You pull open that heavy glass door, get blasted by the cold air and the stainless steel ambiance, and turn to stand in line behind the counter. Yes. Finally. No line at Chipotle. This is a rare occurrence. Usually this retro, quick service eatery is swamped with norts-clad sorority girls and optimistic-minded millennials with a queue almost out the door every time.

But not today. Today is your day.

You pull up to the glass-enclosed food line without even looking at the menu that’s plastered with the words “Non-GMO,” “All-Natural,” “Organic,” and “Gluten Free” hanging above your head. You know what the move is: Chicken burrito bowl, extra guac. You get a warm fuzzy feeling in your stomach and say to yourself, "Yes! I feel so good about this meal because it’s so natural, and gluten free too! I’m totally helping the environment and my body with this ultra-healthy lunch. #winning"

We’ve all been there. From that organic label highlighted on the salad menu to the sticker on the peaches in your local Harris Teeter, the usage of the buzz words "all-natural," "organic," and especially "gluten free" have increased enormously in the past five years, let alone the past decade. Nearly every grocery store has options that exemplify how natural they can be and if there is an organic produce section. You may have heard of "whitewashing," which is defined as “a coordinated attempt to hide unpleasant facts, especially in a political context.” Media and political tyrants alike use this method to release the information they want you to hear, even if it’s not necessarily the correct information. Greenwashing is essentially the same thing, only applied to the environment.

Buzzwords like "gluten free" are applied to foods that are actually inherently gluten free, or at least supposed to be (thanks, government, for infiltrating our food supply so you can make more money). A gluten free label can be found on anything from fruit to lemonade to that burrito bowl you just bought. But fruit is INHERENTLY gluten free. So is lemonade.

Gluten is a binding agent used in bread, specifically wheat. It literally means glue in Latin. So it shouldn’t be found in various other non-bread foods because it’s not supposed to be there. But companies in the food industry like to use these buzzwords like "gluten free" and "organic" because they know people are starting to become more conscious about what they eat. So patrons are going to be more likely to buy something "organic" because it sounds healthier. They also know that people are starting to realize that government has the upper hand in a lot of agriculture-oriented business (if you haven’t seen Food Inc. here’s the trailer #DeathBeToMonsanto).

But what’s the real difference between this sweet potato with a purple organic sticker and that sweet potato that remains sticker-less and downright naked in comparison?

Not a whole lot.

The USDA (a U.S.-operated government sector, a reliable source, I know) states that organic means that farms have to practice support animal health and welfare, refrain from using genetically modified ingredients, and separate organic food from non-organic food. Nothing in these first few qualifications states that food has to be grown without pesticides or antibiotics or without the use of recycling dead animals as feed, called rendering. All of these are common misconceptions that the "organic" sticker hides.

Other qualifications include only using approved materials, receiving annual onsite inspections, and separating organic food from non-organic food. And who approves these materials and conducts inspections? The USDA. And separating organic food from non-organic food is a qualification for a farmer to be an organic one? Really? Come on, guys.

I’m looking at you, Department of Agriculture.

Even on “The National List” found on the USDA website not all synthetic ingredients are specifically prohibited. (Note that “The National List” is in fact capitalized. Like whoa. As if making a list a proper noun makes it any less deceitful.)

“[The National List] also identifies a limited number of non-organic substances that may be used in or on processed organic products. In general, synthetic substances are prohibited for crop and livestock production unless specifically allowed and non-synthetic substances are allowed for crop and livestock production unless specifically prohibited.”

SYNTHETIC SUBSTANCES ARE STILL ALLOWED.

Dictionary.com defines organic as “noting or pertaining to a class of chemical compounds that formerly comprised only those existing in or derived from plants or animals." This sounds like the organic definition that media and society has come to associate with all food labeled as such, but wait, there’s more to the definition. We skipped over the ‘formerly comprised’ part. The definition of organic in its entirety includes “noting or pertaining to a class of chemical compounds that formerly comprised only those existing in or derived from plants or animals, but that now includes all other compounds of carbon." So what other compounds of carbon are there beside those found in NATURE that make up plants and animals? Why, those that are allowed specifically by the government even if they are not natural.

Society thinks that the word organic and natural go hand-in-hand when, in fact, they are not. Similar to how a rectangle is a square, but a square is not a rectangle; something natural can be organic, but something organic is not necessarily natural.

So next time you pay an extra $3 for that organic tomato, which is probably smaller than the non-organic one next to it, just remember that those funds are going straight to the money mongers up in DC. While Chipotle does, in fact, have an admirable stance on “food with integrity” (one of their slogans), think back on that Norovirus outbreak in January 2016, and if you look further, that specific outbreak wasn’t the only one. There have been eight other outbreaks since 2008, including a Hepatitis outbreak. If non-GMO and organic mean I’ll be contracting Norovirus, then count me out.

Also, a typical burrito at Chipotle contains more sodium, calories, and carbohydrates than a Big Mac. Food for thought.