Food additives are widely used to improve the appearance of processed foods, increase shelf life or improve the quality and stability of food.
Recently we have begun to question what effect these additives may have on our body.
Well, this new study from Binghamton University, State University of New York, examines the effect of one such additive commonly used in food called Titanium dioxide.
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Titanium dioxide is a common food additive and is found in many kinds of foods- donuts, chocolates, bread, chewing gum, food colouring and other processed food. It is also commonly used in other applications such as in sunscreen, in paints, paper and plastics and even in toothpaste.
Titanium dioxide is an approved food additive in Australia and has been used in consumer products for many years. Ingesting titanium dioxide is unavoidable. People may even ingest it through their toothpaste if not from food.
The goals of this study were to examine the subtle effects that take place in the body and to determine how acute and chronic exposure to nanoparticles of titanium dioxide influences the small intestine and its barrier function.
The small intestine cells absorb important nutrients from food and also act as a barrier to harmful pathogens.
Researchers exposed small intestinal in vitro cell culture model to 30 nanometres – equivalent to one meal’s worth of titanium dioxide – for over four hours. This was to test acute exposure. For chronic exposure, it was increased to three meals worth over five days.
The researchers found that acute exposure did not have much effect, but chronic exposure to titanium dioxide nanoparticles decreased intestinal barrier function. It diminished the absorptive projections called microvilli which are found on the surface of intestinal cells. With fewer microvilli, the barrier function weakened and metabolism slowed down. Iron, zinc and fatty acids – all nutrients – could not be absorbed easily. Inflammation signals were found to have increased while enzyme functions were negatively affected.
The researchers say that there has been previous work on the effect of titanium dioxide nanoparticles on microvilli but for this study they examined the effect of lower concentrations of titanium dioxide.
It seems that a significant amount of titanium dioxide ingested from food can affect the small intestine at the functional level. It is good advice to avoid processed foods and candy (sweets and lollies) as these foods use a lot of titanium dioxide nanoparticles.
Source: NanoImpact
