He ultra-processed consumption This is associated with the appearance of many diseases, from cancer to a large number of intestinal diseases. Even depression. This is mainly due to the high content of ingredients such as sugars and fats. But also to the presence of some of its additives, such as emulsifiers.
Here it is necessary to make a reservation so as not to fall into chemophobia. supplementspresented in the list of ingredients with the note letter E followed by a numberthey are usually not dangerous as such. Vice versa. They usually make ultra-processed foods much safer for us.
Indeed, some of these compounds, especially if taken in large quantities, can cause certain symptoms. For example, it has been observed that some emulsifiers may change the intestinal microbiota. That is, the populations of beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms living in the intestines become unbalanced, which allows the latter to multiply more than usual. This, among other symptoms, can cause inflammation of the intestinal mucosa, which gradually causes digestive problems. Therefore, a group of scientists from Paris City University decided to try to attack this specific effect of ultra-processed foods. Does this mean they’ve created a vaccine that will allow us to eat donuts like there’s no tomorrow without suffering the consequences? Well, unfortunately not. Let’s see step by step what they achieved.
What are emulsifiers?
When we make mayonnaise at home, for example, the ingredients separate over time. The liquid phase separates from the solid phase, and if we want to take it again, we will have to mix or beat again. This happens with many other dishes made from ingredients. liquids and solidsespecially when it comes to oils.
When it comes to industrial ultra-processing, emulsifiers can be added, which are compounds that help maintain the mixing of these phases, provided the product is handled in the recommended manner. These could be, for example, carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate 80presented codes E-466 and E-433 respectively.
It should be noted that if we prepare mayonnaise at home with a lot of salt and sunflower oil, it will still be an unhealthy ultra-processed product, even if it does not contain emulsifiers. But it is true that they can add another effect by contributing to the aforementioned microbiota imbalance.
A vaccine vs ultra-processed
These effects of emulsifiers in ultra-processed foods have been extensively studied in studies prior to the one just published in PLOS Biology. However, the study authors wanted to go further.
So that bacteria can reach Intestinal mucosa and cause inflammation, they must be able to move. Typically this is flagellated bacteria. That is, they move thanks to a kind of tail that moves as if they were swimming. And in order for this tail to move, they have a protein called flagellin.
The immune system usually attacks proteins you think are weird. So they asked themselves a question. What happens if intestinal immune system Will he train to attack the flagellin? This would render the bacteria immobile and unable to cause inflammation, no matter how many ultra-processed emulsifiers were consumed.
To see if they were right, they conducted a study on mice whose immune systems were stimulated to produce antibodies against flagellinlike with a vaccine. Only in half of them. The rest were left unimmunized to compare results.
After the rodents were immunized, they were given food containing carboxymethylcellulose or polysorbate 80 as ingredients. Thus, several interesting effects were observed in the immunized rodents. Firstly, pathogenic bacteria did not migrate to the intestinal mucosa. This, secondly, prevented the characteristic consequences of inflammation of the digestive mucosa. But they also saw something else: the ratio of pathogenic bacteria was different. That is, there was not such a big imbalance microbiota.
So what now?
The results with mice were quite good. They are led to believe that a drug based on this experiment could help prevent disease. for example, inflammatory bowel disease or type 2 diabetes.. But this does not mean that exactly the same effects will be observed in people. The study’s findings should be treated with caution. This is on the one hand.
On the other hand, we must not forget that ultra-processed foods will continue to be ultra-processed. And, as we’ve already seen, the worst ingredients aren’t the additives marked E. Even the emulsifiers. Ultra-processed foods usually contain high amounts fats, sugar or saltamong other ingredients that are harmful in large quantities.
So we shouldn’t look at this as a vaccine against ultra-processed foods. We should continue to eat healthy without feeling guilty. This is the basis of healthy eating in all aspects. The rest is just a little help, very interesting, but without miracles.
Source: Hiper Textual
