“Naturally occurring ascorbic acid and added ascorbic acid — which may be chemically manufactured — may have different impacts on health,” said Touvier, who is also director of research at France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris.

“Thus, the results observed here for these food additives are not true for natural substances found in fruits and vegetables,” she added.

I know this might just be the reporting, but this feels kinda wishy washy. Why? What's different about it

Gonna have to read the paper when I'm more awake

[–] joelthelion@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Ascorbic acid has two enantiomers. Only one of them is "vitamin C". I'm not sure if this is what she's referring to, though.

In another interview (in French, sorry), when talking about beta-carotene, she says that a substance isolated from its natural environment (other molecules, cells, etc.) and replaced with a pure, synthetic version could have very different biological properties.

Honestly, I think we still know very little about this. This research is about strong statistical associations. A lot more research is needed to understand the exact biological processes.

[–] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Do you mean simply comparing a synthetic to organic compound?

I wonder if we would already have some data like that. I'm thinking about the opioid crisis. It kinda got kicking in the 90's. Idk when the synthetics started exactly.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What about supplements? Those aren't any more natural than additives. You'd think if vitamin C were dangerous it would have been found out decades ago.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

It was. High dose vitamin C is a bad idea. Americans are obsessed with any quick fixes in pill forms.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29432735/

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's interesting, and what does it have to do with preservatives, colourants, and OPs article?

[–] Bogus007@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

AFAIK preservatives (“préservatifs”) means in French condom - as this article is related to a French Institute I am kinda inclined to inform about that 😂, not that anybody starts to worry about condoms in food.

[–] rowinxavier@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Something to consider is differences in absorption and context. One angle is coabsorbtion, where two molecules can be absorbed better together than apart. Another is binding, such as with lectins which can bind to some micro nutrients and prevent absorption. So if you add lots of something which is not bound like it naturally would be with foods that contain it then absorption may be disregulated and you may have wildly different levels absorbed than the nutritional label would suggest.

Adding lots of vitamin C to foods because of a cosmetic or preservative function may not be the best idea given how active it is in the body. Maybe it has a similar effect in the gut to what it does in the food in the packet, killing a bunch of microbes, and therefore could impact our gut microbiome. We don't have the data yet on the mechanisms, so we should withhold judgement for now.

[–] truthfultemporarily@feddit.org 6 points 1 week ago

When I hear "chemically manufactured" I immediately doubt. Everything is chemically manufactured.

[–] leagman1@feddit.org 4 points 1 week ago

Yeah same, I'll also definitly read the paper later and whatnot.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

What they are saying is supplements are bad for you, get vitamins from food, not pills. It has to do with dose and time, too much VitC too quickly triggers the opposite effect of what you want.

Linus Pauling started the whole supplements craze with hyper dosing vitamin C. Both he and his wife died of cancer. Classic example of Nobel disease where an award causes people to start believing their own bullshit because everyone calls them a genius.

[–] gian@lemmy.grys.it 1 points 1 week ago

So vitamin C is bad for you now?

Everything is bad for you, it only depends on the dose and conditions.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago

unless vitamin c is chemcially different from natural ones , it shouldnt cause significant effects. unlike large amounts of vitamin A

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Eh. Conforms to my worldview about evil capitalism, so I'm just going to accept it.

[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Gotta respect your honesty

[–] etherphon@piefed.world 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What a fun time to be alive when it seems like everything we've been doing the past like 70 years is wrong, we've been just throwing caution to the wind to make money on so much garbage from useless to completely dangerous, we've been poisoning ourselves and the world with this endless capitalistic nightmare in the name of progress when it's all been just a bunch of bullshit. There's some good stuff too don't get me wrong, but every day I realize more and more how useless 99.9% of the stuff in the stores is. A washcloth is just as good an exfoliator as that bottle of plastic beads they sell for $10 and you can use it over and over and over. We've really fucked up bad.

[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The Enlightenment came when we realized everything we’ve been doing the past like 10,000 years is wrong, we’ve been just throwing caution to the wind to appease the church and get into heaven. It brought about the scientific method, the Industrial Revolution, and the age of computers.

It’s what taught us to measure the material world, proportion belief to evidence, … but it’s also what put the onus on us to do that. When we do it poorly, politically, to deceive, or not at all — we break the integrity of the system from which we mold our entire way of life; our “enlightened” way of life.

I am not sure what’s more likely, that we failed the initiative of the Enlightenment or that we were arrogant enough to believe it could cure our arrogance.

[–] etherphon@piefed.world 4 points 1 week ago

It's curious, I'm not sure if this is the last throes of those forces that were fighting against The Enlightenment or just another in the endless battles of good vs. evil, I suppose it's ridiculous to think it will ever be won or things will ever be perfect but they could certainly be much better for more people. I mean, I'm just as guilty, I was taught and thought that we had solved a lot of these problems already, or were on our way to, and I believed it.

[–] joelthelion@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

Here's the press release from INSERM, which is likely a better source: https://presse.inserm.fr/en/colorants-conservateurs-trois-nouvelles-etudes-pointent-des-liens-entre-additifs-alimentaires-et-risque-accru-de-cancer-de-maladies-cardiovasculaires-et-dhypertension/72881/

[–] DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago

And they won't do anything about it because adding it helps them make $1.27 more on every sale.

Or something along those lines.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 5 points 1 week ago

Well that sucks.

[–] cheeseburger@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Whatever.

I'm tired, boss.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago

such as high amount of salt.