The Food and Drug Administration is currently requesting comments on use of the term "natural" in food labels. Natural is a slippery term because most packaged food undergoes some degree of processing, and the FDA does not strictly regulate usage of the word. Right now "natural" is allowed to describe foods without added colors, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances. "Natural" does not describe production, processing or manufacturing methods. It probably bears repeating that natural doesn't even necessarily mean "good for you"—there are lots of dangerous toxins that are also all-natural! The FDA is requesting feedback because of Citizen Petitions and private litigation over genetically engineered food and food additives. What gets to be called natural? You have until February 10, 2016 to comment.

Right now I am reading Unprocessed: My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food, one of those "one-year challenge" books where the author tries to radically change his or her lifestyle for a year and then write and sell a book about it. I was skeptical at first—but quickly warmed up to Megan Kimble's completely down-to-earth story of her year trying to avoid processed food, much of which involves trying to define what unprocessed even means. Just like "natural," a lot depends on context and your own level of comfort.

Can she make bread if she grinds her own wheat? Most whole wheat products are the result of the bran and the germ being "put back together again" after being industrially separated, and most flour is rancid by the time it lands on a store shelf. Can she buy salt or is it better to harvest from the sea? Most commercial salt is solution-mined, which is energy-intensive, but cheaper than large scale evaporation ponds. (For more on the topic, see Salt: A World History.) Can she use a microwave or a food processor, can she get it fixed when it breaks, or is it destined for landfill, like so many of our planned obsolescence appliances? Kimble takes each food group from beginning to end and unwraps each chapter deliberately, delicately, much in the way her grandmother consciously savored that daily piece of dark chocolate. Even if you don't decide to unprocess your entire life after reading this book, you might think a little more carefully about when and how you do enjoy processed food.

There are chemicals in our food! There are chemicals in our food? Well of course, everything is made of chemicals. That is science. Some are good for us, some are bad, some are benign, and some we just don't know. Ingredients: A Visual Exploration of 75 Additives & 25 Food Products attempts to demystify all of these chemicals and what they do, why they are there at all. The big takeaway? When you are cooking at home in small quantities, you can use a few fresh ingredients, know exactly what is going in, and eat what you make quickly before it gets stale or goes bad. In commercial food production, everything needs to scale way up, and be produced in enormous batches using industrial machinery. After that, it probably has to sit on a store shelf or your cupboard and somehow still taste REALLY GOOD by the time you get around to eating it. Industrial food additives are good for making all of this happen, for better or worse. Ingredients features incredible photography by Dwight Eschliman, getting you up close to the particles and droplets added to food, and the text by Steve Ettlinger is so addictively, snackably readable... you might wonder just what substance is responsible for that.

The front section goes in depth into each additive, and the back highlights a few processed food favorites and a breakdown of everything in them.

Other flavor-blasted reads:

Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal
Former New York Times business reporter Melanie Warner visits research labs and factories to find out how food is "made," and explores the health and societal implications of this system.

The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor
In nature, Mark Schatzker explains, flavor means nutrition. But if our fake foods are pumped full of unnatural flavors, and our natural produce is blander than bland, the physiological signals telling us what and how much to eat are sent totally out of whack.

Want to go full DIY on your diet? Check out Grow, Preserve, Pickle, Cure, Brew, Do It Yourself: Homesteading in the City.

Concerned about our national food system? Find out How the Sausage Gets Made: Books About the Food Industry.

Wondering what makes food crunchy, fluffy and oh-so-tasty? Explore The Art and Science of Cooking.