If Natural Foods Came with Ingredient Lists, This Is What They Would Look Like

Read this, and you might think twice about how you're judging packaged foods
January 23, 2014

You've heard the rule a million times: If you see an ingredient list that reads like a novel—or that's filled with lots of unidentifiable ingredients—you're best off steering clear of whatever food it's attached to. But packaged foods aren't the only eats that are made up of a variety of components: Natural foods like fruits and eggs also contain a laundry list of ingredients, some of which are chemicals. Take a look for yourself:

Courtesy of James Kennedy
Courtesy of James Kennedy
Courtesy of James Kennedy

Australian high school chemistry teacher James Kennedy created the above infographics to highlight the fact that foods found in nature contain a whole bunch of stuff people don't normally think about: constituent ingredients, color and preservative components, flavor compounds, and more.


"I wanted to erode the fear that many people have of 'chemicals' and demonstrate that nature evolves compounds, mechanisms, and structures far more complicated and unpredictable than anything we can produce in the lab," says Kennedy. "These posters aim to show that chemistry isn't artificial and dangerous, but that it is natural and everywhere." 

Of course, this doesn't mean that Cheetos are healthy—and it's still a good rule of thumb to buy packaged foods with the shortest ingredients list possible. Research repeatedly shows that you get the most benefit from consuming nutrients in their natural food states, rather than through supplements or processing. That being said, it's always nice to remember: Not all chemicals are dangerous or bad for you, and "all natural" isn't as straightforward as it may seem.

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