The Preservatives That Increase Diabetes Risk

It is a generally held popular belief that “food additives are bad”.

This is not always true:

• Sometimes, food additives are health-neutral, like: Monosodium Glutamate: Sinless Flavor-Enhancer Or Terrible Health Risk?
• Sometimes, food additives are positively healthy, like: The Food Additive You Do Want ← this is about guar gum, a resistant starch that functions much like dietary fiber

…and of course, things being fortified with vitamins and minerals is usually a good thing too.

But not every food additive gets a free pass…

The diabetes connection

Researchers (Dr. Anaïs Hasenböhler et al.) analyzed data from 108,723 adults, of whom 79.2% women, to examine links between food preservative intake and type 2 diabetes.

Specifically, the study assessed 58 preservatives including 33 non-antioxidant preservatives and 27 antioxidant additives, with 17 other individual substances analyzed because they were also consumed by at least 10% of participants, and with a sample size like 109,723, this means that 10% is still a lot of data to work from.

The methodology of the study was rather good, better than many studies of this scope, as between 2009 and 2023, participants repeatedly reported medical history, lifestyle factors, and detailed 24-hour dietary records that even included product names and brands, allowing precise estimation of preservative exposure.

So, about that type 2 diabetes risk: during follow-up, 1,131 cases of type 2 diabetes were identified among participants.

Notably, higher consumption of total preservatives, non-antioxidant preservatives, and antioxidant additives were associated with a 47%, 49%, and 40% higher incidence of type 2 diabetes, respectively, compared with the lowest levels of intake.

What may be of particular interest is the hit list: higher intake of 12 preservatives was associated with increased diabetes risk, including potassium sorbate (E202), potassium metabisulfite (E224), sodium nitrite (E250), acetic acid (E260), sodium acetates (E262), calcium propionate (E282), sodium ascorbate (E301), alpha-tocopherol (E307), sodium erythorbate (E316), citric acid (E330), phosphoric acid (E338), and rosemary extracts (E392).

Did you notice something surprising? There are some things there that are in principle very healthy. To mention just a few, we’ve got several sources of potassium (good for many things), we’ve got nitrates (likewise), we’ve got acetic acid (vinegar, good for blood sugar management), and even things like alpha-tocopherol (vitamin A!).

So, what gives?

It may be hypothesized that it’s not actually the substances themselves that cause the problem (in the cases of at least some of the preservatives, if not all), so much as the process of processing them.

We wrote about that a bit here: How Processed Is The Food You Buy, Really?

That said, the researchers did also note that previous experimental studies suggest some of the preservatives may damage cells and DNA and negatively affect metabolism, supporting the biological plausibility of the observed associations.

To lean more about that, you can read the paper in full, here: Associations between preservative food additives and type 2 diabetes incidence in the NutriNet-Santé prospective cohort

Want to learn more?

You might also want to bear in mind:

Is Fast Food Really All That Bad? ← Yes, yes it is. However, most people misunderstand the nature of its badness, which is what causes problems. So do check out that article to learn more 🙂

Take care!