Breakfast butter that smooths your skin, yogurt that boosts your immune system, chocolate bars that make you smarter, and energy drinks without which people apparently can't perform. The markets are full of so-called "functional food" that's not only supposed to taste good but also offer some extra benefit—or so the marketing department claims. But if you take a closer look, you'll notice all the additives in the food and might rightly ask yourself—should I really be putting all these E-numbers into my body?
In this article, we'll take a look at what additives in food do to your body, why you should avoid them, and what healthy food can do for you personally.
What are additives and why do they exist?
The food industry faces many challenges. Over the past decades, there have been increasingly specific demands on the appearance, texture, and taste of food. This cycle is fueled by marketing and consumer behavior. It encourages the production of often cheaper, technically manufactured convenience foods.
That's why new substances have continually been used in food production to give products certain properties. The EU requires that these additives be listed on the packaging. This is where the well-known "E-numbers" come into play.
The E-number reveals the ingredients.
You can tell which group an additive belongs to by its three-digit number. The current E-number list contains about 320 additives.
- E 100 – 199: Colorants
- E 200 – 299: Preservatives
- E 300 – 399: Antioxidants
- E 400 – 499: Thickeners and humectants
- E 500 – 599: Acidity regulators
- E 600 – 699: Flavor enhancers
- E 900 – 999: Sweeteners
Are additives in food bad for your body?
Aside from the fact that humans survived for thousands of years without artificial additives, there are plenty of other reasons to avoid them in your diet.
All foods sold in the EU are strictly regulated. Still, everyone reacts differently to certain substances, and some additives are suspected of having negative effects on the body. Here are a few examples of food additives you should avoid in the long run.
- E 407 Carrageenan: This is a thickener often used in milk and yogurt products. It gives a certain firmness but can also negatively affect your body's potassium absorption.
- E 620 Glutamic acid: Often found in ready meals and also in Chinese cuisine, this flavor enhancer can trigger allergies in some people.
- E 951 Aspartame: Its sweetening effect is said to be a hundred times stronger than sugar, making it a popular sugar substitute. Unfortunately, it's also considered to stimulate appetite, which is counterproductive for diets that often rely on such foods.
Additionally, additives in food are suspected of causing certain dependencies. While this hasn't been scientifically proven yet, similar effects are known from natural ingredients like sugar. Long story short, we can agree that these additives do affect our bodies. Which brings us to the question: What is healthy eating, anyway?
Eating without additives—keeping it natural
Food has always provided us with the nutrients our bodies need. It gives us energy, supports growth, and is essential for our recovery and a strong immune system. If natural ingredients are gradually replaced by artificial ones, your health will inevitably suffer.
"Food has always provided us with the nutrients our bodies need."
If you take a look at the back of products on your next trip to the supermarket, you'll quickly see the challenge of eating healthy. Whether you're looking for sports nutrition, want to start a diet, or just want to eat more mindfully, the selection seems pretty limited.
It seems that healthy eating requires a plan and some perseverance. There are some interesting approaches out there, like the Paleo diet. It focuses on foods that are exclusively natural. The Paleo diet gets its name from the Paleolithic era (Latin: Paläolithikum) and is based on what scientists believe people ate back then.
This approach avoids highly processed foods and relies mainly on meat, fish, herbs, nuts, mushrooms, eggs, and fruit. This type of diet is often easy to implement with local products and serves several purposes at once: more sustainable food choices, healthier eating, and a new experience in the kitchen that you'll love.
Supplements – You Can Go Natural, Too
If you’re putting together a nutrition plan for athletes or just a general diet plan, you often struggle with the balance of protein, carbs, and fat. You need to match your food choices precisely to your goals and daily calorie needs.
Let’s be honest: without a little help, it’s often really tough to hit your daily nutrient targets. You’d need to eat so much meat or legumes that it just doesn’t fit into a reasonable meal. Instead, you end up with a bowl of bland food that you force yourself to eat.
Unfortunately, there are only a few supplements that use regional ingredients and skip additives. When you combine these two features, it opens up totally new possibilities for a varied diet and creativity in the kitchen.
Tip: You’ll find healthy recipe ideas with Orgainic Power on our Recipe Blog. You’ll see, you don’t need additives in your food to make your mouth water.
Healthy Eating Means Your Body Can Breathe Again
You probably have your own good reasons for looking into healthy eating. Still, we want to highlight again that a diet without additives has a positive effect on your body.
Healthy eating will boost your well-being after just a few days.
Your gut flora, for example, plays a major role in your well-being. It can be disrupted by too much aspartame and saccharin – both artificial sweeteners – and needs weeks to recover with a healthy diet.
Your sense of taste is often seriously distorted by artificial additives in food. They boost flavors so much that the natural version of the food can taste bland by comparison. If you skip additives for just a few weeks, you’ll notice how the taste of natural ingredients becomes more intense again.
Take the Challenge – Eat Healthy Without Additives
“What you eat isn’t about lifestyle – it’s about health, vitality, and your well-being.”
Enjoying natural foods and feeling their positive effects on your body is something you’ll notice after just a few days. Increased energy, performance, and focus are side effects that show how much your food influences how you feel. Choosing to pay more attention is absolutely the right move. What you eat isn’t about lifestyle – it’s about health, vitality, and your well-being. Take the challenge. Eat healthy and feel good in your own skin.
Cover photo by Anna Pelzer.