2024-04-23 22:32:12
Frequent consumption of certain emulsifiers seems associated with a slightly higher risk of diabetes, suggests a large study published Wednesday, but whose methodology is subject to several criticisms.
“The consumption of certain emulsifying food additives will be associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes,” explains a press release from the French Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm) which contributed to this study published in Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
Emulsifiers are the most common additives in the food industry. They are found in many products, of which they aim to improve texture and consumption.
This work was carried out in France as part of a so-called cohort study. This method consists of following a group of people for years, observing which pathologies they develop while measuring several factors related to their lifestyle.
Here, this cohort, called Nutrinet, monitored specifically by Inserm, includes around 100,000 adults supported for around fifteen years. It has already given rise to a number of studies, some of which suggest a link between the consumption of sweeteners and the occurrence of cardiovascular disease or cancer.
This time, researchers concluded that it is more common to develop type 2 diabetes when you often eat foods that contain emulsifiers such as carrageenan or xanthan gum.
However, like previous studies by the same team, the conclusions have been cautiously received by other researchers, who point out several limitations in terms of methodology.
These, some admitted by the authors themselves, are partly linked to the very principle of a study of this type, called observational: it does not make it possible to establish a direct cause and effect relationship between the consumption of these additives and the occurrence of diabetes.
It is not even clear that the risk of diabetes is associated precisely with the consumption of these emulsifiers, as epidemiologist Gunter Kuhnle, a nutrition specialist, points out in a response to the British Science Media Center.
“This study is likely to show an association between diabetes and foods that commonly contain certain emulsifiers, but not an association with these emulsifiers themselves,” he notes. And in any case, “the size of the effects is very small,” he notes.
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