Natural Ingredients – What Does This Really Mean?

One of the things that really bothers me in my quest to become more eco-friendly is when I search for ‘natural ingredients’ – just what does this mean? The truth is that many of our household cleaning products don’t list the ingredients they’re made from, which in most cases are toxic and extremely unhealthy as well as being bad for the environment. However, it can be difficult to know what is good for you.

What Does Natural Mean?

There is disagreement over what natural ingredients really mean. The truth is that many manufacturers simply use the word ‘natural’ as a way to market their product and fool people into buying it. The rules governing the use of the term on packaging are in fact very loose, which is why you wouldn’t be blamed for accidentally buying into one of these supposedly ‘natural’ products.

The truth is that, while some products do contain natural ingredients, they also include synthetic chemicals that are unhealthy. This can include things such as petroleum which are not even tested for their safety on humans. There are even new toxic chemicals being added to our cleaning products all the time.

photo credit: Andre Meia

Doing Your Research

Research can help make up for this situation to some degree, though it is still difficult to get to the bottom of what the chemicals do. There is very little information available, which is why it’s better to stay away from these products altogether. If ingredients are not even listed on a product at all, chances are they are unnatural and unhealthy.

One thing you should do is to always read labels carefully. If a product is marketed as ‘natural’ don’t just accept it – check the labels and what it contains. If you don’t recognise some of the ingredients, look them up online. Yes, this process can be time consuming, but it’s also well worth it if you want to protect the health of yourself and your family.

And if this sounds too hard, remember that the best way to ensure you’re always using natural ingredients is to use homemade cleaning recipes and create the product yourself!

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