Drawing up a list of over 1500 food additives would be a very difficult and essentially useless undertaking. First because the data would only be indicative and second because it would be impossible to remember and would require too long consultation times. In this regard, it is still possible to consult the additives guide on wikipedia .
In this article we will try instead to focus our attention on some points.
the Ministry of Health and the various international communities have the aim of protecting and reassuring the consumer by regulating the sector with specific laws:
- the studies carried out to establish the toxicity of additives are mainly done on animals and there is however no evidence of their long-term effects. Who assures you that what is not harmful today will not become harmful after 50 years of continuous use?
- it is impossible to test all possible combinations of additives and their respective dosages. Nothing prevents you from thinking that particular combinations of additives, harmless if taken individually, can have negative repercussions on the body.
- it is impossible to connect additivesto the appearance of all diseases; if an additive does not directly cause a pathology it is not excluded that in some way it may contribute to its appearance
- if the alleged negative effect of additives present in a food is added to that of another food and so on for a day, a week and a year, considering the increasingly massive use in the industrial field, who assures us that we are really exempt by dangers?
- the industry of the sector has a record turnover growing year after year (about 20 billion dollars in 2000); this figure should at least make the smarter and more malicious consumers think
- finally, consider that in industrialized countries an average annual consumption of additives of 6-7 kg per individual has been calculated.
It is really difficult, in short, to orient oneself in this world that is still obscure in some ways. It is not possible to express a unitary judgment, it is not possible to affirm that food additives are harmless, but not even to condemn them unfairly.
Trust is good, Not trust is better
Some tips to protect the consumer:
- in the supermarket prefer foods with a low content of additives; shopping using the brainand not the eyes: if the color of a food is too flashy, compare it with the price. If it is cheap, artificial colors have certainly been used .
- Prefer fresh foods, avoid pre-cooked and packaged foodsin which the use of additives is often important.
- Rediscover traditional cuisine, using top quality natural ingredients.
