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People used to rely on salt, alcohol, sugar, and vinegar to keep food from going bad. These methods worked well enough, but have changed over time. Today, we can buy bread that stays soft for weeks or meat that looks fresh days later, which might make you wonder if the new ways have gone too far.
Preservatives are now so common in packaged foods that most of us are barely aware of them. Yet some have been linked to hormone disruption, cancer, and other health concerns. With processed foods making up so much of the American diet, understanding how preservatives affect us could help shape the choices we make.
Food Preservatives Affect Health
“As a researcher in this area, a few preservatives that concern me most include benzoates, nitrates, nitrites, BHT [butylated hydroxytoluene] and BHA [butylated hydroxyanisole],” Elizabeth Dunford, a registered nutritionist and assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, told The Epoch Times.
