A French study shows that a person weighing around 70 kilos ingests on average over 11 grams of food additives per day
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousThere are many food additives that are "hidden" in commonly used products but how many do we ingest every day? Too many! At least according to a study conducted on the French population which found that on average, we ingest 11,3 grams of additives daily for a total of over 4 kg per year!
More and more often we talk about the possible risks due to the presence of some additives in the foods we bring to the table. Think for example of titanium dioxide which finally, from 2022, will no longer be able to be used as a food additive. (Read also: Titanium dioxide (E171): banned in the EU as a food additive from 2022 (but will still remain in medicines)
Many others, however, will continue to be commonly used and to understand how much people are exposed to these substances, a team of French scholars conducted a research whose results were published in Scientific Reports.
The study was based on laboratory tests of thousands of products and on the analysis of data provided by various agencies, then crossed with the declarations relating to the food consumption of 106 French adults. In particular, exposure to 90 of the most common food additives was assessed.
The results were shocking to say the least. Since these are additives, substances with a very low weight within the products, a low exposure would be expected and instead the researchers found that, on average, a person consumes 155,5 milligrams of additives per day for each kilogram of weight.
Doing a quick calculation, a person who weighs 72,4 kg (the average weight of the French) ingests 11,3 grams per day, or over 4 kg per year!
But this is only the average, so there are also those who ingest more. A 5% of French people are more exposed, in particular people who eat a lot of industrial foods that can ingest 25 grams of additives per day reaching almost 10 kilograms a year!
Numbers that are really scary, especially considering that the health effects that chronic exposure to this mix of substances can have are not well known.
Which additives are we talking about?
Among those we are most frequently exposed to are:
- citric acid
- modified starch
- mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E471)
- sodium nitrite (E250)
- di-, tri- and polyphosphates (E450, E451 and E452)
- sodium glutamate (E621)
@Scientific Reports
Some like citric acid are harmless, others like nitrites are much more controversial.
As the research reads:
Forty-eight additives were consumed by over 10% of the participants, with modified starches and citric acid consumed by over 90%. The top 50 also included several food additives for which potential negative health effects have been suggested by recent experimental studies: lecithins (86,6% consumers), mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (78,1%), carrageenan (77,5 , 73,9%), sodium nitrite (70,1%, di-, tri- and polyphosphates (65,8%), potassium sorbate (44,8%), potassium metabisulfite (34,0%), acesulfame K (33,9%), cochineal (31,6%), potassium nitrate (28,8%), ammonia caramel sulphite (19,5%), bissin (15,1%), monosodium glutamate (13,5%) ) and sucralose (XNUMX%).
Where are these substances contained? The following infographic shows us which foods are most at risk for the different additives.
@Scientific Reports
The research concludes that, as several health authorities around the world point out, it is good limit the consumption of industrial and ultra-processed foods as much as possible, preferring natural and fresh foods, where no additives have been added.
If we really can't help but buy industrial products, let's at least choose those with a lower presence of additives. Always read labels carefully!
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Cast Iron: What to Choose / Scientific Reports
Read also:
- The 8 food additives most present in 3/4 of the packaged food we eat
- Food additives: what they are and the possible effects on health (VIDEO)
- 7 food additives and substances to avoid
- 7 food additives that increase the risk of autoimmune diseases
- These common food additives can be harmful to children, pediatricians say
