April 12, 2024 — Creamy, thick and velvety: without emulsifiers, your favorite ice cream or muffin may not taste the same. Yet research warns that there is a dark side to these substances, from polysorbate-80 to carrageenan. evidence Connect emulsifiers with the angry gut microbiome, inflammationand many terms, from heart attack to breast cancer.
what the‘any longer, emulsifiersDawn‘t Essentially the equivalent of Jack Food. Such substances can be found in many foods that are often considered healthy, such as some low-fat Greek yogurts, trail mix bars, or goat’s milk.
there are More than 100 different emulsifiers which can be added to food. They prevent the separation of oil and water, improving texture. A 2023 study Emulsifiers were found in 95% of British supermarket pastries and cakes, 55% of bread and 36% of meat products.
Some products that contain emulsifiers may not fit neatly into the traditional nutritional category. Low-fat dairy products are a good example, he said Benoit Chasing, PhD, a microbiologist at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM). “in case [producers] Remove the fat, they need to be replaced with something else. So often, if you buy fat-free or low-fat cream or cream cheese, it will be loaded with nutritional emulsifiers,” he said.
From a health perspective, this is bad news. In 2024, Chasing and his colleagues published study Based on 92,000 French adults who provide detailed food records, including brand names. The results revealed that those who consumed the highest levels of emulsifier had a significantly increased risk of cancer. for the carrageenans, which are emulsifiers derived from seaweed, the risk of breast cancer increased by 32%. Another type of emulsifier, mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, increased the risk of prostate cancer by 46%. a related 2023 study Dietary consumption of emulsifiers has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease. M. in the worst crimeicrocrystalline cellulose and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), which can be found in ice cream or processed cheese.
While population studies suggest a link between food emulsifiers and poor health, they do not prove that additives directly cause negative health outcomes. What can help laboratory studies. For such experiments, researchers often use a human gut simulator, a machine that can Like a row of old school milk bottles Connected to the telephone switchboard through a tube. The bottles contain gut microbiota taken from human stool, to which scientists add various emulsifiers (admittedly, the laboratory probably smells very bad). In one such study published in 2024Belgian researchers have shown that polysorbate 80, a synthetic emulsifier often used in dairy products and salad dressings, reduces the number of friendly gut bacteria, such as Faecalibacterium prausnitziiwhile the number of people associated with inflammation is increasing.
Andrew Gewerts, Ph.D., a microbiologist at Georgia State University, said emulsifiers have long been considered safe for use because most of them are not absorbed into the body. It was “assumed that they couldn’t possibly do anything negative,” he said. This view began to change as we recognized the importance of the gut microbiota for health. Now the fact that emulsifiers can reach the gut almost unaltered makes them “the main suspect involved in disturbing the microbiota,” Gewurtz said.
When you eat something that contains emulsifiers, the nutrients and water in the food will be absorbed through your digestive tract. Various additions, however, will remain relatively intact. “We think they can reach high concentrations in the gut,” Chasing said. Once there, some emulsifiers can Alter the composition and function of the microbiota, prompts gut bacteria to release inflammatory molecules. This, in turn, can lead to a variety of chronic inflammatory diseases Diabetes to heart disease.
Came from one of the strongest arguments for the negative effects of food emulsifiers Trial of 2022 was done Gewirtz, by Chassaing, and their associates. For that experiment, 16 volunteers were randomized to eat either an emulsifier-free diet or one containing a high dose of CMC. For 11 days the participants were kept in a local hospital and given the same diet, with one exception: some of them received desserts made with CMC. The results showed that eating emulsifiers was linked to more complaints of stomach upset, as well as a loss of health-promoting metabolites released by gut microbes, such as short-chain fatty acids.
“This confirms the concept that emulsifiers are affecting the gut microbiota, changing the species composition,” Gewurtz said
For two participants, things got particularly bad — their gut bacteria invaded the normally sterile inner mucus layer of the intestine, a condition that can lead to Crohn’s disease or you.Fakry inflammation A 2024 follow-up study indicated that this was likely due to the composition of the gut microbiome of the two participants.
They had “microbiota that were very sensitive,” Chasing said. If you transfer gut bacteria from such patients to mice, “you can run very strong colitis,” he said. However, the trial was small, and, as Aaron BansalMD, A Gastroenterologist At King’s College London, it is said, participants were fed large amounts of CMC: 15 grams per day. While some people can actually incorporate this type of medication into their regular diet, “it’s not going to be something that’s used very often,” he said.
Other research suggests, meanwhile, that emulsifiers may have direct effects on the human gut. When researchers in Italy applied a nutritional emulsifier to human cells derived from colon cancer found In order for such cells to spread rapidly. This may indicate the role of emulsifiers in cancer of the gastrointestinal tract, confirming the results of a French population study. Emulsifiers may act as a gateway to other potentially harmful chemicals. in the experience Conducted on both human cell lines and mice, polysorbate 80 damaged the mucus barrier in the intestine, which resulted in its proliferation. permeability – The infamous “Leaky Gut.” This helped with phthalates, chemical compounds that are commonly added to plastics and which, once absorbed, can be altered. in endocrine disruptorseasily absorbed by the body.
Animal research shows that consuming emulsifiers can also cause anxiety. Rats fed CMC and polysorbate 80 showed changes Brain areas responsible for stress response, such as the amygdala. And if emulsifiers are fed to mice During pregnancySuch effects can also be passed on to their offspring. However, according to Bensel, while animal models are informative, “we cannot fully translate these things to humans.”
What’s more, not all emulsifiers seem to be equally harmful. When Chassaing, Gewirtz, and their colleagues 20 common nutritional emulsifiers testedthey found out that something, like carrageenans, Guar gum, and xanthan gum had serious harmful effects, while others, such as lecithin, were less harmful. Lecithin is a natural emulsifier, usually derived from eggs and soy. As such, Gewurtz said, it doesn’t reach the gut unabsorbed the way synthetic emulsifiers do. On the other hand, “Polysorbate 80, carrageenansand also a lot of gum, xanthan gum, guar gum — those are really, really aggressive to the microbiota,” Chasing said.
There may be ways to protect the gut microbiome from the harmful effects of nutritional emulsifiers. When researchers fed mice with mucus-enhancing bacteria, Akkermansia muciniphila, It prevents damage caused by eating CMC and polysorbate 80. Yet Gewurtz cautioned that that doesn’t mean we should all rush into stocks. onekkermansia pills, because such supplements “just aren’t really well-tested.”
The safest bet to keep your gut healthy would be to eat home-cooked meals and stay away from emulsifiers altogether. However, Bensel said, for some people, especially those with busy lifestyles, this can be difficult to do. As such, checking the label may be a better approach. “Often there is an alternative,” Chasing said. “You have a lot of nutritional emulsifiers in ice cream, but you can find some brands that will do emulsifier-free ice cream,” he said.
Conversely, cheaper foods are sometimes less packed with emulsifiers than more expensive options. “There might be a branded ketchup, and maybe a supermarket’s own brand. A branded one, which may be more expensive, may have emulsifiers in it, but not emulsifiers in its own brand,” Bensel said.
The same goes for foods that are marketed as healthy, he said Megan Rossi, PhD, a nutritionist at King’s College London. “Let’s just be careful and not automatically assume they’re better for you,” he said.
Yet the study of labels is not without its challenges. That’s why “emulsifiers can be labeled as different things,” Bensel said. So carboxymethyl cellulose may appear On a label as CMC, cellulose gum, modified cellulose or, in Europe, as E466. Carpenters can be called Irish MassEucheuma extract, or E407.
According to Gewurtz, considering the results of animal research and in vitro studies, as well as preliminary human trials, the food industry should be encouraged to look for safer alternatives, especially synthetic emulsifiers. Chasing hopes that “in the future we will be able to select and use additives that are better tolerated by the microbiota.” However, he said, “That’s not the case yet.”
