A large French study found links between several common food preservatives and higher risks of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
Researchers analyzed detailed dietary records from more than 112,000 adults and tracked their health for nearly eight years.
The findings show associations, not proof of cause and effect, but add to growing research on how food additives may affect long-term health.
A new study published in the European Heart Journal takes a closer look at whether commonly used food preservatives could be linked to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
The findings suggest that certain preservatives may be associated with higher risks, though the researchers emphasize that more work is needed to fully understand the relationship.
“Food preservatives are used in hundreds of thousands of industrially processed foods,” researcher Anaïs Hasenböhler, Ph.D. student, said in a news release.
“Experimental studies suggest that some preservative food additives may be harmful to cardiovascular health, but we have not had enough evidence on the impact of these ingredients in humans. As far as we know, this is the first study of its kind to investigate the links between a wide range of preservatives and cardiovascular health.”
The study
To investigate the issue, researchers analyzed data from the NutriNet-Santé study, an ongoing nutrition project in France.
The study included 112,395 adults who regularly provided detailed records of everything they ate and drank. Participants completed repeated 24-hour dietary assessments, often including specific commercial brands, allowing researchers to identify exposure to individual food additives.
The team combined these dietary records with multiple food composition databases and laboratory analyses to estimate preservative intake. Participants were then followed for a median of nearly eight years to determine whether they developed high blood pressure or cardiovascular conditions such as heart attack, stroke, or angina.
Researchers adjusted their analyses to account for a wide range of factors that could influence heart health. Even so, because the study was observational, it cannot prove that preservatives directly caused the health outcomes that were observed.
The results
The researchers found that people with the highest intake of non-antioxidant preservatives had a 29% higher risk of developing hypertension and a 16% higher risk of cardiovascular disease compared with those consuming the lowest amounts.
Higher consumption of antioxidant preservatives was also associated with a 22% greater risk of hypertension.
Among the preservatives examined, eight were linked to elevated blood pressure risk, including potassium sorbate, potassium metabisulphite, sodium nitrite, citric acid, sodium erythorbate, sodium ascorbate, ascorbic acid, and rosemary extracts. Ascorbic acid was also associated with cardiovascular disease.
While these findings do not establish cause and effect, they provide new evidence that specific food additives may warrant closer examination.
“This study has some limitations inherent to its observational design,” researcher Dr. Mathilde Touvier said in the release. “However, the findings are based on highly detailed data, and we have taken account of other factors that can increase or lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. Experimental research in the literature consistently suggested that preservatives may cause oxidative stress in the body or affect the way the pancreas works.
“These results suggest we need a re-evaluation of the risks and benefits of these food additives by the authorities in charge, such as the EFSA in Europe and the FDA in the USA, for better consumer protection. In the meantime, these findings support existing recommendations to favour non-processed and minimally processed foods, and avoid unnecessary additives. Doctors and other healthcare professionals play a key role in explaining these recommendations to the public.”