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Health claims are regulated, but other claims aren’t. For instance, the term natural on a food label has no defined meaning nor is it regulated by the FDA. The term plant-based sometimes suggests that a product is improved because it’s replaced meat with plants. There are too many unregulated and misleading terms to cover here but there are a few I want to highlight.

The organic label you see on products at the grocery store is a certification of the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (see Figure 2-3). Food companies pay to use the label. The label, or seal, indicates that the food was produced through the approved methods as defined by the USDA. In terms of science, all food is organic, as it contains carbon matter. So what’s all the fuss about?

The USDA defines organic as crops that haven’t used synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers and are free from any genetic engineering or ionizing radiation. (Keep in mind that organic crops can still be sprayed with approved natural pesticides. Just because a substance is natural, however, doesn’t mean that it still can’t be harmful.)