These Food Additives Could Increase Your Risk of Diabetes

Scientists have found a new thing for you to worry about.

According to a new study published in the PLOS Medicine journal, certain food additives that appear in a many products and are frequently consumed together may “represent a modifiable risk factor for type 2 diabetes prevention.”

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Past studies focused on individual ingredients that could pose a risk. In contrast, this one focused on how additives work together to pose a threat.

That’s an important distinction, study co-author Mathilde Touvier told NBC News, because “in real life, we ingest a mixture of additives.”

Researchers worked for eight years and looked at data from more than 108,000 French adults to reach their conclusions.

How the Study Found a Link to Diabetes

In looking at participants’ diets, researchers identified five mixtures of additives that are commonly consumed together. 

“These mixtures are data-driven,” Marie Payen de la Garanderie, the first study author, told CNN. “We did not decide ‘a priori’ to group additives together. These 5 mixtures reflect the ones most frequently ingested by [study] participants.”

Two of those five mixtures, researchers found, were linked to an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes. People who frequently consumed food from those two groups were found to be more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes. That was found to be the case regardless of how healthfully they eat otherwise.

“We carefully adjusted all models for intakes of energy, added sugars, saturated fatty acids, sodium, dietary fiber, etc., in order to isolate a potential effect of the studied mixtures, independently from the well-known effect of sugar on type 2 diabetes,” Touvier told CNN.

As for what foods to avoid, one mixture contained additives commonly found in plant-based milks, processed meats, modified starches, and creamy dairy desserts. The other mixture, meanwhile, contained additives often found in sugary and artificially-sweetened drinks.

The study doesn’t claim to show causation. However, researchers said that their findings “support public health recommendations to limit nonessential additives.”