A major new study from France has found that certain combinations of food additives, commonly found in ultra-processed foods, may increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The research, conducted by scientists from Inserm, INRAE, and several major French universities, analyzed the eating habits and health data of over 100,000 adults and uncovered worrying connections between these additive mixtures and metabolic health.
The study, published in PLOS Medicine, examined data from 108,643 participants in the NutriNet-Santé cohort, a large ongoing research project that tracks the nutrition and health of volunteers over time.
Participants recorded everything they ate and drank over several days, including specific brands, which allowed researchers to determine their exposure to various food additives. Only additives consumed by at least 5% of the group were included in the final analysis, ensuring the focus was on substances with significant real-world impact.
Rather than looking at additives one by one, the team investigated the effects of mixtures of additives—recognizing that people rarely consume just one additive at a time.
Ultra-processed foods, like flavored yogurts, sodas, sauces, and ready meals, often contain several additives, including emulsifiers, sweeteners, preservatives, and colorings. These ingredients are used to improve texture, taste, appearance, and shelf life, but concerns about their health impacts have been growing.
The researchers identified five main mixtures of additives commonly consumed together. Two of these mixtures were linked to a significantly higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes over a follow-up period averaging 7.7 years. This association remained even after adjusting for overall diet quality, body weight, lifestyle factors, and socioeconomic status.
The first risky mixture was made up mostly of emulsifiers and thickeners (such as carrageenans, modified starches, guar gum, xanthan gum, and pectin), as well as a preservative (potassium sorbate) and a coloring agent (curcumin). These are typically found in creamy desserts, sauces, spreads, and processed fats.
The second mixture was primarily found in artificially-sweetened beverages like sodas and included acidifiers (citric acid, phosphoric acid), colorings (sulfite ammonia caramel, anthocyanins), sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose), and emulsifiers.
What’s particularly important is that the study detected interactions between these additives. In some cases, they may work together to amplify harmful effects (a phenomenon known as “synergy”), or they may interfere with each other (“antagonism”).
This kind of “cocktail effect” is not usually considered in food safety assessments, which often look at each additive in isolation.
The study’s lead author, Marie Payen de la Garanderie, emphasized that this is the first study to evaluate the impact of additive mixtures in such a large group of people. She noted that these common substances may be modifiable risk factors for type 2 diabetes, meaning changes in food processing and public choices could help lower disease risk.
Although this was an observational study and cannot prove cause and effect, the findings are in line with previous lab-based studies that have shown some of these additives may contribute to gut imbalance, inflammation, and metabolic disorders—all of which are linked to type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Mathilde Touvier, who coordinated the study, stressed the need for further research to explore the biological mechanisms behind these effects and to better understand how additives interact. Still, she said the results support existing public health advice to limit the consumption of non-essential food additives, especially those found in highly processed foods.
In summary, while individual food additives have been studied for years, this new research highlights that how they are consumed together could be just as important.
The results suggest that food safety assessments may need to shift their focus from individual substances to the combined impact of additive mixtures—and that reducing intake of ultra-processed foods could be a smart move for protecting metabolic health.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about the cooking connection between potatoes and diabetes, and low calorie diets may help reverse type 2 diabetes.
For more health information, please see recent studies about protein power: a new ally in diabetes management, and pineapple and diabetes: A sweet surprise.
The research findings can be found in PLOS Medicine.
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