Human hair louse - nature at its best There used to be a common saying - less so in these 'everything goes' days - where people would shake their heads and say 'It's not natural.' But they got it all wrong - what they were really thinking is  'it's not civilised' or to put it another way, 'it's too natural.' The reason this phrase is so back to front is that we have a rosily incorrect mental picture of what is 'natural'. As soon as we hear the word we get a knee-jerk reaction that's all rosy and fuzzy about rolling hills and beautiful scenery and pretty animals and whole grain, organic, hand-knitted yoghurt. And of course there are circumstances where natural is better. Processed foods for instance. There are nations that are particularly good at beating the nature out of food and drink - dare I mention US squirty cheese (or is it Cheez?), chocolate and attempts to make tea to name but three. However, most of the time, bei...

A (relatively harmless) ingredients list, earlier Anyone with the faintest sympathy for science winces when a friend announces that they are 'Fed up of food that is full of chemicals' or 'Only buying organic food, as it's the only way to get food that is 100% chemical free.' As I'm sure we're all aware, everything we eat (and most things we don't) is totally and entirely made up of chemicals. However, when you look at the ingredients list of processed food at the supermarket, it's easy to see why people are concerned. Take this product, which you can find in any major UK supermarket: Aqua 84%, sugars 10% (of which fructose 48%, glucose 40%, sucrose 2%), fibre 2.4% (E460, E461, E462, E464, E466, E467), amino acids (glutamic acid 23%, aspartic acid 18%, leucine 17%, arginine 8%, alanine 4%, valine 4%, glycine 4%, proline 4%, isoleucine 4%, serine 4%, threonine 3%, phenylalanine 2%, lysine 2%, methionine 2%, tyrosine 1%, histidine 1%, cysteine 1...