Science Info
There is no such thing as chemical-free, so stop calling it that. This is not just me, some insignificant blogger saying this; it also comes from the Royal Society of Chemistry (http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/PressReleases/2008/ChemicalFree.asp). They are offering a £1,000,000 reward for anyone that can convince them of a chemical-free material.
So, where does this come from? Chemists, like myself, are tired of chemicals being thought of as being synonymous with artificial and/or toxic. Anything made of matter is technically a chemical, including water (although there is a joke "coalition" to ban water - aka dihydrogen monoxide: http://www.bandhmo.org/ - at least I hope it's a joke). We are made of chemicals, the world is made of chemicals. Get over it and use the term correctly.
Also, artificially created chemicals, such as vitamins, are the same as the naturally occurring ones, so we can stop with "artificial" automatically being "bad." If the structure is the same, then so is the function (and the compound name). So why does natural vanilla extract taste different than vanillin, you might ask. It's the impurities that give natural vanilla extract the richer, more complex flavor. Vanillin is just the most prevalent of the many components of vanilla beans. Whether natural or artificial, the source of the chemical doesn't matter; they are the same. Let's stop hating chemicals.
So, where does this come from? Chemists, like myself, are tired of chemicals being thought of as being synonymous with artificial and/or toxic. Anything made of matter is technically a chemical, including water (although there is a joke "coalition" to ban water - aka dihydrogen monoxide: http://www.bandhmo.org/ - at least I hope it's a joke). We are made of chemicals, the world is made of chemicals. Get over it and use the term correctly.
Also, artificially created chemicals, such as vitamins, are the same as the naturally occurring ones, so we can stop with "artificial" automatically being "bad." If the structure is the same, then so is the function (and the compound name). So why does natural vanilla extract taste different than vanillin, you might ask. It's the impurities that give natural vanilla extract the richer, more complex flavor. Vanillin is just the most prevalent of the many components of vanilla beans. Whether natural or artificial, the source of the chemical doesn't matter; they are the same. Let's stop hating chemicals.