E5: Are Food Additives and Preservatives Really "Safe"?

I'll never forget that moment in Costco, surrounded by aisles of 'healthy' foods, when I realized how many traps are hidden behind the labels. This instance, along with countless others, sparked my mission to help others navigate the maze of food additives and preservatives that wreak havoc on our gut health. In our detailed discussion, I recount this eye-opener and extend an invite to my 'Bloat Be Gone' webinar, where you'll learn to decode ingredient lists like a pro and avoid the digestive distress that so often accompanies modern eating habits.

In this episode, we're digging deep into our pantries. I'll reveal how the very additives that give food its shelf life can shorten ours, disrupting our gut microbiome and contributing to a host of issues from inflammatory diseases to mental health concerns. And it’s not just about what to limit—I’ll also discuss healthier alternatives and simple strategies for keeping your gut happy and your body healthy. Get ready for a tour through the hidden corners of your grocery store, and emerge empowered with the knowledge to make choices that truly nourish your body and soul.

Mentioned in this Episode:
Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics study: Read it!

Struggling with bloating and tired of strict diets and expensive supplements? Download my free Ultimate Guide to Bloat Busting and discover simple, effective strategies for a healthier, bloat-free life. Learn about mindful eating, hydration habits, gut-friendly foods, and stress management. Get your free copy today at beyondbloated.com/ultimate-guide. Transform your gut health and feel lighter and more energized!

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Email: karleeclose@beyondbloated.com

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Transcript

Karlee: 0:02

Welcome to the Beyond Bloated Podcast. I'm Karlee, a certified health coach, helping women under 50 ditch their bloat without having to follow super strict and stressful protocols. As someone who's struggled with all sorts of digestive issues for over five years, I know exactly how you're feeling. I also know that there's a way to feel better, and it doesn't have to involve tons of expensive supplements and insanely restrictive diets. Join me as I share all of my bloat-busting wisdom to help you say goodbye to that bloated belly and regain your confidence. It's time for you to move beyond bloated. Hello everyone, welcome back.

Karlee: 0:39

Last night I went to Costco and if you are a familiar Costco shopper, you'll know that Costco often changes their products, which can be super annoying because you'll become obsessed with a product and then you'll go back for more and it will no longer be there. But on the flip side of that, you get really excited when you see new products coming in. So I went last night and I saw a couple of new products that I was excited about because I was like, hey, this kind of looks like it could be something I could eat, something I could feel good about eating, because the label, the front of it, looked healthy. So the first thing I do, of course, is I flip that bad boy around and I look at the ingredient label and what do I see? Garbage. So much sugar and not like coconut sugar or you know a healthier sugar. It's like artificial sweeteners, glucose, fructose, artificial colors, artificial flavors. These are ingredients that I personally don't want to be eating a ton of because they're not good for us. The old me would have saw the package, would have seen the fancy labels, the organic feel of the product, and I would have thought, hey, this is healthy. They can't slap that shit on the package if it's not true. And I would have bought it and I would have ate it and I would have thought I'm being so good, I'm being so healthy.

Karlee: 2:06

Meanwhile, my gut health is suffering. I'm not noticing any improvements in my symptoms and I'm questioning why. I'm doing everything right. I'm buying the healthy products, I'm eating better. Why aren't I feeling any better?

Karlee: 2:22

It wasn't until I learned how to read an ingredient label that I started noticing real, long-lasting improvements in my gut health. Symptoms that I had had for years and I didn't even realize were related to my gut health, disappeared simply because I learned how to read an ingredient label and I learned how to limit my ultra-processed food intake by doing so, and that, in turn, obviously increased my consumption of whole, nourishing foods, and that is what our guts want. They don't want tons of ultra-processed food. They want whole foods, nourishing foods, foods that don't contain artificial ingredients and tons of sugars and sweeteners. So I believe this ingredient label reading is a super important skill that everyone should have, but not many people do, and it's through no fault of their own. We don't learn in school how to read an ingredient label. We don't learn a lot of things that they should teach us, but I'm going to teach you because no one taught me. I had to teach myself, and when I did so, it really truly changed the whole trajectory of my gut healing journey. So today it's happening.

Karlee: 3:48

So, if you're listening to this episode today, go to my website, beyondbloatedcom slash webinar and register for today's webinar. It is called Bloat Be Gone Mastering Ingredient Lists for Optimal Gut Health. I am going to teach you the skills you need to be able to decipher an ingredient list and not be tricked by these billion-dollar companies that are making money off of us thinking we're being healthy by purchasing their trash ingredients that they're advertising as a health product. Today is April 23rd. The webinar is happening at 4 pm Pacific time, so even if you're busy this evening, you can still register for the webinar and I will be sending out a recording to everyone who registers. And on top of the recording, you'll also receive my optimal gut healthy Guide, which I have designed to provide you lists of ingredients that you should limit or avoid for optimal gut health, ingredients that potentially could be causing cancer and ingredients that you should eat an abundance of, because these foods are going to nourish your gut, feed that good gut bacteria and make us feel happy. I've also provided a sample one-week grocery list in the guide to get you started, because I know it can be very overwhelming learning a bunch of new information and not knowing how to implement it. So register for the webinar. Beyondbloatedcom slash webinar. It's happening today, april 23rd, at 4 pm Pacific time. If you cannot attend live, that's okay. You'll get the recording and you'll get the grocery guide. If you can attend live, that will be most beneficial for you because I will be holding a live Q&A session at the end of the webinar for anyone who is in attendance. So start brainstorming your questions. I can't wait to answer them Now today's topic is going to be all about why are these ingredients bad?

Karlee: 5:55

Because I'm rambling on about, wow, these ingredients in this product are so terrible, they're artificial. I'm not eating that, but I mean. The reality is, our government allows these ingredients to be in our food right, but what they have failed to inform us is that certain ingredients that they have allowed to be in our food have negative impacts on our health, and not just our digestive health, like all aspects of health. So I'm going to get into it, specifically focusing on additives and preservatives, because those are in so much of our food it's insane. So additives and preservatives are slightly different, but they both kind of serve the same purpose. They're both substances that are added to processed foods or packaged foods during manufacturing to improve their shelf life, their appearance, texture, flavor or nutritional profile. The main purpose of an additive is to enhance or preserve certain characteristics of a product, so these are usually like colorings or flavor enhancements, sweeteners, thickeners, texture enhancers, and this is done to make packaged food look more appealing and taste better, have a better texture to them and also to extend their shelf life.

Karlee: 7:28

Some of the most common additives that you'll see in tons and tons of products are artificial colors which include like have you ever seen the names Red 40 or Yellow 5, otherwise known as like Brilliant Blue or Fast greens? Yeah, they name it that to make it not seem so scary. I guess you turn around you're like oh, fast green is in my cereal suite. So these are synthetic colors that again, they make it look pretty. They're definitely targeting children, which is alarming. Another common additive is artificial flavoring. Again, these are synthetic flavors that are added to your food to mimic natural flavor. So like. Examples are artificial vanilla and artificial strawberry and butter flavor, because why put actual butter in the food when you can add synthetic butter flavor? And finally, we have artificial sweeteners.

Karlee: 8:36

These are used in a lot of diet products, like diet soda, and it's because they're used as a sugar substitute, so they're advertised as good because they're low calorie, they're sugar-free, but they still taste sweet. So you don't feel like you're missing out. And examples are aspartame, yeast, mold, things like that. That way they're able to sit on a shelf way longer than they should be able to, saving companies money, obviously. And these preservatives can either be natural or synthetic and they're added to processed foods, packaged foods, that are going to be susceptible to like spoilt lich again, just so they can sit on the shelf for longer than they should be able to.

Karlee: 9:35

So here are some common preservatives that you will find in a lot of product labels. We have sodium benzoate. This is used to inhibit the growth of yeast mold bacteria, mainly in acidic foods and beverages. So like soft drinks, fruit juices, condiments check yours, see if you got that in there. Another one we have potassium sorbate. Another super popular preservative helps preventing spoilage and it's in tons of processed foods like dairy products, baked goods, sauces. Next, we have sulfites. This one, if you're a wine drinker, might sound familiar to you. It's found in wine, dried fruits, beer and other fermented foods, and it's used to prevent browning and microbial growth.

Karlee: 10:31

These next two have super long, complicated names that I'm not going to try to pronounce, but on the food label you'll see it as BHA or BHT. Those are two separate ingredients, by the way, and these are synthetic antioxidants added to fats and oils in our packaged foods to prevent oxidation and extend the shelf life. You'll often find these in cereals, snacks, processed meats. Next, one might ring a bell for a lot of you Chinese food lovers MSG. This is used as a flavor enhancer commonly found in savory foods, like Chinese food, and it's also found in like packaged soups, snacks, more fast food items, like not just Chinese food, but you probably know it from Chinese food best. Last one on the list is high fructose corn syrup. So this isn't like a traditional preservative, it's actually a sweetener, and it's used in processed food and beverages like soft drinks, baked goods, condiments to improve the flavor aka make it sweet AF and extend the shelf life. Aka make it sweet af and extend the shelf life.

Karlee: 11:50

So now you know some common food ingredients that are additives and preservatives. I'm curious how many of those are in your packaged food, because I'm telling you they're everywhere. If you run over your kitchen right now and grab something, unless you specifically made sure that there were no additives or preservatives in that product, I bet you there's at least one. Now I'm going to get into why it matters. We know what they're used for their purpose in the food products. We know their ingredient names.

Karlee: 12:20

Now we're going to learn the potential effects on our digestion, gut health and overall health, because there are some scary side effects of these ingredients, starting with good old-fashioned digestive discomfort. So that includes bloating, gas, pain in your gut after eating. That is very common for people to experience after eating certain additives and preservatives. This could be due to individual sensitivities or intolerance to those specific additives, or it could also be because artificial sweeteners have been proven to disrupt the gut microbiome. The microbiome is where all of our good and bad gut bacteria hang out Literally trillions of microorganisms living in there and artificial sweeteners disrupt the balance. So a healthy microbiome has good and bad gut bacteria. They live in harmony. There's a very delicate balance between the two that makes everything operate smoothly in the gut, and when this is disturbed, then the bad bacteria start to overpower the good. There becomes more bad than good, and that is when tons of issues start to arise.

Karlee: 15:01

This disruption in the microbiome is also known as dysbiosis. So dysbiosis impacts digestion. Yes, so you're going to be bloated, constipated, diarrhea, stomach pain after eating, food intolerances, things like that. But the gut is also super important for immune function and mental health and just overall health. So it's going to be impacting a lot more than just tummy troubles if you are experiencing dysbiosis.

Karlee: 15:34

Some artificial sweeteners like sorbitol and maltitol are known to have laxative effects, so these can cause GI symptoms like bloating, gas diarrhea, especially when consumed in large quantities, which honestly, isn't that difficult, given how common these ingredients are in our food. Certain food additives and preservatives have also been linked to increased intestinal permeability, also known as leaky gut syndrome. So that's when the gut barrier becomes compromised, the holes get larger and then it becomes easier for undigested food particles, toxins and bacteria to leak into the bloodstream. This can trigger immune responses, inflammation in the gut, food intolerances tons of bad things we don't want as well as digestive discomfort. So this is another reason why you're going to experience bloating and gas and stomach pain.

Karlee: 16:38

All the things these additives and preservatives that they're tossing in our packaged food may also interfere with the activity of digestive enzymes, which are what we need to break down carbs, proteins and fats to be able to properly absorb our nutrients. For example, artificial sweeteners have been shown to inhibit the activity of our digestive enzymes in the small intestine, which is where most of our nutrient absorption happens. So this is potentially leading to impaired nutrient absorption, digestive issues, and if you're not able to properly absorb your nutrients over long periods of time, you're going to develop nutrient deficiencies, which will cause more symptoms, more problems. It's a domino effect. We also have certain emulsifiers and thickeners causing us gut troubles. So these are things that are used to improve the texture in our food. So they're going to thicken up a dressing or a sauce, something along those lines. So they're going to like thicken up a dressing or a sauce, something along those lines, and these may be affecting our gut motility, and gut motility is the rhythmic contraction and relaxation of muscles in the digestive tract. Basically, it's how waste moves along our digestive system and then we poop it out digestive system and then we poop it out. So if we're disrupting this gut motility, we're going to either slow down transit time, leading to constipation Constipation causes bloating or, on the flip side, we're going to have accelerated transit time when now we're experiencing diarrhea or loose stools. Either way not ideal.

Karlee: 18:26

Inflammation is another cool side effect that preservatives and additives can cause us, so low-grade inflammation in the gut can contribute to digestive issues. It may also be linked to the development of chronic diseases like inflammatory bowel disease or the notorious IBS, meaning you have dysbiosis of some sort. As I mentioned earlier, artificial sweeteners have been shown to disrupt the balance of our gut microbiome, so that leads to dysbiosis, but it also causes inflammation, and certain artificial sweeteners, like aspartame in particular, have been associated with increased levels of inflammatory markers. In some studies. Even some artificial flavors and colors contain chemical compounds that may have pro-inflammatory properties and they will contribute to this systemic inflammation in our bodies when consumed regularly, which, like I said, isn't difficult because it's in so much of our food. If we are chronically inflamed, that is increasing our risk for so many serious health conditions. Cardiovascular disease, diabetes and immune disorders are just a few.

Karlee: 19:52

So, yes, many additives and preservatives are considered safe for consumption by our government, even though I just listed off a ton of different reasons why they probably shouldn't be. But the key is that they're saying safe for consumption in small amounts. I'm telling you we are not consuming small amounts of these foods if we are not reading labels. Excessive intake or prolonged exposure to these synthetic additives are going to cause serious health problems. I didn't even touch on the carcinogenic effects, the endocrine disrupting effects that some of these additives and preservatives have been shown to cause. It's definitely scary when you really think about it, and I'm not trying to scare you, even though I probably am, maybe a little bit. I just want you to be aware, because these ingredients are often hidden in the food labels on purpose and studies like the ones saying hey, aspartame is causing inflammation in the gut aren't plastered on the news. These aren't things that companies want us to know, because they want us to keep buying their shitty food products and making them tons of money while we get sick and don't know why, because we think we're eating healthy. It's really sad.

Karlee: 21:22

So I'm going to jump into a list of packaged snacks, just so you are aware of what to look for. And if you have any of these in your cupboard like just because I say chips, for example that doesn't mean you can never eat chips. A there are healthier versions of chips that don't have all this shit in it, and B you can eat small quantities of these things and not get deathly ill. The problem is that it's in so much of our food and if we're not reading the labels, we're not really aware of how much we are consuming, and over time it's building up. We're eating way too much of it. We're getting sick because of that. All right, so we're going to start with packaged snacks. So chips and crackers definitely contain a lot of artificial flavors and colors to enhance their taste and appearance. Additionally, some may use artificial sweeteners if they're like advertised as low calorie or low sugar versions. So be mindful of that.

Karlee: 22:31

Candy and other sweets often use artificial colors because they want the candy and the sweets to look bright and eye-catching. So when you're walking by you see this bright, red, hard candy and you turn your head and you're like, oh, that looks good. On top of that they're throwing in artificial flavors to mimic natural flavors, because candy that is labeled as watermelon flavor does not contain a single speck of watermelon. It contains the synthetic flavored version of watermelon that usually tastes absolutely nothing like watermelon. And a super common packaged snack that contains preservatives are processed meat snacks. So these are things like jerky and meat sticks. They stick artificial preservatives in there to extend the shelf life and maintain freshness, because I mean, think about it it's meat on a shelf, meat is usually refrigerated and they also add artificial flavor to enhance the taste or the seasoning of the flavor on the meat stick.

Karlee: 23:48

Moving on to the packaged beverages soft drinks obviously going to be a huge culprit. They love artificial flavor and color. In the soda industry. That beverage does not come out looking that brown color. They add caramel color to it. I don't know, it doesn't even look appealing. Honestly, I don't know how they do it, I guess the original color must be worse.

Karlee: 24:15

So many popular soft drinks contain synthetic additives. If they're sugar-free versions, like diet soda, they're going to put artificial sweeteners in there instead of sugar, which is not better for you. It's just swapping one poison for another. This one may be surprising for some, but fruit juices and other fruit-flavored drinks. They often contain artificial colors and flavors. Unless you're purchasing 100% pure fruit juice with nothing added to it, then yeah, it probably has a bunch of garbage in it, like artificial color and flavor, tons of added sugar, the high fructose corn syrup that I talked about earlier. They put that into juice even though juice is already super sweet. I guess they thought let's add some more. I don't know. It's really hard to comprehend why these things are the way they are. The only reasoning I can think of is money and it's addictive.

Karlee: 25:22

Last on our beverages list we have energy drinks. These are loaded with artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners, other additives that make it taste good. I guess I've never liked energy drinks. I've never thought they'd taste good, but they're popular, so I guess people do. These ingredients make the flavor intense and the colors super vibrant, because there is no liquid naturally coming out. That monster green. That's not real. That's additives that they're tossing in there to make it appealing.

Karlee: 26:06

Last category I'm going to warn you about are the convenience foods. So those are the things that we just want quick. We're going to snatch them up, we're going to toss them in the microwave or we're just going to eat them, as they are like a granola bar type thing. These are also going to be loaded with additives and preservatives. Frozen meals, for example, frozen dinners, frozen entrees, the things that you're storing in your freezer and then you're popping in the microwave for three minutes and mowing down on that during your lunch break. Those contain tons of artificial additives like flavors, colors, preservatives. These are all things again. Make it taste better, make it look nicer, keep it shelf stable for longer. It taste better, make it look nicer, keep it shelf stable for longer. These ingredients allow the big manufacturers and companies to produce convenient, ready-to-eat meals with lots of storage life. They know their target market. People want a quick, fast option. There it is Doesn't mean it's good for you. Make sure you read those labels.

Karlee: 27:13

Next we have the instant noodle and pastas. These are things that are going to also contain artificial flavors, colors, preservatives. Making them taste good looking, pretty, keeping them on the shelf for a long time. The issue with these are usually not like the noodles themselves Well, sometimes, but more so the seasoning packets or the sauce mixes that come with the instant noodle products. So make sure you're reading the label, the whole label. There'll probably be a section for pasta ingredients and then seasoning ingredients. Make sure you're reading both, because they're going to stick a lot of the additives and preservatives in the seasoning and the sauce section.

Karlee: 27:56

Finally, we have convenient snack bars like granola bars. These are nasty because these are often advertised as health-focused. They'll put some nuts and seeds in there and they'll call it a nature bar. And I mean nuts and seeds are healthy, right. So it's easy to overlook the rest of the ingredients when you're just seeing the highlights on the package. So these are going to contain a lot of artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners. If they're advertised as like a low sugar bar, then they're going to have artificial sweeteners. If they're advertised as like a low sugar bar, then they're going to have artificial sweeteners.

Karlee: 28:38

Just be very wary of the granola bar, because these are all the time advertised as health-focused, quick and easy, healthy snack and a lot of the times that is a lie. Now I know I just dropped a lot of terrifying information on you, so I do apologize for that, but it is not meant to be terrifying. Yes, these ingredients are a little scary, and the fact that they're in so much of our food is even scarier, but the good news is you don't have to eat it all the time. You can read your ingredient labels, find products that are better for you to replace the ones that are not so great, and you can still eat the things that you love. You're only going to have a problem if you don't read ingredient labels and you're just picking products out willy-nilly, eating things without any regard for what's in them.

Karlee: 29:38

Out willy-nilly eating things without any regard for what's in them, because a study from the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics determined that 60% of foods purchased by Americans contain technical food additives, including coloring or flavoring agents, coloring or flavoring agents, preservatives and sweeteners. This represents a 10% increase since 2001. This study was from 2019, by the way. 60% means six out of the 10 products purchased by Americans has some sort of food additive or preservative in it, has some sort of food additive or preservative in it. The even more alarming part is that more than half of the overall packaged food and beverage products bought by US households contained three or more additives. So not only of these, six out of ten products contain an additive or a preservative. About half of them contain three or more additives.

Karlee: 30:40

So you're not just eating one at a time, you're eating three or more at a time. So overall, yes, our bodies can handle some shit. If you eat the occasional preservative or additive, you're not going to die. If you've been eating it up to this point, you're also not going to die. But I just want you to be aware of how easy it is to eat large quantities of these synthetic ingredients if you're not paying attention.

Karlee: 31:10

I used to be that guy who wasn't paying attention. I didn't read a single food label. I didn't care what I was eating. I didn't have a weight issue, so I didn't think it mattered what I ate. And eventually my gut hated me so much I developed all these food sensitivities. I had gut pain, I had bloating, so many other problems. And yeah, food, well, so many other problems. And yeah, food, well, this isn't even considered food in my eyes.

Karlee: 31:43

These ingredients in ultra-processed food the additives and the preservatives were largely to blame for my gut demise, but the good news is I have significantly reduced my intake. I do not cut it out completely, because it's quite literally impossible. I try to purchase the best quality products that I can, but I go out to eat, I go to friends' places, I enjoy the occasional protein bar. That's life. That's not a big deal. What I'm warning you about is purchasing tons of ultra processed food, not reading your labels and accidentally eating large quantities of these ingredients.

Karlee: 32:21

I don't want you to be sick. I want you to feel better. So join my webinar tonight, if you're available. I'm going to teach you all you need to know about ingredient labels how to read them, how to limit your exposure to all this synthetic stuff and how to replace it with whole, to limit your exposure to all this synthetic stuff and how to replace it with whole, nourishing foods that are going to make you feel your best. So hopefully, I will see you tonight. Head to beyondbloatedcom slash webinar, if you haven't registered yet. I'm looking forward to seeing you there and answering any questions that you might have. So I'll see you tonight. Thank you for listening to the Beyond Bloated podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review, and don't forget to share this podcast with your fellow gut goddesses. If you'd like to chat about today's episode, send me a DM on Instagram at beyondbloated. Until next time, bye.