Higher blood sugar can lead to vision problems.
Key takeaways:
- Higher consumption of food preservatives overall increased the risk for type 2 diabetes by 47%.
- Of 17 preservatives individually assessed, 12 were linked to a higher risk for diabetes.
Higher consumption of widely used food preservatives increased the risk for type 2 diabetes, according to a French study published in Nature Communications.
The data “call for a re-evaluation of the risk/benefit balance of these food additive preservatives by the authorities in charge for better consumer protection,” Mathilde Touvier, PhD, a research professor at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research and the study’s senior author, told Healio.
The findings from the study, the first in the world to investigate associations between a wide range of food preservatives and type 2 diabetes incidence, “support the recommendations to favor non-to-minimally-processed food and avoid superfluous additives,” Touvier said. “Doctors could play a key role in disseminating these recommendations to their patients.”
The use of food preservatives has become widespread, with more than 700,000 of the 3.5 million foods and beverages listed in the Open Food Facts World database in 2024 containing at least one, according to Touvier and colleagues.
Source: Healio