Professor Tim Spector reveals a chilling truth about what chemicals in ultra-processed foods do to our bodies

One of the UK’s top diet experts has given a shocking demonstration to highlight the effects of a potentially harmful ingredient found in many of our favourite foods.

In a new video, Professor Tim Spector, founder of the ZOE diet app, shows how additives, known as emulsifiers, form a gel-like mass in our intestines.

In the clip, the nutritionist shows what happens to emulsifiers (which are used to give food more volume) in our intestines, by mixing the powder in a bowl of liquid.

The clump it forms, he says, disrupts the millions of healthy bacteria that live there and are vital for protection against diseases like cancer and heart disease.

Emulsifiers are used in thousands of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) to bind ingredients that normally don’t mix, such as oil and water.

They are found in a range of popular products, including bread, pastries, breakfast cereals and children’s yoghurts.

Some experts link the increasing consumption of additives such as emulsifiers to the increase in premature colon cancer.

Head of Nutrition at Imperial College London, Dr Federica Amati, explained last month the damage Emulsifiers disrupt the separation between the fat layer and the water layer in the intestines.

It is believed that this damages the intestinal wall, leading to bacterial infections.

Last month, microbiome expert Dr Alasdair Scott told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We think this process could be linked to bowel cancer.

‘There have been studies done in animals that confirm this, but not yet in humans. In humans it can be much more difficult to show exactly why a tumor has developed.’

In the TikTok video, which has been viewed nearly 14,000 times, Professor Spector begins his demonstration by mixing a commonly used emulsifier – carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) – with water.

“We’ve never really understood why these chemicals have these effects, but I’m going to demonstrate it,” he says.

If you mix the two ingredients incorrectly, the powder and water will combine and form a ‘gluey’, sticky dough.

“This is what happens in our gut. What we think does this is that our microbes can’t communicate and they produce abnormal chemicals in response.”

He added: ‘They disrupt the gut lining because we have a thin layer of fat and water in our gut, but these emulsifiers mix the two.

‘Let’s try to limit them in our diet.

Simple processed foods include canned, cooked vegetables and fish, such as tuna, and everyday products such as cheese.

These contain little more than the main ingredient and water, oil or one of two additional ingredients. You can make them yourself if you want.

However, UPFs are highly processed, using factory techniques, and contain additives – of which emulsifiers are just one.

They now make up 57 per cent of the average British diet.

Manufacturers are not required to list the amount of emulsifiers in each individual food product, meaning we never really know how much we are consuming.

Experts warn that colon cancer is becoming more common in young people, with a diet high in UPFs being a possible cause.

Cases of the disease, which kills 17,000 people each year in the UK, have risen by 22 per cent among people under 50 over the past 30 years.

A study published last year in the journal The Lancet found that processed foods are also linked to an increased risk of heart disease.

A similar increased risk has also been identified for type 2 diabetes.