"Noting the passage of the creator of the Doritos chip who recently died at the ripe old age of 97, Glenn Reynolds quips, “I think the preservatives in junk food keep you young.”
Actually, there is reason to suspect that he might be right.
One of the most common preservatives is butylated hydroxyanisole also know has BHA or E320 in food labeling. BHA keeps foods from growing rancid by preventing the oxidation of fats by oxygen free-radicals.
Say, what do you call a substances that controls oxygen free radicals? It’s right on the tip of my tongue…
… Oh, right, an anti-oxidant! You know, those things every other organic food product is advertised as having."
At first, I thought this was an article about BPA, not BHA. Yes, the jury's still out on the effect of cumulative, low-level chronic intake of preservatives and any perceived hysteria comes from those who either don't understand how to read scientific reports or who have an agenda to push. One of the comments in the OP highlight this well - they say that before we started eating foods with preservatives our life spans were 46 years of age, now is above 70 - false causation right there - improvements in medicine, treatment of diseases, antibiotics, vaccines, improved food safety, and better sanitary living conditions are more likely the cause of increased life spans, moreso than ingesting copious amounts of antioxidants (antioxidants are good, but not that good - they can't save you from polio or E coli).
Trying to definitively link the effects of preservatives to health problems in the population is expectedly difficult - likely the effects are too small to create statistical significance (like diseases that are caused by synergistic effects of mutations in multiple genes that interact); the lack of evidence could very well mean that the studies aren't comprehensive enough, or well-enough designed. Of course, anything taken in excess is bound to cause problems, and an individuals' genetic make-up will factor in as well...
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
