As the obesity epidemic takes its toll in the United States and across the rest of the world, scientists have turned to research on the different elements of nutrition to try to stop this disease from spreading, and figure out the best ways to treat it, finding things like a link between a popular food additive and obesity.
For years on end, scientists have warned about the possible food additive obesity properties, though there haven't been many research paper on the subject, as there are many different components used for this end, including emulsifiers, which have now been proven to help obesity and other related diseases.
According to Science Daily, the food additive obesity study was recently published in the journal Nature, after an investigation from George State University scientists that resulted in a paper entitled "Dietary emulsifiers impact the mouse gut microbiota promoting colitis and metabolic syndrome."
CBS News reports that the food additive obesity study explains that emulsifiers, a composite used to extend the life of food products and add texture to them, can actually end up altering the bacteria found in the gut (called microbiome), which can lead to intestinal inflammation, a condition that makes the patient more likely to end up developing obesity, inflammatory bowel disease and even metabolic syndrome.
According to Medical Daily, to achieve the results found in the food additive obesity study, the researchers fed some of the most common emulsifiers to mice at doses equivalent to what a human being will consume, and saw how the component changed the rodents' microbiota, greatly increasing their chances to develop illnesses related to this.
"We do not disagree with the commonly held assumption that over-eating is a central cause of obesity and metabolic syndrome," said Andrew T. Gewirtz, one of the authors of the food additive obesity study, in a press release. "Rather, our findings reinforce the concept suggested by earlier work that low-grade inflammation resulting from an altered microbiota can be an underlying cause of excess eating."
