Always read the label ...

Guardian Newspaper

Food additives have once again been linked to hyperactivity in children, and a new study says they could damage cell DNA. So which of the E-numbers are causing the most concern, asks Rosalind Ryan

You would think we'd all be pretty well versed in the dangers of food additives by now. The British Nutrition Foundation, however, says most of us lack a "sufficient understanding", and last month called for better education. This campaign could not be more timely - Professor Peter Piper from Sheffield University has just issued a stark warning that certain compounds found in fizzy drinks could damage cell DNA, while a study into additives and their effect on children's behaviour is currently being conducted by the University of Southampton on behalf of the Food Standards Agency (FSA). It will be published in a few months, but a leaked report revealed certain colourings and additives could increase hyperactivity.

The leak coincided with a promise from Britain's major supermarkets to ban potentially dangerous additives from the majority of their own-brand products: Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer, Asda and Tesco will be additive-free by the end of the year.


A spokesperson for the FSA says, "All additives approved for use in this country undergo stringent tests and are safe for use. The health dangers are either non-existent or controlled by the safe levels within the food." But some experts fear that although additives may have been approved on an individual basis, we still don't know what their combined effect on the body may be. Professor Vyvyan Howard, a pathologist and professor of bioimaging at the University of Ulster, who has conducted research into the "cocktail" effects of food additives, says, "These chemicals are tested one at a time and declared safe one at a time, but we are exposed to a mixture of chemicals. Their combined effect could be more than simply adding two or three separate chemicals." Both the FSA and experts raising awareness of additives agree that if you want to live an additive-free life, the easiest option is to eat food that is freshly prepared. But if you do buy processed food, it can't hurt to know exactly you are feeding your body.

E211 - sodium benzoate

Professor Piper discovered that E211, commonly found in soft drinks, pickles and sauces to prevent mould growing, could damage DNA. This could cause the same sort of liver damage seen in alcoholics, and is linked to neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Professor Piper's original laboratory research was published in 1999, but he is raising the issue again to highlight the need for modern safety tests. "Many of the tests on these chemicals were done 50 years ago when we simply did not know how to measure this kind of damage," he says. A review by the World Health Organisation in 2000 into sodium benzoate reported a vast number of studies showing people suffered from hives, asthma and anaphylactic shock after exposure to this additive.

E621 - monosodium glutamate
A flavour enhancer often associated with Chinese food, it's also found in canned and frozen foods, and snacks like crisps. A study by Hirosaki University in Japan in 2002 discovered eating a diet high in MSG could damage the retina, leading to loss of vision. Researchers said small amounts in the diet were OK but those with existing retina problems should be careful. The Migraine Trusts also lists MSG as a common migraine trigger and says many sufferers eliminate it from their diets. Last year, Professor Howard and a team of researchers from the University of Liverpool found MSG combined with other additives, such as brilliant blue food colouring, stopped nerve cells growing and disrupted brain-signalling systems.

E951 - aspartame

This controversial additive is 180 times sweeter than sugar and found in many sugar-free foods including soft drinks, cakes and dairy products. A number of reports have cast doubt on its safety and, even 20 years ago, there were concerns over its use. Dr Louis Elsas, a professor of genetics and paediatrics, testified before Congress in the US that aspartame could cause neurological damage in children and raised concerns over the additive passing from pregnant mothers to their unborn child, affecting brain development. However last year the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) confirmed it was safe to use.

E102 - tartrazine

This synthetic food dye gives many foods their bright yellow colouring. The FSA agrees that studies show E102 can cause hives, itchy skin or asthma in susceptible people. It is commonly linked to hyperactivity in children - research by the Hyperactive Children's Support Group in 1987 found that 87% of children who had been diagnosed as hyperactive also had adverse reactions to artificial colourings. A study by the University of Southampton in 2004 also found children consuming additives, including tartrazine, had higher levels of hyperactivity.

E104 - quinoline yellow
Another yellow dye, used to colour medicines, some soft drinks, Scotch eggs and smoked fish, this is banned in the US and Australia for its possible cancer-causing properties. Studies by the US National Toxicology Programme in 1997 found rats fed the colouring had higher rates of liver and kidney tumours. Professor Howard's team found that when E104 was combined with aspartame (many common soft drinks contain them both), the effect on nerve cells was up to seven times greater than when the additives were tested alone. The combined additives were not tested in vast quantities, but at concentrations that mimicked the amount in a child's bloodstream after eating foods containing these colourings. The Aspartame Information Service, which represents the sweetener industry, dismissed the research, saying that it "did not provide any meaningful information" because it exposed mouse cells in the laboratory to undigested aspartame.

Quinoline yellow is also being studied in the current University of Southampton trials.

E407 - carrageenan
A gelling agent extracted from seaweed by boiling, carrageenan can be found in ice cream and yoghurts, or as a fat substitute in some meat and soy products. Twenty-five years ago the International Agency for Research on Cancer said there was enough evidence from animal tests to class degraded carrageenan (a form of carrageenan that has been heated to very high temperatures and treated with acid to make it easier to use in other substances) as a potential cancer-causing agent to humans. Degraded carrageenan is not permitted for use in food, but a review of studies into carrageenan and cancer by the University of Iowa in 2001 found the un-degraded additive could become degraded in our digestive system, leading to an increased risk of cancers in the gut. Dr Joanne Tobacman, who conducted the review, said, "The widespread use of carrageenan in the western diet should be reconsidered."

E220 - sulphur dioxide

This preservative is commonly used in beer, wine, soft drinks and dried fruits to stop them fermenting. Asthmatics may suffer an attack after inhaling sulphur dioxide and it has also been linked to stomach upsets. An ongoing review by the WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives confirmed sulphur dioxide could destroy vitamin B1, so having a soft drink with your meal could wipe out its vitamin B1 content. The same review found that animal and lab tests revealed that consuming E220 could increase the amount of calcium lost by the body - raising your risk of the bone-thinning condition osteoporosis - and could cause DNA damage.
E124 - ponceau 4R

This red food colouring is often found in soft drinks, sweets and puddings, and is one of the additives currently being investigated for triggering hyperactivity. E124 has been banned in the US and Norway as a cancer-causing chemical. A study published in Toxicological Sciences in 2001 found there was a connection between the colouring and tumours in animals, but called for more conclusive research to be carried out. A review of food additives carried out by the FSA's committee on toxicity last year found ponceau 4R could have an effect on brain development in young children.

Our editorial Summary:

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Article was published in The Guardian Newspaper

Working out can be not only tough and time-consuming, it is often downright bamboozling. Listen to all the advice about which sort of exercise to choose and you might be excused for wanting to hang up your trainers in despair. Wouldn't it help simplify gym matters if we looked at how the five biggest fitness myths stack up against scientific fact?

Myth: You can spot-reduce fat from any part of the body

The diet and fitness industries have traded for so long on the concept of targeting specific body parts for fat removal hip-and-thigh eating plans, bums, tums and thighs workouts etc - that quite a few people have actually come to believe that spot-reduction is possible. But scientific studies cast considerable doubt on the possibility of selectively taking inches off the waist, thighs or buttocks.

Dr Cedric Bryant, chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise, a consumer watchdog for the fitness industry, says there is little evidence to support such claims.

One landmark study designed to test the spot-reduction theory was carried out at the University of Massachusetts where 13 male subjects did a vigorous abdominal exercise programme for one month. Each subject performed a total of 5,000 sit-ups over 27 days. But when fat biopsies from their stomachs, buttocks and upper backs obtained at the beginning and end of the trial were analysed, fat loss proved similar at all three sites, not just the abdomen. "If caloric expenditure is enough, it will cause fat from the entire body, including that from a target area, to be reduced," Bryant says. "However, although fat is lost from the entire body through exercise and calorie reduction, it appears that the last areas to become lean tend to be those areas where an individual tends to gain fat first. For most men, that is the abdominal region and for women it is hips, buttocks and thighs."

Myth: Running is bad for your knees

Slapping the pavement with the soles of your trainers has gained running a reputation as public enemy number one to the knee joint. But a recent study showed instead that running actually protects those joints from damage and pain. Reporting in the journal Arthritis Research and Therapy, a team from the department of immunology and rheumatology at Stanford University in southern California found that adults who run consistently can expect to have 25% less musculoskeletal pain and less arthritis than non-runners when they get older.

Dr Bonnie Bruce, the study author, followed more than 500 runners from a local club (called "ever runners" in the study) and 300 inactive people ("never runners", but not necessarily sedentary) in their 50s and 60s for 14 years. When results from an annual health questionnaire were analysed, Bruce and her colleagues found that the "ever runners", who ran at least six hours per week on average, experienced less joint pain by their 60s and 70s and only 35% of the joggers got arthritis (compared to 43% of non-runners).

Sammy Margo, a sports physiotherapist for the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, says running doesn't deserve its bad press. "The key is consistency," Margo says. "If you run consistently, your joints, tendons, ligaments, disks and muscles get used to the habitual pounding of the activity. The body accommodates and copes with the demands." It is the yo-yo runners, says Margo, who take up jogging and then drop it repeatedly over a number of years who might have problems after a while.

Myth: Yoga is good for back pain

Contorting yourself like a pretzel on a yoga mat may be good for many things but not, apparently, for your back. In a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers found that a gentle yoga class seemed a better alternative to "either general exercise or a self-help book" for back pain. However, Dr Karen Sherman who conducted the study conceded that more vigorous types of yoga, such as ashtanga, and classes led by poorly qualified instructors, can potentially make problems worse. Matt Todman, consultant physiotherapist at the Sports and Spinal Clinic, Harley Street, goes further saying "yoga is generally not good for back pain and a lot of its postures can compound the problem by loading pressure on the back".

Staying active, though, is important, although back-pain sufferers should do so only on the advice of their physiotherapist. Jeremy Fairbank, consutant orthopaedic surgeon at the Nuffield Hospital, Oxford, found that patients obtain as much benefit from an intense programme of exercise therapy as from spinal surgery. Fairbank's trial, funded by the Medical Research Council and involving almost 350 patients, revealed that those who followed a tailored daily exercise programme involving activities such as step-ups, walking on a treadmill, cycling and core stability work for five days over three weeks made huge progress.

Myth: Pilates will give you a celebrity body

Fans are reported to include Madonna, Jodie Foster and Liz Hurley, but while the cult gym practice might leave you with a super-strong core or middle-section, it will do little to improve your cardiovascular fitness and lower body fat, at least according to the results of a study last year by the American Council on Exercise (ACE). Professor John Pocari and his team of exercise scientists at the University of Wisconsin analysed the demands of 50-minute beginner and advanced level Pilates classes and found the intensity of each to be lower than the recommended level for improving cardiovascular fitness.

In the beginners' classes, the maximum heart rate of the healthy and moderately fit female subjects was only 54% when the accepted range for boosting fitness is 64-94%. They burned 175 calories. Even the advanced class failed to raise heart rates above an average 62% and burned only 254 calories, equivalent to the benefits gained from walking at a slow pace. In order to get fitter and slimmer, the experts suggested that Pilates is done in conjunction with aerobic activities such as running or cycling. "Pilates has a long list of benefits including improved body mechanics, balance, coordination, strength and flexibility," says Dr Cedric Bryant of ACE. "A Pilates session burns a relatively small amount of calories, but it is still a valuable addition to an exercise routine."

Myth: You don't need to "feel the burn" to get fitter

Current government recommendations suggest that totting up half an hour of activity by performing tasks such as housework, gardening or collecting the newspaper is enough to ward off heart disease and keep us healthy.

But these are minimum requirements (even though two-thirds of men and three-quarters of women barely manage to meet them) and if you really want to shape up, it requires a lot more sweat and toil. Research by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) sets what are widely regarded as the core targets of exercising three to five times a week for 20 to 60 minutes at 55-90% of your body's maximum capacity, calculated according to your heart rate, if you want to improve fitness. "That constitutes a fairly vigorous workout that would leave you breathless and puffing," says Dr Greg Whyte, sports science coordinator for the English Institute of Sport. "And it is the level you need to be doing if you want to get fitter." That doesn't mean we can rest on our laurels for the rest of the time. Whyte believes too many people have "reached a point where they think going to the gym three times a week is enough". But, he says, while working out will contribute considerably towards overall fitness, "there are 23 and a bit hours remaining in the day and we should try to be active at least during some of them."

It doesn't end there. Louise Sutton, senior lecturer in health and exercise science at Leeds Metropolitan University, says that there has to be an element of progression in a workout regimen. "The body and its muscles respond to the overload principle," she says. "And there comes a time when you will need to extend the duration or intensity of your exercise to get fitter still."

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