Whenever we hear someone insist on the superior safety of a product do to its natural ingredients, we wince because virtually ALL pharmaceutical products were originally isolated and purified from “natural” sources. Later, synthesis (in many cases) has actually resulted in removal of toxic contaminants that could not be removed during purification of the “natural” product.
When chemicals such as Cocamide DEA or Sodium Hydroxysultaine are followed by the words “derived from coconut oil” the consumer is led to believe that these synthetic chemicals must somehow be "natural". While this may be true in some cases where a natural oil or extract is actually used, it is ultimately irrelevant because what you end up with after the chemical solvent extraction and processing is usually anything but natural, pure or organic. It is just another chemical concoction with some rather awful sounding long names to describe the process the original "natural" substance went through.
To create Cocamide DEA, a foaming agent found in some shampoos, requires the addition of a synthetic chemical and known carcinogen, Diethanolamine – DEA, to the coconut oil. It's therefore no longer natural, or even what you could call safe!
Fortunately, there is a very simple way to differentiate between the hype and the truth in skin care and that is to read the ingredient list on the label. It's a legal requirement that all skin care products, natural or otherwise, must be labeled with the ingredients in descending order of their quantity in the product. A good rule of thumb is to divide the ingredient list into thirds: the top third usually contains 90-95% of the product, the middle third usually contains 5-8% and the bottom third, 1-3%.
You'll often notice that when looking at a product, the things like "Apricot Oil, Organic Sugar, Grapefruit Seeds, Sage Extract, Chamomile Extract" etc. that would be beneficial, are often found towards the end and make up less than 2.5% of the volume of the product!
So next time someone insists that their product is safer because it contains "natural" ingredients, use your intellect to think about all of the products found in nature like poinson ivy, belladonna or hemlock. You'll be left thinking "So what?"
We are not against natural products by any means. I think we all prefer natural products. But just because a product is natural or organic, does not mean it is necessarily better for you. Do your homework yourself and look up ingredients if you need to!
