{"id":502,"date":"2026-05-26T05:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=502"},"modified":"2026-05-26T05:06:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:06:00","slug":"high-blood-pressure-heart-attacks-linked-to-common-preservatives-in-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=502","title":{"rendered":"High blood pressure, heart attacks linked to common preservatives in food"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<button><br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\n<span><svg>\n<\/svg><br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<span>Summary<\/span><br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\n<span><svg><\/svg><br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<span><svg><\/svg><br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<\/button><\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Common preservatives used in store-bought foods are linked to higher risks of high blood pressure and heart disease.<\/li>\n<li>Even so-called natural preservatives like citric acid and vitamin C were associated with increased cardiovascular risks, according to French research.<\/li>\n<li>The study tracked over 112,000 people and found eight preservatives connected to elevated blood pressure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<span>AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\nCommon preservatives used in many store-bought foods to kill bacteria and mold were linked to a 29% greater risk of elevated blood pressure and a 16% higher risk of heart attacks and stroke, according to a new study from France.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=500\">A year into Trump\u2019s second term, Iowa voters offer clues for the midterm elections<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            Even so-called \u201cnatural\u201d antioxidant preservatives used to stop discoloration, such as citric acid and ascorbic acid (widely known as vitamin C), led to a 22% greater risk of high blood pressure in people who ate more foods with those ingredients, the research found.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            While antioxidants such as citric and ascorbic acid are found naturally in foods such as fruits, they are \u201cnot exactly natural\u201d when used as preservatives, senior author Mathilde Touvier said in an email. Touvier is the principal investigator of the NutriNet-Sant\u00e9 study used to conduct the research.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cNaturally occurring ascorbic acid and added ascorbic acid \u2014 which may be chemically manufactured \u2014 may have different impacts on health,\u201d said Touvier, who is also director of research at France\u2019s National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cThus, the results observed here for these food additives are not true for natural substances found in fruits and vegetables,\u201d she added.\n    <\/p>\n<h2>\n        Not only ultraprocessed foods<br \/>\n<\/h2>\n<p>\n            The study sheds light on how different additives in ultraprocessed foods, or UPFs, could play a role in cardiovascular risk, and \u201cecho the recent European Society of Cardiology consensus, which highlights UPFs as a global public health concern,\u201d Tracy Parker, nutrition lead at the British Heart Foundation in London said in a statement. Parker was not involved in the study.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Ultraprocessed foods have been linked to an approximately 50% higher risk of cardiovascular disease-related death, and they may boost the risk of obesity by 55%, sleep disorders by 41% and the development of type 2 diabetes by 40%. Obesity, diabetes and poor sleep are closely connected to poor heart health.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cThis is one of the first large studies to look at individual preservatives rather than treating ultra-processed foods as a single category,\u201d Parker said. \u201cUPFs have long raised concerns due to their high levels of sugar, salt and fat, but these factors alone have never fully explained why they appear more harmful than their nutrient profile suggests.  These findings help fill part of that gap.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            However, prior research by Touvier and her team found ultraprocessed foods make up only 35% of foods with preservatives people consumed. That means \u201cpreservatives are ubiquitous,\u201d said lead author Ana\u00efs Hasenb\u00f6hler, a doctoral student at the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team at the Universit\u00e9 Sorbonne Paris Nord.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cThere is no food group\/item to remove from the diet in order to fix things,\u201d Hasenb\u00f6hler said in an email. \u201cThese results also support the recommendations for consumers to favour non-to-minimally-processed foods.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Choose fresh, uncooked, unprocessed items, or if looking for the fastest to prepare and eat, choose \u201cfrozen options which are preserved through a low temperature, not necessarily through the addition of food additive preservatives,\u201d she added.\n    <\/p>\n<h2>\n        More \u2018natural\u2019 preservatives associated with risk<br \/>\n<\/h2>\n<p>\n            The study, published Wednesday in the European Heart Journal, investigated the impact of 58 preservatives on the cardiovascular health of more than 112,000 people above the age of 15. All are participating in NutriNet-Sant\u00e9, which has analyzed the diets of volunteers from across France since 2009.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            To be in the study, each participant tracks every bite of their food and drink by brand name for three days every six months. Researchers then use a database of product ingredients to identify common preservatives and compare levels of consumption over years with medical data stored in the French national health care system.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=492\">\u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 actor Harrison Browne on his life as a trans athlete<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            Researchers did a deep dive on 17 preservatives consumed by at least 10% of the participants and found eight were associated with higher blood pressure over the next decade. Three of those \u2014 potassium sorbate, potassium metabisulphite and sodium nitrite \u2014 are \u201cnon-antioxidant\u201d preservatives, which means they kill bacteria, molds and yeast that spoil foods.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Potassium sorbate is often used in wine, baked goods, cheeses and sauces. Potassium metabisulphite, which releases sulfur dioxide when dissolved, is found in wine, juice, cider, beer and other fermented beverages. Sodium nitrite is a chemical salt commonly used in processed meats such as bacon, ham and deli meats.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Nitrates and sulfur-based compounds are found in foods like red and processed meats,  already known to increase the risk of heart disease. Therefore, that finding is should not be surprising, some experts say.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            In addition, preservatives are needed if consumers want to continue to purchase foods they can store and eat later, according to Gunter Kuhnle, a professor of food and nutritional science at the University of Reading in England. He was not involved in any of the studies.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cPreservatives have an important role in the food system, not only by preventing food-borne diseases, but also by preventing spoilage, reducing food waste and extending shelf life,\u201d Kuhnle said in a statement.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The remaining preservatives linked to high blood pressure in the study \u2014 ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate, sodium erythorbate, citric acid and extracts of rosemary \u2014 are so-called natural \u201cantioxidant\u201d preservatives, used to reduce oxidation that turns foods brown and rancid.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, was also specifically linked to cardiovascular disease, the study found.\n    <\/p>\n<h2>\n        Similar preservatives also linked to cancer, type 2 diabetes<br \/>\n<\/h2>\n<p>\n            The results support the findings of two other studies by Touvier and her team which found similar links between preservatives and a much higher risk of cancer and type 2 diabetes.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n            Six preservatives \u2014 sodium nitrite, potassium nitrate, sorbates, potassium metabisulfite, acetates and acetic acid \u2014 were linked to up to a 32% higher risk of prostate cancer, breast cancer and cancer of all kinds. All but one of those same preservatives also boosted the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 49%.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            While the findings of the new research are observational and cannot prove cause and effect, the study did a good job of controlling for other factors that may influence health, such as age, body mass index or BMI, smoking, physical activity and diet in general, said Rachel Richardson, a methods support unit manager for The Cochrane Collaboration, an international nonprofit highly respected for its scientific approach to research. She was not involved in the study.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cOther strengths of this study include the way in which they assessed people\u2019s diets and their comprehensive approach to identifying hypertension and cardiovascular disease,\u201d said Richardson in a statement. \u201cAlthough they cannot prove causation, there are signals in the results that warrant further investigation.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=474\">Analysis: These two new economic numbers blew a hole in Trump\u2019s rosy narrative<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Common \u201cnatural\u201d preservatives such as vitamin C may be linked to a greater risk of high blood pressure and heart disease, a new study found.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-wellness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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