Emulsifiers are the most widely used food additives. What are they doing in our gut microbiota?
When shopping for grocery lately, unless you stick to the aisles of produce, “it’s almost impossible to avoid processed foods, especially in the typical Western food consumption.” This is characterized by too much plant foods, dairy products, dairy products, eggs and processed junk.
For example, the artificial sweetener sucralose, sold as a splender, “rebutatively destroys the gut microbiota at doses associated with human use” and “induces glucose intolerance.” In other words, it can make our blood sugar levels worse, not better. While it is relatively easy to avoid artificial sweeteners, “it may be much more difficult to avoid emulsion intake… because it is commonly added to the wide variety of foods within the modern western diet.” In fact, “emulsifiers are the most widely used additive” and “most processed foods contain one or more emulsifiers that allow such food to maintain the desired texture and to avoid separation into different parts (such as oil or water layers).” Consuming emulsifiers in megatons each year thanks to a multi-billion dollar industry. At 1:03 in my video, there are emulsifiers such as carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate 80 safe.
Emulsifiers are often found in fatty dressings, breads, other baked goods, mayonnaise, and other fatty spreads, candies and drinks. “Like all permitted food additives, emulsifiers are evaluated by risk assessors and consider them safe. However, there is growing concern among scientists about the possibility of harmful effects on the gut barrier and microbiota.” Similarly, it could increase the absorption of several environmental toxins, such as endocrine destructive factors and carcinogens present in food.”
We know that consumption of ultra-highly processed foods can contribute to weight gain. Healthier, longer-lived populations not only have lower meat intakes and higher plant intakes, but also eat minimal processed foods, and “a life without chronic disease, much less obesity, disease-free life.” Based on many preclinical studies, emulsifiers found in processed foods play a role, but who cares if “emulsifiers increase weight in rats”? “Emulsifiers can cause significant changes in the microbiota,” they are not talking about the human microbiota.
Mice are often used to study their effects on the microbiota, but “only a few percent of bacterial genes are shared between mice and humans.” Even the gut microbiota of different strains of mice can be quite different from one another, so if you can’t even extrapolate from one type of mouse to another, how are you supposed to translate the results from mice to humans? “Surprisingly, little has been studied about the potential harmful effects of ingested ingestion.
For example, consider lecithin, “best known as an important element of egg yolk.” Lecithin has been found to be worse than multilayer 80 in that it allows bacteria to leak through the intestinal walls and into the bloodstream. However, it has not yet been decided whether human lecithin consumption causes the same problem. “It is true that there is a shortage of data from human trials with the effects of emulsifiers in processed foods, but at least there is data on human tissue, cells and intestinal plants.
The title of this study was, “Dietary emulsifiers directly alter the composition and gene expression of the human microbiota of in vivo expression that enhances intestinal inflammation.” ex vivo means outside the body. Researchers can see 3:39 if they inoculate the artificial intestine with fresh human feces until stable culture is established, then add carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) or polysorbate 80 (P80), causing an increased inflammatory capacity within a day, and fall below polysorbate 80 within the first week with carboxymethylcellulose.
“This approach revealed that both P80 and CMC act directly on the human microbiota and increase its inflammatory potential…” When researchers tested the effect of these emulsifiers on the protective mucus layer of Petri dish cultures of human intestinal endometrial cells, they discovered that the protective layer could be partially destroyed. The green staining is mucus, as shown below and at 4:00 in my video. Both emulsifiers reduce levels.
However, both this study and last used emulsifier concentrations that were far beyond what people would normally obtain on a daily basis.
“Crohn’s Disease of Crohlocation of Crohlocation scherichia coli of M-cells: contrasting effects of soluble plant fibers and emulsifiers” is perhaps the study that raised the greatest potential concern. The researchers found cells surgically, similar to actual intestinal wall tissues, and, as shown here, at 4:27 in my video, multilayer 80 can double E. coli infiltration.
In contrast, in this case, adding fibers allowed the plantain fibers to seal the intestinal wall tissue twice as tightly as 4:33, as shown below.
