Do we fool our sense organs and compromise our health?

Neural activities occur as a reflex. One best example for a simple neural reflex is the withdrawal reflex caused by injury or potential injury to tissues. There are more complex reflexes as evidenced by monkeys becoming terrified when they encounter snakes.
There are several components in a neural reflex. They are coding of information by sense organs, transmission of information as nerve impulse to the central nervous system for processing and travelling of impulse to the target organ. Finally there is an action by the target organ. The behaviour of animals is explained scientifically on this basis. There are reflexes associated with feeding behaviours. Feeding may occur as an instinctual or learnt behaviour. Suckling by a newborn is an example for instinctual feeding behavior. Some feeding reflexes are associated with memory e.g. vomiting occurs when exposed to certain smells or certain colours perceived with a bad food experience. It is a learnt behavior. Senses that detect external environment are subjected to consciousness whereas senses that detect the internal environment is not subjected to consciousness e.g. detection of blood pressure. The senses in and around the mouth are vision, smell, taste, touch, pain and temperature.
Sense organs like eyes, nose, oral mucosa and tongue are located in and around the mouth. In other words except ears all the main sense organs are located in and around the mouth. The nose is directed to the orifice of the mouth that perceives the sensation of smell. The tongue is inside the mouth that detects taste. The oral mucosa has sensory organs to perceive touch, pain and temperature. Nature has not designed an opening to stomach in the region of the abdomen though it is an abdominal organ. There is a long tube to connect the mouth and stomach. I believe that the main sense organs are located in the head region as head is closer to the brain. Therefore, I believe this arrangement by nature is to have sense organs around the food entry point to the body.
What is the purpose of the above arrangement? I believe that this arrangement helps to detect the features of food; colour, smell, taste and other qualities before swallowing it. If the nose is mainly to get the smell of the external environment the nose could have directed outwards rather than towards the mouth. Similarly, if the purpose of taste buds in the tongue to detect the taste of food, the taste buds could have been placed in the stomach to perceived taste of food as food remain in the stomach for longer duration than in the mouth. According to my belief the detection of features of food will help to prevent entry of poisons to the body. Therefore, I believe the purpose of having senses around the mouth is not to perceive the flavour of food but to protect the body from getting exposed to unfavourable substances. Most of the natural foods have a colour, smell, taste and contexture. Those will contribute in providing a flavour to the food. Nausea and/or vomiting may occur once poisonous or spoilt food are ingested or attempted to ingest. Even the smell of spoilt food may cause nausea and vomiting. The natural flavors in food that we consume are time tested. Therefore, one can assume that the natural flavors are safer than the recently introduced artificial flavors. There are many health benefits of natural foods. Furthermore, flavors and colours in natural foods are bio-molecules. Bio-molecules are easily altered during spoiling of food due to actions of microorganisms. Actions of microorganisms lead to alteration of colour, smell and consistency of food. Therefore, spoiled food can be recognized easily by senses whereas food additives may not have the same advantage as some additives may not change easily their colour, taste in spite of spoiling of food.
There is processing of food with technological advancement and civilization. In processing of food, some physical changes are done to the food before consumption. The physical changes include grinding, chopping and cooking. In addition, chemicals and different substances are added to food for various reasons. The different kinds of food additives include preservatives, colourings, flavoring agents, emulsifiers and anticaking agents. Furthermore, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants are mixed in processed food. The vitamins and minerals do not come under food additives. The definition given for food additives in the WHO website is "Substances which are of little or no nutritive value, but are used in the processing or storage of foods or animal feed, especially in the developed countries".
Food colouring, colour fixatives, colour retention agents and sweeteners are some additives used during food possessing. The purpose of using them is to enhance the perception by the sense organs of consumers. There is no advantage to the consumer by adding those chemicals to food but their may be health risks and increased cost. Manufactures and venders are benefited by adding those chemicals and substances. In my opinion the main purpose of adding flavours, colours, sweeteners, thickeners and irritants to food is to market food products by fooling the minds of consumers.
Salt, sugar, vinegar and sulfur dioxide have been used as food preservatives by mankind for centuries to preserve some food items. Even though those were used for centuries there are associated health risks as indicated in this slide; salt consumption with high blood pressure, sugar consumption with diabetes mellitus and vinegar with gastric irritation. Condiments are also used during cocking to enhance the taste, smell, colour and to cause irritation of oral mucosa. They do not come under the definition of food additives. Condiments are used over generations and are time tested but some are known to cause gastric irritation. Some condiments are supposed to have health benefits.
With industrialization and the introduction of market oriented economy there is an advent of processed food. This phenomenon has occurred in an exponential manner in the past 30 years. There is a massive explosion in the chemical adulteration of foods with additives. More than 3000 chemicals are found in different food additive lists. Considerable controversy has been associated with the potential threats and possible benefits of food additives. There are good and bad effects of food additive. Most food additives are considered as safe. Let me state few good points about food additives. Food additives help to prolong the shelf life, seasonal foods make available throughout the year and they are useful in marketing to make food more attractive to consumers.
Consumption of food additives may have certain health risks. Carcinogenesis, that is causation of cancers, hyperactivity in children, precipitation of allergies and migraine are some known health hazards of food additives. There are more health risks with food colourings than with other types of additives. Reduction in consumption of fiber and some vitamins as well as consumption of more energy than required are certain indirect adverse health effects of using food additives. In some instances people consume instant noodles together with flavours only which are available for sale as packets. It leads to consumption of blank calories. Each food additive is assigned a unique number. This process was initiated in the Europe to regulate these additives and inform consumers about food additives. "Enumbers" are used in the Europe for all approved additives but some countries use numbers without "E". e.g. Australia and New Zealand. INS numbers are given in the international numbering system. The INS numbers generally correspond to E numbers for the same compound (e.g. The E number and INS number of Tartrazine is E-102 and INS-102, respectively). INS numbers are not unique and one number may be assigned to a group of similar compounds. The INS numbering scheme has now been adopted and extended by the Codex Alimentarius Commission; A joint body of FAO/WHO. INS identifies all additives, regardless of whether they are approved for use or not.
Food additives are grouped for easy identification; numbers 100 to 199 are food colourings, numbers 200 to 299 are preservatives, numbers 300 to 399 are antioxidants and acidity regulators. In similar manner other types are also grouped. There are certain food additives included in certain food packets which are recommended to avoid by the hyperactive children safe group. Now let us look at the Sri Lankan regulations that control the use of food additives. There are three Gazette notifications (1989, 2004 and 2006) issued to control the use of food additives. The gazette issued in 1989 deals with food preservatives. There is a list of preservatives and kinds of food eligible to use those preservatives are given in a schedule. There are no INS or E numbers given with the list. The gazette issued in 2004 gives a list of permitted sweeteners. INS numbers are also given. But it does not cover flavours other than sweeteners. The gazette issued in 2006 regulates food colourings. In this gazette a list of permitted colourings are given with their INS numbers. The preservatives, sweeteners and colouring agents not listed in these gazettes are not permitted to use in Sri Lanka. There are certain limitations in Sri Lankan regulations. Only food preservatives, sweeteners and colorings are covered under the regulations. Food manufacturers may use any other kind of additives; e.g. any food flavor other than sweeteners in food items in any amount without getting penalized. One positive point about Sri Lankan regulation is limited number of coloring, sweeteners and preservatives are permitted to use.
The following observations were made in food shelves of local market. Some food labels state permitted flavours without stating the name or the INS number of the flavor. There were up to seven additives in some packeted food items including in a brand of vanilla ice cream as seen in the label. As seen in some other labels of food packets, there are food additives in processed foods that are not regulated in Sri Lanka. This slide shows food additives included in certain food items kept for sales in the local market. Some of those additives are not recommended for children by the hyperactive children support group. Food labels do not indicate any clue to possible health hazard like in cigarettes packets. Almost all the sense organs are in and around the mouth probably to protect the organism from poisons but not to sense the flavors in food. The natural flavors in food are time tested and some have health benefits. The safety of some food additives is questioned. There is an increase incidence of cancers and allergy in the population. Do food additives contribute to this phenomenon? The number of food additives is over 3000, one cannot remember good or bad and possible threats to health by these food additives. It is difficult to find a list of food additives for reference. Even if one finds a list of additives with difficulty, the information on safety is still difficult to find. Food additives hamper the consumption of fiber and promote the use of blank calories. It may be a contributory factor for current epidemic of certain non-communicable diseases like diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Marketing as well as using food additives add to the cost of food on the consumers.
It is my view that usage of food additives and marketing of food fools us and we fool our senses around the mouth at the cost of our own health and pocket. One should eat to live but should not live to eat.
Recommendations: Minimize the use of packeted food, Consume home grown, home prepared food whenever possible. Actions should be taken to publish a list of food additives with their safe limits. Introduce Government regulations to display adverse and toxic effects of the additive on the label like in cigarette packets. In a nutshell it can be expressed as follows "be mindful about what you eat and the amount you eat".

From Proceedings of the 68th Annuka Academic Session, Galle Medical Association.

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