Food additives are found in many processed and ultra-processed foods. While they have been evaluated for safety, they were looked at separately, not in combination with each other. A new study examined how combinations of common additives can impact the risk for blood sugar concerns.
“In real life, we ingest a mixture of additives,” said Mathilde Touvier, director of the nutritional epidemiology research team at Université Sorbonne Paris Nord and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, who co-authored the new study.
Researchers in Paris used the medical data of 100,000 adults participating in a nutritional study. They tested five mixes of additives. Two out of the five were associated with a higher occurrence of blood sugar concerns. One of the problematic mixes contained modified starches, pectin, guar gum, carrageenans, polyphosphates, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate and curcumin — mostly found in stocks, creamy desserts and sauces. The other was a mix of sweeteners, colorings and acidifiers common in artificially sweetened drinks. It was citric acid, sodium citrates, phosphoric acid, malic acid, sulfite ammonia caramel, anthocyanins, paprika extract, acesulfame-K, aspartame, sucralose, gum arabic, pectin, guar gum and carnauba wax. The other three combinations they looked at did not impact health.
Some of these additives have been linked separately to blood sugar concerns, cancer and heart health concerns. However, looking at how the combination impacted the body was new.
People in the study filled out detailed daily records of everything they ate and drank in a day, including the brands. To be sure they had accurate results, they only examined the potential health effects of additives eaten by at least five percent of the group. The researchers controlled variables like overall diet quality and lifestyle factors to ensure their results were correct.
The researchers pointed out that it was an observational study. Observational studies cannot prove cause and effect; they only show that there is a link. As their research supports older research that has found additives can be harmful, they believe it adds to the growing body of work that shows additives should be used in foods as little as possible. Often, they are added purely for cosmetic reasons or to extend shelf life. They could be omitted to create less processed foods.
People who didn’t work on the study pointed out that it’s not conclusive. However, the mixes are found in ultra-processed foods that are much more calorie-dense than minimally processed foods. Even though the researchers controlled for the participants’ diets overall, it could be that getting their calories in concentrated “punches” contributed to blood sugar concerns. The foods the additives are found in may be more dangerous than the additives themselves.
