You may know about nutrition to avoid artificial sweeteners\nand food dyes, but now it may be time to add another additive to that list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New research on mice shows that emulsifiers\u2014additives used\nto change the texture of food and increase its shelf life\u2014can produce anxiety\nand changes in gut bacteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emulsifiers can be found in a variety of foods, from\nchocolate and margarine to bread and processed meats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Previous research on additives like emulsifiers have found\nthat they can increase the risk of obesity and metabolic disorders, cause\ninflammation and alter the gut microbiomes in mice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the new study, a team of Georgia State University researchers\nset out to determine if two specific emulsifiers could cause anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea comes from previous studies, which have shown that\ngut bacteria can play a role in mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the new study, the researchers looked at the emulsifiers\nP80 and CMC, when added to drinking water, could change the behavior and\nmicrobiomes of mice. After 12 weeks, the findings showed that the emulsifiers\ndid impact gut bacteria and behavior, but in different ways depending on the\nsex of the mice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the male mice, anxious behavior increased. For female\nmice, social behavior decreased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although it\u2019s not known why the male and female mice were\naffected differently, scientists have pinpointed differences in the male vs.\nfemale immune system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe know that inflammation triggers local immune cells to\nproduce signaling molecules that can affect tissues in other places, including\nthe brain, explains one of the study\u2019s co-authors Professor Geert de Vries.\n\u201cThe gut also contains branches of the vagus nerve, which forms a direct\ninformation pathway to the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More research is planned and future studies will use larger\nanimals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The results of the study were published in the journal Scientific Reports.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New research indicates that emulsifiers\u2014food additives that change texture and shelf life\u2014can cause anxiety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[690],"tags":[766,723,771,732,719],"class_list":["post-13262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellness","tag-anxiety","tag-diet","tag-food","tag-nutrition","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}