriends to honey bees.\u201d Other articles focused on their whole grains and that they are \u201chealth-conscious foods.\u201d Of course, it could have been a coincidence, but we\u2019ve observed that it\u2019s common for PR firms to plant such favorable press after getting negative publicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As shoppers are becoming leerier of \u201call-natural\u201d claims, Big Food is looking for other ways to deceive consumers. One expert in food labeling said \u201cI think we\u2019re seeing the end of the golden age of natural. We\u2019ll see more words like \u2018Simply\u2019 instead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, now we know another deceptive marketing term to watch out for.<\/p>\n