Understanding Food Ingredients That Steal Your Longevity

Authored by: Mel Drossos

Art by: Edsel Ou

Most of us have probably heard it hundreds of times — that’s not healthy — either from a parent hovering over our shoulder as we eat, a doctor showing concern over our dietary choices, or a well-meaning friend who recently discovered kale. We likely nodded, felt a little bit of guilt, and moved on with our day without fully understanding the rationale behind their concerns. And the thing is, most of us have experienced this more than once, sorting food into a ‘good’ pile and a ‘bad’ pile without ever really knowing why. We know that candy is bad and veggies are good, but if you were to ask someone why that is, you’d likely receive a shrug. The truth is this, it isn’t that certain foods contain “too much sugar” or “too much fat”. Hidden inside many favorite snacks are ingredients that ought not to be consumed by humans, yet their low prices make them appealing. It is worth moving beyond accepting foods as simply ‘not healthy’ and instead understanding the science that qualifies them as such. 

Consider the last time you flipped over a snack you love, squinted at the ingredients label, and felt so lost that you gave up and tossed it into your cart anyway. Ultra-processed foods — chips, sodas, cereals, and the majority of packaged snacks that line the shelves of grocery stores— are loaded with a cocktail of synthetic additives that, unless you have a science degree, deciphering feels next to impossible. A study examining U.S. household grocery store purchases found that ultra-processed packaged foods overwhelmingly contain chemical additives designed to make the food look better, taste better, and last longer — not to support the health of the people eating it [2]. The effects of the most common ones on your body are worth knowing, so let's break them down.

One significant effect of additives is what they do to your gut. Research published in The FASEB Journal found that processed and ultra-processed foods are dietary staples in many developed countries, and that the synthetic chemical additives found in these foods were linked to gut damage [3]. One of the most common examples is emulsifiers—the ingredients that keep your salad dressing from separating and give your ice cream its creamy consistency —which have been linked to disruption of the intestinal lining [1]. When that lining is compromised, the gut becomes more susceptible to inflammation, setting the stage for a cascade of grave health problems. 

High fructose corn syrup, HFCS for short, merits its own attention. First developed in 1968 in response to sugar price instability, it has since become widely adopted, accounting for 40% of all added caloric sweeteners in the US [5]. Its low cost made it a financial decision maker, rather than a nutritional one. A systematic review published in Frontiers in Nutrition appraised a controlled dietary intervention in which healthy young adults increased their intake of HCFS-sweetened beverages for simply two weeks [5]. The results were astounding. Researchers found that higher HCFS doses increased liver fat and decreased insulin sensitivity, with no signs of weight gain [5]. So, what your body is not showing externally, it is quietly withstanding internally. 

Finally, the most clear yet overlooked culprit is synthetic food dyes — the vivid reds, yellows, and blues that make your food look all the more appealing. Research highlights that synthetic food colors have been linked to adverse neurobehavioral effects in children [4]. For children with heightened sensitivity to such additives, this may manifest as hyperactivity and behavioral disruption [4]. The same dyes that make your fruit snacks bright red or your sports drink electric blue can also harm brain function. 

To put it all together, which the majority of food companies do, the additives in ultra-processed foods are not neutral fillers. They actively contribute to the deterioration of your metabolic gut and neurological health, and they are everywhere. However, this doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do about it. There are brands that take a cleaner route and recipes that prove healthy food doesn’t have to be complicated and can be equally delicious. Awareness may be the most underrated ingredient after all. 

References:

1. Seto, T., Grondin, J. A., & Khan, W. I. (2025). Food Additives: Emerging Detrimental Roles on Gut Health. FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, 39(13), e70810.  https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.202500737R

2. Dunford, E. K., Miles, D. R., & Popkin, B. (2023). Food Additives in Ultra-Processed Packaged Foods: An Examination of US Household Grocery Store Purchases. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 123(6), 889–901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2022.11.007

3. De Siena, M., Raoul, P., Costantini, L., Scarpellini, E., Cintoni, M., Gasbarrini, A., Rinninella, E., & Mele, M. C. (2022). Food Emulsifiers and Metabolic Syndrome: The Role of the Gut Microbiota. Foods (Basel, Switzerland), 11(15), 2205. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11152205

4. Yu, Z. Z., Varahala, S., Lim, S. L. C., Marenah, M. C., & Wattacheril, J. (2025). The impact of high fructose corn syrup on liver injury and glucose metabolism: a systematic review. Frontiers in nutrition, 12, 1724398. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2025.1724398

5. Weiss B. (2012). Synthetic food colors and neurobehavioral hazards: the view from environmental health research. Environmental health perspectives, 120(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1103827