On July 18, Wuhan organized a summer science popularization parent-child tour, and the children walked into the food testing center to learn about relevant food health knowledge. According to food testing experts, beverages have become an indispensable drink for people, but long-term consumption of beverages with artificial colors will harm our health.
Zhou Wenkai, a test engineer, said that the synthetic colors in the beverage will not affect the human body if used within the specified range. However, long-term and excessive consumption of coloring-containing foods will lead to excessive intake of synthetic colorings, which will be harmful to health. "Colorful drinks are common in life, and the added pigments are free, which are easily adsorbed by the human body and remain in our body, and long-term drinking is harmful to human health."
Photo / provided by the interviewee
It is understood that carbonated drinks are composed of a large number of food additives. Carbonated drinks are made by filling liquid beverages with carbon dioxide, and the main ingredients: sugar, preservatives, colors, flavors, etc. In addition to sugars, which can replenish the body's energy, inflatable "carbonated drinks" contain almost no nutrients.
Figure/Source: Baidu Encyclopedia
In September 2022, the official account of Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University released an article entitled "The Harm of Long-term Drinking Beverages", which mentioned that long-term drinking of beverages will damage the kidneys, because beverages contain a large number of harmful substances such as additives, pigments, flavors, and preservatives. As a result, the kidneys are damaged, which also increases the chance of kidney disease.
Photo/Official Weibo of Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University
On July 26, 2022, the official account of Shandong Food Safety Testing Technology Co., Ltd. released "Are pigments harmful to the human body? The article mentions that the consumption of artificial colors is pleasing to the eye and stimulates people's appetite, but it can also be harmful to human health. Studies have shown that ADHD and excessive behavior in children are related to long-term excessive consumption of foods containing synthetic colors. Due to the imperfect liver detoxification function and renal excretion function in children, eating synthetic pigments leads to a large consumption of detoxification substances in the body and interferes with the normal metabolic function in the body, resulting in diarrhea, bloating, abdominal pain, malnutrition and a variety of allergies, such as rash, urticaria, asthma, rhinitis, etc.
Photo/Shandong Food Safety Testing Technology Co., Ltd. official WeChat
The School of Chemical Engineering and Technology of Taiyuan University of Science and Technology has also published an article on "Synthetic Pigments Harm Health", which pointed out that artificial pigments are organic pigments prepared by artificial chemical synthesis, mainly made of aniline dyes isolated from tar, so they are collectively referred to as coking pigments or benzochromes. It has fouling, cathargy, abruptness (gene mutation) and carcinogenic effects.
But in general, color additives in food do not affect our health within strict standards. Even so, in our daily life, we should minimise the consumption of beverages containing colouring additives and reduce the consumption of some foods containing colouring additives to protect our health.
Photo/Official WeChat of the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology
(Jingshi live broadcast reporter: Zhimin)