The tongue is covered in taste receptors that identify the five basic tastes: salty, sour, bitter, sweet, and umami. Taste and the other senses play an important role in our enjoyment and digestion of food. The smell, sight, and taste of food—especially delicious food—stimulate the body to prepare to receive the food by producing digestive ‘juices’ such as saliva in the mouth and hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
In the food industry, flavors can be categorized as artificial flavors, natural flavors, and spices. Flavors are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and are either “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) substances or food additives, which must be approved by the FDA.
You may already be aware of the health hazards and addictive qualities associated with certain flavor additives such as monosodium glutamate and various sources of sodium. You also may have noticed that many food labels list the terms “artificial flavors,” “natural flavors,” or “contains artificial and natural flavors”—without disclosing exactly what those flavors are.
“The term artificial flavor or artificial flavoring means any substance, the function of which is to impart flavor, which is not derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof.”
In other words, ingredients that comprise artificial flavors are chemicals that were not originally sourced from nature.
Unfortunately, the FDA does not require flavor companies to disclose ingredients as long as all the ingredients have been deemed GRAS. This protects the proprietary formulas but allows for many chemicals to be hidden under the word ‘flavor’ on the ingredients list.
Artificial flavors are known to cause many adverse reactions, including:
- Allergic reactions
- Chest pain
- DNA damage
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Depression of the nervous system
- Brain damage
“Aliphatic acyclic and acyclic alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, and related esters, lactones, ketals, and acetals comprise more than 700 of the 1,323 chemically defined flavoring substances in the United States. Additional structural categories include aromatic, heteroaromatic, and heterocyclic substances with characteristic organoleptic properties.”
Many artificial flavors include ingredients that are also used to make artificial colors, which are made from highly processed crude oil. Hence, the numerous health effects associated with them are not surprising. What is astounding, however, is that there is little documented research and practically no studies published on the effects of artificial flavors.
The food industry has bombarded our taste buds with flavor. Those who regularly eat—or are addicted to—processed foods lose their taste for real food. We lay blame on sugar and fat for the worldwide obesity epidemic, but ultimately, isn’t the flavor industry largely responsible for making processed food taste good?