A bare assertion is not necessarily the naked truth.
So since I’ve gotten back to the United States, back to the land of plenty and more than enough choice when it comes to food products to buy, I’ve found myself almost daily picking up a bottled of the NAKED brand’s green machine smoothie. The first time I tasted it I fell in love, despite it’s slimy green appearance, and when I read the ingredients list everything seemed pretty healthy and good for an ELAA Body. Or so it seemed!
Apple Juice, Mango Puree, Pineapple Juice, banana Puree, Kiwi Puree, Natural Flavors, Spirulina, Chlorella, Broccoli, spinach barley grass, wheat grass, parsley, ginger root, blue green alagae, odorless garlic ….. all these ingredients sound like a power smoothie designed to keep any body in tip top shape ... all except for one… the “natural flavors”. That has nagged at me everytime I bought one of these smoothies, as I wondered why exactly they had to say “natural” flavors and not exactly name the ingredient or ingredients??
So finally I sat down and took the time to look this up and low and behold the first thing I find is that NAKED (owned by Pepsi Cola co. ) were being sued for using GMO’s and synthetic substances in their claimed “Non –GMO” “All Natural” products.. (like my darling smoothie)!
Apparently there are many loopholes as to what companies can deem “Natural” and the legal crackdown on the term is only beginning to take place now.
While we might believe, upon seeing or hearing the term “Natural” that the product must be good for you the truth is in fact that “Natural” usually means man-made.
Robert L. Wolke, at the Washington Post, sums it up:
“In simple terms, a natural flavor is defined as a substance extracted, distilled, or otherwise derived from plant or animal matter, either directly from the matter itself or after it has been roasted, heated or fermented . . . Note also that a natural flavor need not come from the very food it is flavoring. For example, a flavor chemical derived from chicken — and it need not taste like chicken — can be used to flavor a can of beef ravioli.”
And then artificial flavors are any flavoring substances that do not fit the definition of natural flavor.
But whats the point to using the flavors? Well, it is not possible to recreate the flavors naturally occurring in nature, exactly or cheaply so companies concoct chemicals in the lab to flavor our foods and make them taste more like the real thing.
The scary thing is the side effects that these chemicals can create; As I read on another blog things like Benzaldehyde causes central nervous system depression and convulsions. Vanillan (the widely used vanilla flavoring) causes allergic reactions, Amyl acetate (pear and banana oil) which many artifical flavors are made with causes nervous system depression as well, indigestion, headaches, fatigue and irritates the mucus membranes. And Butyric acid has even caused cancer in lab animals!!
So the moral of the story here is to not just assume that “natural” means healthy or good for you as more often than not, it doesn’t! if they aren’t naming every ingredient by it’s real name… be suspicious. Be very suspicious!
So I think im going to stick to making my smoothies at home from now on (although i need to go buy a blender), which really sucks because I love that Naked Juice!! In Europe though a brand called Innocent smoothies which make equally as delicious drinks, seem to not have any “Natural Flavors” in their products. It seems to be all the real deal!
(So really, I wouldn’t be having Naked smoothies if you’re trying to look good naked!!)
Unfortuantely NOT ELAA approved :(
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