PREVIEW: what hides behind the vague, ambiguous ingredient "Natural Flavors" and how it can impact our health

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By definition, “natural” means something NOT made or caused by humans; it means something is unaffected, spontaneous, inherent in nature. Literally anything NOT artificial, manufactured, or processed…

So ofcourse you see “Natural Flavors” listed as an ingredient and start to imagine something similar to freshly picked berries, juice squeezed from lemons, ripe tomatoes off the vine, vanilla beans scraped right off the pod, or any other straight-from-the-source ingredient.

Who could blame you for using so much common sense? NOBODY — which is exactly why “Natural” Flavors are one of the best kept secrets in almost every food product, including foods we think are healthy. They know we’re reading the word “Natural” assuming it’s healthier than “Artificial” flavors, and it’s making flavors a billion dollar industry).

First of all, what is “flavor”?

The short answer: chemicals — because everything is a chemical (air, water, our body) and the flavors we taste in our food are no exception… every flavor we taste is just a unique combination of elements, atoms, molecules, and compounds. Different chemical combos create different flavor profiles (sour, sweet, salty, bitter, unami). It’s why an apple doesn’t taste like an orange and steak doesn’t taste like chicken. Different chemical combos is what makes every food taste unique!

The best part: the same chemical combos that give food flavor are the same chemical combos our body recognizes as nutrients (!!). Yall this means FOOD HAS FLAVOR FOR A REASON: we’re wired to associate flavor with nutrition; we’re designed to taste the flavor of a specific food and identify the nutrients it has inside. Flavor serves a purpose; it’s the cue that tells our body a food has the nutrients we need. It’s why fresh, natural, real food tastes amazing: the flavor of fresh peaches, or real beef steaks is like a chemical message to our brain that says, “eat me.” It means we’re not designed to dislike the taste of real, nutritious food — we’re designed to want it. We’re designed to instinctually crave it. We’re designed to enjoy the food that give our body the nutrients it needs to function.

So what happens when we create flavor?

We’re adding flavor to “food.”

You can find Artificial and Natural Flavors listed as an ingredient in hundreds of packaged foods no matter where you shop whether it’s Food Lion, Martins, Safeway, Weis, Whole Foods, Wegmans, Sprouts, Moms, online, or your local market.

These Artificial or Natural Flavors are how companies create crazy combinations like peep flavored pepsi or biscuit & gravy potato chips…

And more importantly, it’s how they get fake food to taste like real food — without actually using real food. It’s how they get strawberry yogurt to taste like strawberries without using strawberries.

Veggie straws without the veggies.
Butter popcorn without the butter.
Pumpkin coffees without the pumpkin.
Jalapeno kettle chips without the jalapeno.
Hazelnut creamer without the hazelnut.
Coffee ice cream without the coffee.

And there’s multiple ways to make it happen.

The difference between Artificial and Natural Flavors.

Unlike people who make perfumes of random scents, “flavorists” get paid big bucks to create flavors that mimic our sense of taste or smell.¹ ² ³ ⁴

Legally they can create Artificial or Natural Flavors from:

plants (leaves, roots, bark, herbs, fruits, veggies)
animals (any part of meat, poultry, dairy, seafood)
anything that is produced by roasting, heating, fermenting, or modifying a plant or animal's essential oils, resin, or extract
anything that is "generally regarded as safe" which is a ridiculous loophole I highly recommend you put absolutely no faith in

And the companies who hire these flavorists know shoppers like you and me are opting for “natural” products as much as we can; companies know we assume “natural” flavors are a harmless, healthier option than anything “artificial” so you’ll notice companies choose to use Natural Flavors more often than Artificial Flavors — but are Natural Flavors really better?

The only difference between Artificial and Natural Flavors is super subtle:

Artificial Flavors are chemical compounds made by REPLICATING, IMITATING, OR CLONING a flavor from NONFOOD sources that are “generally regarded as safe.”

Natural Flavors are chemical compounds DERIVED, EXTRACTED, HEATED, FERMENTED, OR MODIFIED from ANY PLANT, ANIMAL, OR BYPRODUCT.

For example, coconut!

To get the flavor of coconut, a company can just use coconut… or they can figure out what chemicals make coconut taste like coconut, and then recreate those chemicals from either a coconut (a Natural Flavor), a food other than a coconut (a Natural Flavor), something that’s not even food (an Artificial Flavor).

Getting the flavor of coconut “from coconut” sounds healthier — but is it that simple?

How all flavors are made.

Flavors are obviously a fraction of sorts since they’re not just throwing the real thing in.

First, flavorists manipulate the real thing’s chemical structure until it’s the smallest fraction of the single best tasting part. Then, they’ll add a variety of other “incidental additives” like sodium benzoate, propylene glycol, polysorbate 80, potassium sorbate, glycerin, BHT, or BHA — all so that their final flavor is:

blended evenly
blends into other ingredients evenly
shelf-stable in packaged foods
tastes the same way every single time

But because Flavors are considered proprietary “trade secret” recipe to prevent competitors from making copycats, and kept secret from the public unless brought to court, inside them

So a company could use the real ingredient to get the flavor they want… but why pay to travel, harvest, and continuously tweak a recipe until it’s palatable ($$$$) if you can just pay a flavorist for a flavor you can easily throw into production! Sometimes the real thing is the most unsustainable option too (we’d wipe out a world supply of some foods at the rate we’d use it for products).

But how is that convenience sabotaging our health?

Adding any flavor is not natural.

We strongly believe both Artificial or Natural Flavors are a big part of our health problems — especially if you’re trying to eat healthy food, build lasting habits, or help your body heal itself.

Overall, the problem is that neither Artificial or Natural Flavors are the actual food they’re trying to mimic. Neither of them are the real thing, and that raises a couple raging red flags.

Most obviously is the fact Flavors only exist because we have 30,000+ items in a single grocery store with most being so processed the final product ends up tasting like cardboard. Nobody would buy it without the flavor. Flavors make us eat foods we normally wouldn't.
Natural Flavors are MSG in disguise. Our brain is basically getting a little bump of the best flavor it’s ever had, creating a vicious cycle a lot like addiction — the more Natural Flavors we eat, the more our brain craves another rush of excitement which leads to the next piece of “strawberry” or “blueberry” naturally flavored piece of junk with very little (if any) of the nutrients our body actually needs from real food. And because our body associates flavor with nutrients, we continuously crave fake food full of empty calories and it’s become a really hard habit to break.

overstimulates our brain cells to the point they explode to death. That’s why Natural Flavors are categorized as excitoxins (one of many different kinds on the market)

It’s exciting our tastebuds so much that we want to experience it more and more.

It’s tricking our brain to crave food that doesn’t actually contain the nutrients our brain thinks it’s getting. trick consumers into thinking they are getting nutrition that isn’t there

It’s turning food we wouldn’t normally eat into food we literally can’t stop eating.

Creating picky eaters in both children and adults

Are Artificial and Natural flavorings the only reason we binge a whole bag of chips or ice cream? No — sugar, stress, poor planning, and is commonly given credit for binging a whole pint of ice cream of bag of chips… we think a big missing piece of the conversation are these flavorings being used to mimic the real thing —

destroying taste preference for real food/we prefer fake food
creating abnormal cravings
ruining out gut
killing brain cells/excitoxin

make extremely processed foods more enticing, or even addictive. They can make the flavor of a substance many times more potent than it naturally would be

Consider the consequences

Natural Flavors have no nutritional benefit

and account for 1% of any given product,

but they also make “foods” way more enticing, addictive, and potent than it naturally would be. may encourage you to overeat unhealthy or processed foods that have been modified to become addictive.

I don’t want to screw up the signals in my body that allow me to crave something because it has the nutrients I need.

don’t want to eat foods that trick my tastebuds into downing almost a whole box in one sitting

know exactly what I’m eating, and with “natural flavors” I’m left in the dark

can be used to make healthy foods or strong tasting nutrients more palatable to encourage consumption

leaving behind all the good stuff that makes the real thing healthy

Questions? Always rooting for you and honored to help or point you to someone else who can.