Hello,
Please find below a short summary on the subject you have been assigned. This will help you in completing your project and also give you an overview on the current research on this subject.
Food additives are chemical substances added to food in order to either maintain or improve its physical characteristics such as taste, texture, appearance and even freshness.
The long term effects that these substances have on the human body are still largely unstudied. According to the hypothesis called "chemical obesogen", these synthetic compounds are contributing factors to the global obesity epidemic.
Although evidence-based scientific research is still lacking, the support for this hypothesis is growing as many of these additives have been found to disturb the body's endocrine functions.
Furthermore, artificial preservatives used today may increase the risk of inflammatory bowel disease. This has been shown by a study on mice in which the food additives known as emulsifiers (carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate-80) have been shown to affect the animal's health.
Due to these chemicals, the mice not only became obese but also developed metabolic problems such as glucose intolerance. It seems that these chemicals affect the gut bacteria population in a negative way, as mice lacking gut bacteria did not become ill.
The mice study was followed by another study in which the human simulated through a series of flasks. Under the influence of the emulsifiers arboxymethylcellulose (E566 on EU labels) and polysorbate-80 (E433), the levels of bacterial protein called flagellin increased. This protein is known to cause inflammation at high concentrations. The next step in the study will be the first human trials.
Due to the long road our food takes from the farm to our table more extensive research is required. There are thousands of compounds that change the biochemical properties of the plants and animals that constitute our diet. The effects of the degradation and accumulation of these compounds are still unknown and thus many more studies and approaches are required in order to insure healthy food and stop the current obesity epidemic. Everything that is added to our food should be carefully analyzed.
