Researchers looked at five separate additive mixtures often used in processed foods to determine whether they increased the risk of developing diabetes.
Researchers found in a recent study that eating some common additives often found in processed food products may be linked to a higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Published in PLOS Medicine on Tuesday, French researchers looked at five separate additive mixtures that are often used in processed foods to determine whether they increased the risk of developing diabetes, with two of the mixtures increasing the risk at significant levels.
One, which the researchers dubbed as mixture five, involved additive mixtures that are used in diet drinks, including acidity regulators like citric acid, sodium citrates, phosphoric acid, and malic acid as well as coloring agents such as sulphite ammonia caramel, anthocyanins, and paprika extract along with sweeteners like acesulfame-K, aspartame, and sucralose. The mixture also included emulsifiers such as gum arabic, pectin, guar gum, and carnauba wax, a coating agent.
The other, called mixture two in the study, is more often used in processed foods. It combined a preservative, potassium sorbate, with a coloring agent, curcumin or turmeric, and emulsifiers such as modified starches, pectin, guar gum, carrageenans, polyphosphates, and xanthan gum.
For example, potassium sorbate is often used in some diary products including yogurt and cheese, and carrageenan is often found in plant-based milks. Pectin is found in a number of products, including jellies, jams, and fruit preserves, and xanthan gum is often found in mayonnaise, sauces, dressings, syrups, and dairy products. Meanwhile, modified starches are used to stabilize and thicken sauces, soups, and some baked items.
“Consistently, several of the food additives emblematic of mixtures 2 or 5 were associated with higher Type 2 diabetes incidence in previous publications on emulsifiers and artificial sweeteners,” they wrote.
“To our knowledge, this study is the first to evaluate and detect positive associations between food additive mixtures and higher Type 2 diabetes incidence in a large prospective cohort. Thus, direct comparison of our findings with previous epidemiological literature is not possible,” they wrote.
