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ASK THE EXPERT — ARE NATURALS NECESSARILY BETTER?

Turn on the news, pick up a magazine, or overhear a conversation in a waiting room, and you'll hear the same thing again and again when it comes to health... "natural ingredients are better for you."  But are they? Are naturals necessarily better?

During this 60 minute webinar, Dr. George A. Burdock dives into that question. Starting with a slide deck presentation that goes into what is / isn't regarded as a natural ingredient by the FDA, Dr. Burdock then answers questions from live viewers during this previously recorded webinar.

Those questions / thoughts include: 

  • Is every botanical automatically considered a natural? If not, what would be the criteria for a botanical being considered a natural?

  • If a plant is listed as GRAS without indicating a specific species and/or plant part, a food could be considered adulterated for the presence of an unsafe food additive because a specific species or part of the plant is not generally considered safe? In theory, GRAS status is automatically lost if there is no consensus in the scientific community regarding the safety of that ingredient.

  • If one were to produce a compound (eg vanilla extract) in a soybean plant for example, and one was able to extract it and demonstrate bioequivalence and safety of this newly produced vanilla extract to natural vanilla extract, could it be claimed as natural?

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