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A Common Food Additive May Be Messing With Your Brain
If you want to invent a new food additive, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires a safety study before approval. These studies must show that the additive is healthy for humans — but it doesn’t test the effects on gut microbes. That’s a major oversight because we now know that gut microbes are enormously important for our health.
A recent study by Lee-Yan Sheen and colleagues from the National Taiwan University, found that many emulsifiers, especially synthetic ones, cause changes to the gut microbiome. Emulsifiers are additives that help oil and water mix, and they create a smooth mouthfeel that manufacturers prize. They are found in a surprisingly large number of processed foods, including peanut butter, bread, sausage, and ice-cream.
The researchers found that emulsifiers helped bacteria to invade the mucus layer lining the gut. Mucus is the first line of defense we have against pathogens, so this is concerning. With the mucus compromised, microbes and their toxins find it easier to pass through the gut lining and enter the bloodstream. The researchers found evidence of systemic inflammation as a result and an uptick in metabolic disorders including increased blood sugar levels and insulin resistance.
‘A Bleak Picture’: Most Food Sold by Biggest Companies Is Unhealthy
Two-thirds of the products sold by the 30 biggest food companies in the world are unhealthy, according to a report published by the Access to Nutrition Foundation (ATNi) on Thursday.
“If you go to your supermarket, on average, nearly 70% of products you’ll be looking at will be unhealthy, no matter what the labeling says, no matter what the advertising says,” Philip Eisenhart, ATNi media lead, told Newsweek.
Greg Garrett, ATNi executive director, told Newsweek that there had been marginal improvements — with 34% of sales coming from healthy foods this year, rather than 27%, as was the case in 2021.
“But that’s nowhere near even half,” he said. “If we’re going to get to 50% by 2030, things have to move much faster.”
“It’s still a bleak picture,” said Eisenhart. “And on top of that, not one of these companies is willing to stop marketing those unhealthy products to children.”
CDC Calls for Wider Bird Flu Testing After More Farmworker Infections Found
Health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday called for more testing of people on farms who have contracted bird flu. The federal agency updated its recommendations for wider testing after a new study revealed more farmworkers had signs of infection, even though they reportedly did not display symptoms of illness.
Dr. Nirav Shah, principal director of the CDC, said people in close contact with infected animals should get tested and seek treatment even if they feel fine. “The purpose of these actions is to keep workers safe, to limit the transmission of H5 to humans and to reduce the possibility of the virus changing,” Shah said to reporters.
Angela Rasmussen, virus expert at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, used the new study to criticize the current response to the bird flu outbreak. “It shows yet again that we are not responding effectively to the H5N1 cattle outbreak in humans or animals and if we continue to let this virus spread and jump from species to species, our luck will eventually run out,” Rasmussen told the Associated Press.
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‘It Should Not Taste Marine-Like’: Would You Eat a Burger Made From Processed Sea Squirts?
At a seaside restaurant near the docks in Fredrikstad, Norway, there’s a selection of delicious looking entrees sitting in front of me. There is a cheesy lasagne, a savory Mexican casserole, and a spicy chilli con carne. Biting in to each one in turn, I savor the familiar taste of ground beef. Or is it?
The dishes come from Pronofa Asa, a Scandinavian company whose purpose is to make new and sustainable protein sources. In 2022, it acquired the Swedish research company Marine Taste and expanded on its work turning ciona — or “sea squirts” to you and me — into mincemeat.
Ciona is naturally rich in proteins, and can be used as an alternative feed for fish or animals as well as people. “The sea squirt is the only organism that produces 100% pure cellulose,” says Hans Petter Olsen, the CEO of Pronofa. “So there are some fibers in the meat and we had to work on how to process them so the mouthfeel would be similar to meat.”
