Emulsifiers are among the additives most widely used by the food industry, helping to improve the texture of food and extend its shelf life. Researchers from Inserm, INRAE, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Université Paris Cité and Cnam, as part of the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team (CRESS-EREN), have undertaken to study the possible links between the dietary intake of food additive emulsifiers and the development of cancer. They analysed the health data of 92 000 adults participating in the French NutriNet-Santé cohort study, specifically evaluating their consumption of this type of food additive.
The Science VS podcast did a show on diets and nutrition a while back and they said that the only emulsifier showing evidence of potential harmful effects (e.g. gut bacteria problems) at the time was soy lecithin.
If you go into any grocery store in the US and look at the ingredients for stuff in the bakery soy lecithin is in everything! It’s actually kind of ridiculous, actually.
It’s also hard to find ice cream that doesn’t have soy lecithin. It’s not even brand-based where you can just choose one brand over another to avoid it. For example, most Haagen Dazs ice cream has soy lecithin but not the chocolate peanut butter flavor 🤷
And this is why the best advice is to avoid processed foods as much as possible: stick to the perimeter of the grocery store.
Interestingly, this is the same conclusion other researchers came to a least 40 years ago, just for different reasons.
In my family, perhaps 10% of our diet is processed stuff. Everything else is made from stuff that goes bad without refrigeration (or even with).
Its frustrating we’ve taught generations of people to rely on this stuff (starting with GenX, at least) rather than how to cook (and shop/maintain a pantry) for themselves.
I’ll admit it’s hard to beat packaged stuff occasionally (looking at you instant mashed potatoes).
As for ice cream, the “natural” varieties often won’t have any emulsifiers, it’s the “Philadelphia Style”/custard style that needs an emulsifier. Then again, one shouldn’t be eating enough ice cream for the emulsifier to be a concern anyway - the combination of fat plus high sugar content is a far greater concern. Fat’s ok, but lots of simple carbs (sugar in this case) is to always be avoided, and combined with high fat content they’re a special kind of bad for you.
Again, back to basics, avoid eating this kind of stuff on a regular basis. Ice cream is a treat, not a staple (like I keep telling my father, lol).