The Truth About 7 Common Food Additives

How Safe Are The Ingredients In Your Food?

(WebMD) 
4. Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

What it is
MSG by itself looks like salt or sugar crystals. It is a form of the naturally occurring chemical glutamate. Glutamate doesn't have a flavor of its own, but it enhances other flavors and imparts a savory taste. Tomatoes, soybeans, and seaweed are examples of foods that have a lot of glutamate naturally. Some scientists say that glutamate, also known as "umami," is the fifth essential flavor that the human palate can detect, in addition to sweet, salty, bitter, and sour.

Foods that have it
MSG is an additive used in many foods.

Why it's controversial
Many people claim to have bad reactions when they eat food seasoned with MSG. In the late 1960s, people started talking about "Chinese restaurant syndrome," alleging that food prepared with MSG at Chinese restaurants made them sick.

What the research shows
Many studies over the past four decades have tested the idea that some people may be sensitive to MSG. Most scientists today agree that if there is such a thing as a sensitivity or allergy to MSG, it's extremely rare. Studies haven't found any regular pattern of symptoms that could be typical of a reaction to MSG. Also, people are more likely to have symptoms if they're given MSG crystals than if they eat the same amount of MSG mixed with food.

"It's very hard for me to believe that there's a problem with it," Nestle says. Nevertheless, some still swear that they have bad reactions to MSG. "People who think they have problems with it should avoid it," she says.

How you find it on the label
Some food labels come right out and say that a product contains added MSG. But there are other ingredients that may contain MSG such as "hydrolyzed soy protein" and "autolyzed yeast."

5. Sodium benzoate

What it is
Sodium benzoate is a food additive used as a preservative.

Foods that have it
Sodium benzoate is used in a variety of processed food products and drinks.

Why it's controversial
It's suspected that sodium benzoate, in addition to artificial food color, may increase hyperactivity in some children. Sodium benzoate in soft drinks may also react with added vitamin C to make benzene, a cancer-causing substance.

What the research shows
The 2007 Lancet study that linked additives with increased hyperactivity included the preservative sodium benzoate.

In 2006 and 2007, the FDA tested a sample of almost 200 beverages from stores in different states that contained sodium benzoate and vitamin C. Four of the beverages had benzene levels that were above federal safety standards. The drinks were then reformulated by manufacturers and later deemed safe by the FDA. The agency points out, however, that the tests were limited and that it's still not known how much benzene consumers could be exposed to from beverages.

How you find it on the label
Sodium benzoate is listed among the ingredients on a product label.

6. Sodium nitrite

What it is
Sodium nitrite is an additive used for curing meat.

Foods that have it
Sodium nitrite is usually found in preserved meat products, like sausages and canned meats.

Why it's controversial
There is a theory that eating a lot of sodium nitrite might cause gastric cancer.

What the research shows
There is evidence that sodium nitrite could have been to blame for a lot of the gastric cancers that people had in the past. Until the early 1930s, gastric cancer caused the most deaths of all cancers in the United States. After that, more Americans began to use modern refrigeration and ate less cured meat. Also, producers started to use much less sodium nitrite in the curing process around that time. As these changes took place, deaths from gastric cancer also dropped dramatically.

This theory has been debated for decades, and it is still an open question.

How you find it on the label
Sodium nitrite will be listed as an ingredient on the labels of food products.

7. Trans fat

What it is
Trans fats are created when manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil. Trans fats are food additives in the sense that they're mainly added to the food supply by manufacturing processes, although small amounts of trans fats are present naturally in animal fat.

Foods that have it
These "partially hydrogenated oils" are used most often for deep-frying food, and in baked goods. Margarine and vegetable shortening may also be made with partially hydrogenated oil.

Why it's controversial
Trans fats are believed to increase the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

What the research shows
Most scientists now agree that eating trans fats can be very harmful to health. Trans fats have been found to lower people's HDL (good) cholesterol and raise LDL (bad) cholesterol. The American Heart Association recommends getting less than 1% of your daily calories from trans fats.

How you find it on the label
Product labels are now required to list the amount of trans fat in a serving. Partially hydrogenated oil may also be listed as an ingredient.

But many fried foods and baked goods that are laden with trans fats are served in restaurants, and they don't come with nutrition labels. To avoid trans fats, it's best to limit your overall daily fat intake.

"Usually, when you increase the total amount of fat you consume, you increase the amount of trans fat as well," says Benjamin Caballero, MD, a professor at the Center for Human Nutrition at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. If you reduce your total fat intake from 13% of your daily calories (which he says is typical for Americans) to less than 10% (which is recommended), you probably won't exceed the limit on trans fat.

"There are so many controversial studies about ingredients that are a little more emotionally mediated by one study showing it harmful and another study showing it not harmful, and then people say, 'What am I to do?'"

"You're going to get more nutrient bang for your buck to eat less refined foods when you can," says Christine Gerbstadt, MD, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

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Neither HFCS nor cane sugar are healthy if consumed in large quantities. There is little chemical difference between table sugar (sucrose = fructose bonded to glucose) and HFCS (blend of fructose and glucose).

However, as someone who recently found that fructose intolerance was the source of his IBS, it is telling that I have found that switching from HFCS soft drinks to ones using cane sugar has prevented episodes of IBS. I found this out by accident, by switching back and forth between Mexican sodas made with cane sugar and US sodas made with HFCS. I noticed a dramatic and obvious health impact.

Do a web search for the University of Iowa study on IBS, where they found that about 40% of IBS study subjects were fructose intolerant. They also found that the participants who reduced fructose in their diet reported reduced (or disappeared) IBS symptoms.