A food coloring found in dozens of family favorite snacks can trigger serious gut illnesses, scientists warn.
Red 40, also known as Allura Red, is found in several popular candies, sodas and chips – including Doritos, Skittles and Pepsi – as well as baked goods and cake mixes.
But researchers at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, have found that the additive can hamper the gut’s ability to absorb nutrients, water and electrolytes, increasing the risk of developing inflammatory disease. the intestine.
They say this wear and tear on the body’s defenses could make people more susceptible to ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
Although the study was conducted on mice, the researchers say the findings apply to humans in Western countries, whose diets are typically high in food coloring.
Red 40, also known as Allura Red, is found in several popular candies, sodas and chips – including Doritos, Skittles and Pepsi – as well as baked goods and cake mixes.
Lead researcher Dr Waliul Khan said: “These findings have important implications for the prevention and management of gut inflammation.”
He added: “What we found is striking and alarming, as this common synthetic food coloring is a possible dietary trigger for IBD.”
The results were published in the journal Nature Communications.
Inflammatory bowel diseases such as colitis and Crohn’s disease, a chronic disease that causes inflammation of the digestive tract, are estimated to affect approximately three million Americans.
A major caveat of the study, however, is that a human’s diet would need to contain more Red 40 than recommended to see the kinds of results reported in mice.
Mice that only consumed Red 40 intermittently did not experience increased rates of colitis, suggesting that only humans who occasionally consumed foods or drinks containing Red 40 would be affected.
The use of food coloring has increased over the past 100 years, but there has been little research into its effects on the gut.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) limits the amount of food coloring in foods and cosmetics and sets the recommended daily limit at 7 mg/kg body weight.
Yet the chemicals in dyes have been linked to a myriad of conditions.
As part of their study, McMaster scientists gave mouse models Allura Red dye in their meals for 12 weeks.
They found that the additive increased serotonin production in the colon and disrupted gut bacteria, causing cases of colitis, a chronic disease that causes ulcers and sores in the digestive tract.
Serotonin – sometimes dubbed the “happiness hormone” – is often talked about for its effects on the brain. Low levels of the hormone are usually a factor in people with depression.
But it is actually the gut that is responsible for producing 95% of the total serotonin in the body.
In the intestine, serotonin regulates the normal rhythmic movement of the intestinal muscle and helps move contents through the intestines along the way. It is also responsible for the absorption of nutrients, electrolytes and water.
The researchers searched for several common synthetic dyes in a model of human enterochromaffin (EC) cells.
It affects the colon and rectum and can cause a variety of inflammation-related issues, including abdominal pain and bloating, diarrhea, dehydration, and bloody stools.
Dr Khan said: “The literature suggests that the consumption of Allura Red also affects certain allergies, immune disorders and behavioral problems in children, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.”
Studies have suggested an association between food coloring consumption and hyperactivity in children.
An April 2021 analysis of studies commissioned by the State of California reported that of 25 total studies on the topic, 16 identified some association between food coloring and neurobehavioral problems, “specifically exacerbation attention problems, such as in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other behavioral findings”.
Red 40, as well as Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 contain Benzidene, a human and animal carcinogen permitted at low and presumably safe levels in dyes.
The FDA calculated in 1985 that the ingestion of free benzidine increases the risk of cancer just below the threshold of “concern”, or 1 cancer in 1 million people.
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