Are all natural things good and all artificial bad..What determines the goodness or badness of things..Is it possible to come to a consensus of what is good or bad?

Answer 1

First of all, there are many good things that are 'artificial', and many bad things that are 'natural'. For instance, caffeine is natural, but not particularly good for you, while many medicines are 100% artificial, and definitely are good for you. Most things that are referred to as 'artificial' such as the E numbers, and other additives like food colours, are not actually that artificial, and in fact almost all E numbers are made from natural things, such as red colouring which may be made from some sort or red berry. They must have E numbers though, because they are 'fiddled with'. Although, it is surprising to know that Gold, Oxygen and Carbon all have E numbers. Sure, some artificial things, such as the Sunset Yellow colouring are not particularly good for you, but in general, it is best to ignore whether it is 'Artificial' or 'Natural', and look more at specifically what it is that you are eating. The reason CocaCola says no artificial colours or flavours is that the colours and flavours that they use were once growing on a tree, or something like that. There is a good list of E numbers that can be found on Wikipedia, and all of the bad ones have a note next to them, and in most cases they have been banned from use. If you look at each thing individually, then ultimately, yes it is possible to come up with a good and bad list.