A leading nutritionist has sounded the alarm over a common ingredient found in many foods that could be detrimental to our health. Emulsifiers, present in a vast array of products such as ice cream, mayonnaise, and bread, have been flagged by Dr Federica Amati, chief nutritionist at Zoe. She highlighted their prevalence, stating on a Zoe podcast that "about 95% of baked goods like buns and croissants and breads in supermarkets" contain them, reports Surrey Live .
Dr Amati cautioned that regular consumption of emulsifiers might be disruptive to our wellbeing. She explained: "What we're starting to see is that emulsifiers eaten every day in various types of foods actually do disrupt the gut microbiome and they can potentially lead to higher levels of inflammation." She continued to outline the potential consequences: "All of these things contribute to a higher risk of basically being unwell, whether that's from the gastric symptoms, so having IBS or suffering with symptoms of indigestion, things like this.
But further down the line, when you have increased inflammation in the gut for a long time, that's when you run into a higher risk of things like developing obesity, type 2 diabetes, and of developing autoimmune conditions." Emulsifiers are food additives that are added to a variety of products for reasons such as texture and shelf life. They play a crucial role in the food industry.
They help blend foods that wouldn't naturally mix, like oil and water in salad dressing or oi.