The Food Additives-Autoimmune Disease Link: New Research

Additives in Processed Food Linked to Autoimmune Disease:  New Study

Well folks, we are finally getting some interesting replication studies in now substantiating what we have been warning people about for many years–the link between chemical additives in processed foods and autoimmune disease.   If someone you care about suffers from an autoimmune disease (or has a family history of autoimmune disease) please share these latest research findings and encourage them to eat a diet of fresh, whole foods using minimally processed and unprocessed ingredients.

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Researchers find link between processed food and autoimmune disease

A research team examined the impact processed food can have on the intestines, and how that can potentially lead to an autoimmune disease – conditions in which the body attacks and damages its own tissues, including type 1 diabetes, celiac disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune thyroiditis and Crohn’s disease.

In their report, researchers from Israel and Germany write there is a “significant circumstantial connection” between the increased consumption of processed food and the increase in the numbers of autoimmune diseases.

Eating processed foods weakens the intestine’s resistance to bacteria, toxins and “other hostile nutritional and not nutritional elements,” which in turn increases the likelihood of developing an autoimmune disease, according to the study.

Food additives like, “glucose, salt, emulsifiers, organic solvents, gluten, microbial transglutaminase, and nanoparticles are extensively and increasingly used by the food industry, claim the manufacturers, to improve the qualities of food. However, all of the aforementioned additives increase intestinal permeability by breaching the integrity of tight junction paracellular transfer…when the permeability of the intestines is weakened that can lead to an autoimmune disease.”

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“…the food additive market remains unsupervised… We hope this study and similar studies increase awareness about the dangers inherent in industrial food additives, and raise awareness about the need for control over them.”

-Dr. Aaron Lerner, of the Technion Faculty of Medicine

Patients with autoimmune diseases, and those who have a family background of such diseases, to consider avoiding processed foods when possible.

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Journal source: Lerner, A. & Matthias, T., Changes in intestinal tight junction permeability associated with industrial food additives explain the rising incidence of autoimmune disease. Autoimmunity Reviews, Volume 14, Issue 6, 2015, Pages 479–489.