All-Natural Snake Oil: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Remember: People still sell snake oil. They just put pictures of leaves on the bottle now."''|'''''[[Cracked.com]]'', [http://www.cracked.com/article_18549_8-health-foods-that-are-bad-your-health.html "8 Health Foods That Are Bad For Your Health"]'''}}
Next time you see an ad for food or medicine, count the number of times it uses the words 'nature' or 'natural'. Now look back on it and observe the inverse correlation between use of the word 'natural' and what the ad actually tries to tell you about the product.
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* The [http://www.sfntc.com/ Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company]. The healthiest, most ecologically responsible coffin nails you can buy. The vast majority of carcinogens in tobacco occur naturally in the leaf as it's cured, no additives necessary. Most additives used in tobacco products are benign flavorings, like cocoa and vanilla. Just don't tell the folks who smoke American Spirits.
* A UK supermarket promoted their vanilla extract (or it might have been vanilla ice cream) as being good and natural, containing no 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde. Which, if taken at face value, means that their vanilla product has no vanillin, the naturally occuring molecule responsible for vanilla's taste.
* One should also be careful, because "natural flavor" does not mean "made with what it sounds like it's made with". As [http://www.cracked.com/article_15982_5-horrifying-food-additives-youve-probably-eaten-today.html this ''Cracked'' article] sarcastically but correctly points out, if it says "natural flavor" on your orange candy, it wasn't made with oranges; if it had been, that would be a selling point. It also points out that natural flavor could be ''anything'' provided it wasn't made in a lab. Cat urine and goat jizz are two examples they list. They hasten to point out that these probably aren't in your foods (yet), but all the same, maybe it's time to start being horrified.
** Buttered popcorn is a bit better, where "natural flavor" usually means "we took the ingredients for butter, we just didn't turn them into actual butter".
* The advertising for many "natural" products makes a big deal about not using "refined sugar"; but are instead "fruit juice sweetened". The problem with this claim is that the "fruit juice" used is actually [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0813/is_n8_v18/ai_11450786/ ''deionized'' fruit juice]. This is essentially bland-tasting juice -- apple, white grape, or pear -- filtered to strip out all remaining flavour, colour, and nutritional content; leaving only the sugar and water content. That's right, it's nothing but sugar water under a different name. It's the exact same form of sugar as the supposedly "unnatural" refined version, just pre-diluted, and costing several times as much. The only reason that deionized fruit juice exists is to legally allow the product to advertise itself as "all natural".
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* Many manufacturers of snack chips (we're looking at you, Frito-Lay) like to point out that their products are "all natural." They do have a better claim than much of this list - most chips are just potato slices/batter or cornmeal, fried in plant oil and salted. The problem is that there's more than enough oil to be fattening - Fritos in particular are so soaked in it that they ''quick-burn''.
** Having seen Fritos used as kindling, it's surprising they've never marketed it as having more practical uses than as a snack.
* Providing the second quote for this page is ''[[Cracked.com]]'''s list of [http://www.cracked.com/article_18549_8-health-foods-that-are-bad-your-health.html "8 Health Foods That Are Bad For Your Health"], which puts herbal supplements squarely at Number One. The article points out that, unlike pharmaceutical medicines, alternative and herbal remedies aren't regulated by the FDA, which means that some of them can be downright dangerous. In addition to herbal supplements, the article notes the dangers of such "health" foods as fast food salads <ref>they're usually just as unhealthy as the fast food place's regular selection, if not more so</ref>, granola/cereal bars <ref>many of them are as fattening as candy bars thanks to all the chocolate and processed fruit they have, and the ones that aren't taste like, well, granola</ref>, bran muffins <ref>they're still almost as fatty as regular muffins</ref> and vitamin water <ref>they have about two-thirds the sugar of a can of Coke or Pepsi, and the "low-calorie" versions have artificial sweeteners, which the granola crowd thinks are of questionable safety</ref>.
** The non-regulation of "supplements" is a major problem for athletes who use protein powders, as they fall into this regulation category even though they're definitely food, and used in much larger amounts.
* One of the most famous and egregous modern-day "snake oil salesmen" is infomercial star [[wikipedia:Kevin Trudeau|Kevin Trudeau]], who was convicted of credit card fraud and grand larceny in the past and had to pay a fine in 1999 for making dangerously erronenous health claims in the past before restarting and publishing his same old flim-flam under the ''[x] "They" Don't Want You To Know About'' series of books. The ''Natural Cures'' one was shown to feature "cures" for such things as '''cancer and diabetes'''. You know, illnesses that will ''kill'' you if you don't get proper medical care for them. Trudeau has no medical expertise or a medical background at all. None.
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