Does Your Diet Need a Detox?

Preservatives with alien-sounding names. Colors that definitely aren’t from nature. (No, there’s no “Yellow No. 5” flower.) Some 4,000 new food agents have entered our food supply since 1970; almost none has been evaluated as an obesity contributor.

But now scientists have discovered that a handful of common food additives—stuff you may already have swallowed today, like the sweetener in your coffee—might cause weight gain. “These compounds raise levels of the hormone insulin in lab studies, and too-high levels increase appetite and aid fat storage,” says lead researcher Barbara Corkey, Ph.D., director of the Obesity Research Center at Boston Medical Center. Check out these five pound-promoting additives to skip; and the one mineral that’s crucial to finding (and sticking to) your happy weight.

THE FATTY 5

Artificial sweeteners
Aspartame, saccharin and sucralose are artificial sweeteners; aspartame and saccharin are also on the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s “avoid” list. (The CSPI cites animal studies that suggest they may lead to cancer.) Yes, I love diet soda too! Just don’t overdo it!

Iron
Overload seems the main concern here. Limit your intake from natural and fortified sources to the daily value: 18 milligrams.

Monoacylglycerol
Used to bind ingredients—like oil and water in some baked goods, ice cream and more—it may show up as mono- or diglyceride on the label.

Sugar
Don’t sweat the sweet stuff where it occurs naturally, as in fruit (fructose) and milk (lactose). Added sugars that bring only calories to the table are trouble, especially added fructose, which was shown to increase belly fat in a study at the University of California in Davis. To uncover the added stuff, scan the ingredients for its many names, including sugar, fructose, agave syrup (which can be 80 percent fructose!) and dextrose. If one of the first three ingredients is sugar or one of its cousins, at least half the sugar is likely added.

Sodium
“The food industry uses salt, sugar and fat to jack up the flavor of processed food so much, it’s become addictive,” says Ashley N. Gearhardt, a food addiction researcher at Yale University. In other words, our taste buds are trained to crave salty foods that are calorie bombs. Soup, sandwiches and frozen meals are sneaky sources of sodium; check labels carefully so you stay under the recommended daily limit of 2,300 mg.

THE ONE THING TO ADD TO YOUR DIET...

Calcium is critical for your bone, heart and muscle health. And most important for those looking to trim inches, getting enough of the mineral may also help you manage your weight, according to a review of research in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. To milk the benefits, aim for 1,000 mg daily from foods like low-fat yogurt (207 mg per 4 ounces), skim milk (504 mg per cup) and low-fat cheese (118 mg per oz).

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