Picky Eaters Live Longer: Avoiding Food Additives for your Colon's Sake

I'm sure most of us have experienced doubts or confusion about an ingredient listed on a food item we thought was healthy or natural. These ingredients, or additives, meant to preserve or add coloring or flavor to food, may be detrimental to our health in the long term. These chemical concoctions are meant to be harmless, but how can we trust that they aren't potentially causing some of the problems we are trying to avoid with our choice in diet?

Diet is something now almost universally understood to affect our bodies differently based on our genetics; it's almost impossible to avoid media related to diet and false advertising around the topic is all too common. Companies will often market their food products, packed with additives, as having health benefits or as assets for athletes who need an extra boost. It would be obvious to state that processed foods in enormous quantities are not going to be beneficial to your health, but what additives can we trace as being both common and detrimental?

Diving deeper into research on the topic, we find that the additives we often ignore as harmless are having adverse effects on subjects of testing. For example, A study conducted at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has linked a common food additive, titanium dioxide (TI02), to colon inflammation in mice: a condition that would prove both uncomfortable and potentially dangerous for any person. Researchers found that the additive, "decreased cecal levels of short-chain fatty acids, which are essential for colon health..." [1] and even further that this decrease caused "pro-inflammatory immune cells and cytokines in the colon" [1].

A wide range of foods from chewing gum to pastries contain this additive, and the outcome is mass consumption without awareness of the potential risks. This could be cause for concern as building up these additives could lead to unforeseen problems. Numerous studies have investigated common and "safe" food additives all to uncover underlying risks and potential benefactors to diseases as dangerous as lung cancer.

In a study conducted in 2008 by the American Thoracic Society, researchers uncovered that a diet high in inorganic phosphates could, "speed the growth of lung cancer tumors, and may even contribute to the development of those tumors in individuals predisposed to the disease." [2] Some common foods that include these phosphates: processed meats, cheeses, beverages, and bakery products. Although this information may not sway some from their current diets, it is wise to at least consider what's going on in our food before we are caught off guard by something that could have been avoided.

We as consumers do have the power to decide where we are getting our food and can be increasingly wary of where these additives fit into our diets. I hope to at least bring awareness to these potential dangers so that it may remind the consumer of their agency in choice of diet. Because our choice of food is one of many controllable aspects of our health that will make a significant impact on our longevity and overall happiness. Next time you have the option, choose organic, or local, and your body will thank you.

Sources:

1. University of Massachusetts Amherst. "Common food additive causes adverse health effects in mice: Researchers find TiO2 nanoparticles produce inflammation in colon." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 June 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200625162252.htm>.

2. American Thoracic Society. "Common Food Additive Found To Increase Risk And Speed Spread Of Lung Cancer." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 30 December 2008. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081229080851.htm>