Reacción a "Two mixtures of food additives are associated with the development of type 2 diabetes"

Today, scientific evidence supports a harmful effect of the consumption of ultra-processed foods on health. A high consumption of these foods increases the risk of mortality and chronic diseases. In addition to having an unhealthy nutritional profile with a high salt, fat and sugar content, ultra-processed foods also contain mixtures of additives used in the food industry, such as emulsifiers, flavourings, sweeteners and colourings. There are more than 300 authorised food additives in Europe. They are regulated by regulation EC/1333/2008. Their safety has been previously evaluated by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which proposes acceptable daily intakes for some of them. However, the safety assessment of food additives is carried out from a predominantly toxicological perspective based mainly on the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of a single additive without taking into account the effects of long-term joint consumption of additives.

The study published in Plos Medicine is based on a prospective observational cohort study, the NutriNet Santé cohort, which has detailed information on food consumption, including brands and trade names of the products consumed using three non-consecutive 24-hour recalls. For the first time, the authors of the study have identified the main mixtures of additives consumed by the French population based on the frequency of consumption of the participants and have evaluated how these mixtures of additives are associated with the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The authors identified five main additive mixtures. One additive mixture was characterised by several emulsifiers (starches, pectins, guar gum, carrageenan, polyphosphates, xanthan gum), a preservative (potassium sorbate) and a colouring agent (curcumin), a mixture typical of a variety of ultra-processed foods such as soups, dairy desserts and sauces, as well as another mixture of additives consisting of acidifiers and acidity regulators (citric acid, sodium citrates, phosphoric acid, malic acid), colourings (ammonium sulphite caramel, anthocyanins, paprika extract), artificial sweeteners (acesulfame potassium, aspartame, sucralose), and emulsifiers (gum arabic, pectin, guar gum) a typical mixture of sugary and sweetened drinks. Both mixtures were associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes even when taking into account the nutritional quality of the food consumed by the participants.

It remains to be seen whether these mixtures of additives are also associated with other chronic diseases or with higher mortality rates but, while more epidemiological studies are being carried out, these results suggest that mixtures of food additives should be considered in order to evaluate their safety and to reassess the laws that regulate them in order to protect the health of the population. Furthermore, these findings continue to support the Public Health recommendation to limit the consumption of ultra-processed foods and promote the consumption of minimally processed foods typical of a Mediterranean diet.