While the findings of the new research are observational and cannot prove cause and effect, the study did a good job of controlling for other factors that may influence health, such as age, body mass index or BMI, smoking, physical activity and diet in general
“Although they cannot prove causation, there are signals in the results that warrant further investigation.”
“This is one of the first large studies to look at individual preservatives rather than treating ultra-processed foods as a single category,”
To be in the study, each participant tracks every bite of their food and drink by brand name for three days every six months. Researchers then use a database of product ingredients to identify common preservatives and compare levels of consumption over years with medical data stored in the French national health care system.
Researchers did a deep dive on 17 preservatives consumed by at least 10% of the participants and found eight were associated with higher blood pressure over the next decade. Three of those — potassium sorbate, potassium metabisulphite and sodium nitrite — are “non-antioxidant” preservatives, which means they kill bacteria, molds and yeast that spoil foods.
The remaining preservatives linked to high blood pressure in the study — ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate, sodium erythorbate, citric acid and extracts of rosemary — are so-called natural “antioxidant” preservatives, used to reduce oxidation that turns foods brown and rancid.
Ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, was also specifically linked to cardiovascular disease, the study found.
