Common food preservatives linked to high blood pressure and heart disease

European Society of Cardiology

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Illustration: Common food preservatives linked to high blood pressure and heart disease

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Credit: Mathilde Touvier

 

• The study of 112,395 people includes detailed analysis of diet and food ingredients.

• Researchers found eight preservative food additives linked to high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease.

• The highest risks were in people who ate the most preservatives.

 

Sophia Antipolis, France – 21 May 2026. Eating foods that contain common preservative food additives may increase the risks of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, according to research published in the European Heart Journal [1] today (Thursday).

 

The research was led by Dr Mathilde Touvier, a research director at INSERM (the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research), and Anaïs Hasenböhler, PhD student, both from the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team at the Université Sorbonne Paris Nord and Université Paris Cité, France.

 

Ms Hasenböhler said: “Food preservatives are used in hundreds of thousands of industrially processed foods. Experimental studies suggest that some preservative food additives may be harmful to cardiovascular health, but we have not had enough evidence on the impact of these ingredients in humans. As far as we know, this is the first study of its kind to investigate the links between a wide range of preservatives and cardiovascular health.”

 

The research is part of a larger study, called NutriNet-Santé, and included 112,395 volunteers from across France. Every six months the volunteers told researchers everything they ate and drank over a period of three days.

 

Researchers carried out detailed analyses of the ingredients of all the food and drink, including any preservatives. They also tracked the volunteers’ health for an average of seven to eight years to see if they develop high blood pressure or any cardiovascular disease.

 

Researcher found that 99.5% of the volunteers had consumed at least one food preservative within the first two years of taking part.

 

Overall, they found that people who ate the largest amounts of ‘non-antioxidant’ preservatives had a 29% higher risk of hypertension, compared to those who ate the least, and a 16% higher risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack, stroke and angina. People who ate the most antioxidant preservatives had a 22% higher risk of hypertension. Non-antioxidant preservatives are designed to stop harmful microbes, such as mould and bacteria, from growing, whereas antioxidant preservatives are designed to stop oxidation which means the food will not turn brown or become rancid.

 

Researchers also looked at 17 of the most commonly eaten preservatives and found that eight of these were specifically linked to high blood pressure. These were: potassium sorbate (E202), potassium metabisulphite (E224), sodium nitrite (E250), ascorbic acid (E300), sodium ascorbate (E301), sodium erythorbate (E316), citric acid (E330) and extracts of rosemary (E392). Ascorbic acid (E300) was also specifically linked to cardiovascular disease.

 

Dr Touvier added: “This study has some limitations inherent to its observational design. However, the findings are based on highly detailed data, and we have taken account of other factors that can increase or lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. Experimental research in the literature consistently suggested that preservatives may cause oxidative stress in the body or affect the way the pancreas works.

These results suggest we need a re-evaluation of the risks and benefits of these food additives by the authorities in charge, such as the EFSA in Europe and the FDA in the USA, for better consumer protection. In the meantime, these findings support existing recommendations to favour non-processed and minimally processed foods, and avoid unnecessary additives. Doctors and other healthcare professionals play a key role in explaining these recommendations to the public.”

 

The researchers are now looking at how food additives and ultra-processed foods may affect signs of inflammation, oxidative stress, metabolic profile in the blood and the composition of the gut microbiota. This may help them to understand why additives may increase the risks of disease.

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Journal

European Heart Journal

DOI

10.1093/eurheartj/ehag308 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Preservative food additives, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases: the NutriNet-Santé study

 

SKKU research team awakens “hidden oxygen” to produce green hydrogen… pioneering next-generation water-splitting catalyst technology

Activates a novel reaction pathway by narrowing atomic spacing to the 0.1-angstrom (Å) level… Breaking away from reliance on expensive precious metals

Sungkyunkwan University External Affairs Division (PR team)

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A joint research team led by Professor Hyung Mo Jeong from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) and Professor Ji Hoon Lee from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Kyungpook National University has developed a highly efficient, non-precious metal water-splitting catalyst. By precisely controlling the bond spacing at the atomic level, the team successfully engaged the “lattice oxygen” hidden deep within the material to participate directly in the chemical reaction.

Water electrolysis, the process of splitting water to produce pure hydrogen without emitting greenhouse gases, is considered a dream technology for achieving carbon neutrality. However, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) that occurs during this process is inherently sluggish. This slow reaction rate acts as a major “bottleneck” that degrades the overall efficiency of hydrogen production. To solve this, conventional systems have heavily relied on expensive precious metal catalysts such as iridium (Ir) or ruthenium (Ru), which significantly increases production costs.

To overcome these limitations, the joint research team introduced a “top-down materials design strategy.” Using electrochemical methods, the researchers successfully fragmented conventional bulk cobalt oxide into ultra-fine nanoclusters measuring under 2 nanometers (nm). During this process, they finely adjusted the atomic bond length between the cobalt metal and oxygen atoms, contracting it by approximately 0.1 angstroms (Å, one ten-billionth of a meter). High-performance structural analyses at the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL) verified for the first time globally that an engineered bond length of 2.03 Å is the optimal condition for inducing an entirely new reaction pathway.

The core of this technology lies in strengthening the metal-oxygen interactions, forcing the “lattice oxygen”—which typically remains inert within the catalyst’s internal structure—to actively engage in the reaction. The newly developed nanocatalyst demonstrated outstanding performance, operating at a lower energy level than expensive commercial Ir catalysts. Furthermore, when applied to actual systems, it proved its robust durability by operating for over 100 hours under high-current conditions without degradation, and also demonstrated excellent charging stability in next-generation zinc-air batteries.

Professor Hyung Mo Jeong explained, “The key point of this research is that we demonstrated the ability to completely alter the catalytic reaction pathway itself by finely controlling the bond distance at the atomic level. Beyond replacing cost-prohibitive precious metals for high-efficiency green hydrogen production, this technology will serve as a crucial benchmark for accelerating the commercialization of various next-generation eco-friendly energy devices.”

This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea. The groundbreaking results were published in Applied Catalysis B: Environment and Energy, a top-tier international journal in the environmental and energy material sciences.

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Journal

Applied Catalysis

DOI

10.1016/j.apcatb.2026.126857 

Article Title

The role of chemical bond contraction induced via nanoclusterization of cobalt oxide triggering robust lattice oxygen mechanism during the oxygen evolution reaction

 

Is listening to music while studying a helpful habit or hidden distraction?

New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has shed light on why so many students listen to background music while studying, and whether it helps or hinders their focus

Edith Cowan University

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21 May 2026 

New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has shed light on why so many students listen to background music while studying, and whether it helps or hinders their focus. 

The study, led by Dr Lindsey Cooke, surveyed more than 220 university students about whether they listen to music while reading for studying purposes.  

The findings suggest that the impact of music on study performance is not universal and instead shaped by individual differences in how people engage with music. 

More than half of the students (54 per cent) reported regularly listening to music when reading for study, while 46 per cent preferred silence.  

Among those who listened to music, almost all believed it helped their reading. 

Students described using music to boost motivation, enhance focus, or block out external noise, with Classical and Rock emerging as the most common genres. Many preferred non‑lyrical, slow music to support concentration. 

“Many students feel music helps them get into the zone, especially when they’re studying in noisy or distracting environments,” Dr Cooke said. 

Dr Cooke said the findings challenge long‑held assumptions about the cognitive impact of music during study. 

“There’s a widespread belief that music automatically drains cognitive resources, but our data shows the story is far more individual,” she said. 

The study found that a student’s working memory capacity or tendency to mind wander (daydream) did not influence whether they chose to listen to music or how distracted they felt by it.  

Instead, a student’s music engagement, i.e. how personally involved and emotionally connected they are with music, was strongly linked to whether they perceived background music as helpful and whether they chose to use it while studying. 

Dr Cooke said this highlights the importance of personal preference in study environments. 

“For some students, music genuinely supports their reading experience. For others, it gets in the way. The key is understanding your own relationship with music rather than assuming one-size-fits-all advice,” she said. 

The next phase of Dr Cooke’s research will test students’ actual reading comprehension when listening to different types of music, not just perceptions. 

The study ‘Music as a distraction during reading: Music listening habits of university students’ is published in the journal Psychology of Music. ECU authors Lindsey Cooke, Ross Hollett & Craig Speelman. 

- ends - 

 

Tori Pree, Senior Media Adviser (08) 6304 2208, t.pree@ecu.edu.au 

or   

ECU Public Relations, (08) 6304 2222, pr@ecu.edu.au  

 

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Journal

Psychology of Music

DOI

10.1177/030573562614212 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Music as a distraction during reading: Music listening habits of university students

 

The Lancet MedZero: a single platform for carbon data across every product in healthcare

National University of Singapore, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

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The Lancet MedZero team photo

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Credit: NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

If healthcare was a country, it would be the fifth largest carbon emitter on the planet – between the European Union and the Russian Federation, with CO2 emissions in the sector higher than all of aviation and shipping combined.

Yet, until today, carbon data has been available for less than 1% of the products a clinician or a health system uses each day.

The Lancet MedZero is built to close that gap. Launching today at the 79th World Health Assembly, the platform (www.medzerocarbon.com) is the first to provide comprehensive carbon analytics across the full spectrum of healthcare, from pharmaceuticals and surgical instruments to chest X-rays and blood tests.

Convened by The Lancet and developed by an international academic consortium, it has been designed by clinicians, for clinicians, with over 14,000 entries at launch.

The platform is built to inform decisions at every level of the health system with the aim of helping hospitals and clinics save money, reduce waste, improve patient care, and tackle climate change. For example:[1]

• A health policymaker in the UK could identify that a simple switch from polluting incineration to recycling would avoid over 311,000 tonnes of CO2e (the equivalent to taking 212,000 British cars off the road), saving 76 million GBP each year as a result.
• A hospital CEO in Singapore, can see transitioning to reusable surgical gowns would reduce CO2e emissions by 4,407 tonnes (equivalent to the annual electricity use of 3,159 HDB households in Singapore), saving around 700,000 SGD annually.
• And national procurement experts across the world can compare logistics alternatives, saving over 3.85 million tonnes of CO2e by shifting to lower-carbon freight options for pharmaceuticals, such as shipping, globally (equivalent to nearly twice the national emissions of Malta).

The platform’s launch at the World Health Assembly brought together the Editor in Chief of The Lancet, the Minister of Health of the Philippines, the International Medical Secretary for Doctors Without Borders, the UK NHS’s Chief Sustainability Officer, and the Permanent Secretary of the Thailand Ministry of Public Health.

“The climate crisis is a health crisis. But climate action depends on credible data.” Dr Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, said ahead of the launch, “The Lancet MedZero plans to create a shared global infrastructure of knowledge about the carbon footprint of health systems. Measurement is the foundation of accountability, and accountability is the motivation for action.”

 

 

The problem the Lancet MedZero solves

More than 100 countries, covering over half the world’s population, have now committed to tackling climate change through a WHO-led Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health.

Until now, that data has been fragmented and inaccessible. The Lancet MedZero was built to change that.

For their hospitals and health systems to turn those commitments into action, they need transparent and trustworthy data to make evidence-based decisions. A surgeon redesigning a care pathway, a pharmacist restocking a hospital supply, a procurement lead renegotiating supply contracts, and a health minister setting national strategy: all of them need product-level carbon data, quickly and reliably.

 

A global collaboration built for scale

The Lancet MedZero is a global collaboration of clinicians, engineers, data scientists, economists, and public health professionals working to support healthcare decarbonisation worldwide. Convened by The Lancet, it brings together expertise in healthcare delivery, carbon analytics, and system transformation, with contributors from across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America. This diversity reflects a shared commitment to advancing sustainable healthcare across regions.

 

Academic partners: Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP), Thailand; National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan; National University of Singapore; Northeastern University, USA; University of Birmingham, UK; University of Melbourne, Australia

About The Lancet: The Lancet is one of the world’s leading medical journals, published since 1823. It has a long-standing commitment to climate and health, including through the Lancet Countdown, the Lancet Commission on Sustainable Healthcare, and multiple commissions on planetary health, pollution, among others.

 

NUS Specific Quote
 

“Singapore’s health system is well-positioned to lead on sustainable healthcare in Asia. The Lancet MedZero gives us the data infrastructure to move from aspiration to action – making it possible for our hospitals and clinicians to make every procurement decision, every care pathway choice, with the climate in mind.”

Professor Nick Watts, Director, Centre for Sustainable Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS)

How NUS contributes to the platform

 

The National University of Singapore (NUS), through its Centre for Sustainable Medicine (CoSM), is an academic partner of the Lancet MedZero and contributes to the platform in several concrete ways:
 

• Carbon analytics and life cycle data: CoSM researchers contribute primary life cycle assessment (LCA) data for medical products and healthcare services, quantifying the carbon impact of everything from how a product is manufactured to how it is used and disposed of in a clinical setting.
• Estimating carbon footprints at scale: CoSM also leads the development of the platform's models for the parts of a product's carbon footprint that are shared across many products - such as how it is shipped, used, and disposed of. This includes building practical methods to estimate the weight of tens of thousands of medical products (since weight drives much of the carbon cost of transport and waste). Together, these methods allow the platform to generate carbon estimates at a scale that would not be possible through manual data collection alone.
• Clinical translation and governance: CoSM provides clinical and technical oversight to ensure the platform’s decision-support tools are meaningful and actionable for frontline clinicians, hospital administrators, and policymakers in Singapore and globally.
   

How the Lancet MedZero benefits Singapore’s healthcare system

 

Singapore has committed to achieving net-zero emissions for its healthcare sector by 2050, in alignment with the Singapore Green Plan 2030, and has developed a baseline of its healthcare emissions as a foundation for action. The Lancet MedZero directly supports this ambition by giving Singapore’s health institutions access to verified, product-level carbon data that can inform:
 

• Public hospital procurement decisions – enabling MOH and cluster hospitals (NUHS, SingHealth, NHG Health) to choose lower-carbon products without compromising clinical quality or cost-effectiveness.
• National sustainability reporting – supporting the MOH in tracking and disclosing scope 3 healthcare emissions as part of Singapore’s international climate commitments.
• Clinical care pathway redesign – giving clinicians at public and private institutions access to evidence that supports lower-carbon, cost-saving alternatives in surgical, pharmaceutical, and diagnostic workflows.
   

As noted in the press release, a hospital CEO in Singapore can already use the platform to model, for example, how transitioning to reusable surgical gowns would reduce CO2e emissions by 4,407 tonnes and save approximately 700,000 SGD annually – equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of over 3,000 HDB households.

 

Next steps for Singapore

 

Following the platform’s launch at the 79th World Health Assembly, NUS will:
 

• Continue engaging with key institutional stakeholders and users including hospital leadership, MOH representatives, and the healthcare industry, to present the platform and identify priority use cases for local adoption.
• Pilot the platform with the clusters and healthcare institutions to validate the data in Singapore’s clinical and procurement context and generate locally relevant case studies.
• Engage academic and industry partners across Singapore to contribute data, expertise, and funding to sustain and grow the platform.

 

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[1] Carbon analytics, volume, and cost data drawn for each of the three examples from www.medzerocarbon.com and underlying data sources.

 

Rural siblings of people with neurodevelopmental conditions left to go it alone

New research has found siblings of people with neurodevelopmental conditions in regional Australia are struggling with poorer wellbeing.

Curtin University

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New Curtin University-led research has found siblings of people with neurodevelopmental conditions in regional and remote Australia are struggling with poorer wellbeing and are more likely to feel overlooked.

The study, which included researchers from The Kids Research Institute Australia, involved surveying siblings aged 16 to 30 who currently live, or have previously lived, in non-urban areas on factors affecting their wellbeing such as resilience, social support and general family functioning.

While most participants had autistic siblings, other neurodevelopmental conditions included attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, and intellectual disability.

Researchers found nearly a third of siblings experienced low wellbeing (29 per cent), nearly 40 per cent reported moderate wellbeing and about a third rated their wellbeing as high.

Low wellbeing suggests a person is not satisfied with their life and is likely to need additional external support to become more satisfied.

Lead author Samuel Antonio, a PhD candidate from Curtin’s School of Population Health, said while many siblings reported developing resilience, most relied on themselves or informal community networks for support.

“Participants consistently reported insufficient access to formal mental health services, either citing self-reliance or turning to their local communities to assist with coping with emotional challenges associated with being a sibling to someone with a neurodevelopmental condition,” Mr Antonio said.

“Many participants described feeling overlooked, invisible, or expected to ‘just manage’, even while experiencing significant emotional strain.”

Mr Antonio said resilience and community support were critical to improving sibling outcomes.

“Resilience and social support together accounted for more than half the differences in siblings’ wellbeing, while family functioning on its own was not a strong predictor,” he said.

“Importantly, siblings who felt supported by their local communities — through understanding, inclusion and acceptance — reported better mental health and wellbeing.”

Project supervisor and principal investigator, Dr Chloe Maxwell-Smith, also from the School of Population Health, said the findings reinforce the need for increased investment in sibling‑specific supports in neurodevelopment and clinical mental health beyond metropolitan Australia.

This included accessible one-on-one counselling, peer programs, community education initiatives, and flexible online or hybrid services that reduced travel.

“Siblings are often self-reliant through necessity, and they desire clinical and community supports that acknowledge them first as individuals, not just siblings,” Dr Maxwell-Smith said.

“Improving wellbeing for these siblings doesn’t require a single solution to reduce burden and risk of mental health conditions. What matters is layered support — building individual resilience with psychological supports, strengthening social connections, and empowering communities to recognise siblings as people in their own right.”

Alannah Stojcevic, from the Gippsland region in rural Victoria, took part in the study to share her experience as the sibling of a younger autistic sister. 

The 21-year-old said she was grateful to researchers for bringing the lack of support in the regions — both for individuals with a neurodevelopmental condition as well as their siblings — to light.

“Help or supportive services for people like me don't exist as far as I am aware, and they certainly aren't available near me,” Mrs Stojcevic said. “Having someone to talk to about these issues — someone who understands — is a bit of a pipedream for me at this point.

“I sincerely hope this research contributes to positive change in rural communities throughout Australia.”

The study, ‘Wellbeing and Support Preferences of Siblings of Individuals with a Neurodevelopmental Condition in Regional and Remote Australia: A Mixed Methods Investigation’, has been published in Disability and Rehabilitation.

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Journal

Disability and Rehabilitation

DOI

10.1080/09638288.2026.2663921 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

CrossRef citations to date 17 Altmetric Listen Research Article Well-being and support preferences of siblings of individuals with a neurodevelopmental condition in regional and remote Australia: a mixed methods investigation

Article Publication Date

8-May-2026

 

Where do citizen science data come from?

Hun-Ren Ökológiai Kutatóközpont

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Despite non-random sampling in individual projects, the combined dataset of over 300,000 locations effectively covers the entire country.

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Credit: Zsóka Vásárhelyi; Stadia Maps; ggplot2

In recent years, citizen science methodology has gained significant momentum and is becoming increasingly important in large-scale ecological and conservation research. By involving volunteers, it enables a level of spatial and temporal coverage that would often be unattainable within traditional research frameworks. However, the method also comes with specific challenges. One of the main criticisms of citizen science data is that observation density can vary substantially across space and time, making direct comparisons with systematically collected datasets difficult. These patterns may partly reflect real biological differences, for example, in the case of species that occur seasonally or in patches, but they are also strongly influenced by the distribution and behaviour of volunteers.

To address this issue, a research team led by the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research applied a novel approach. They compared a database of more than 300,000 citizen science observations with regional data from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO) at the municipality level. The citizen science data included projects focusing on arthropods, molluscs, reptiles, birds, mammals, but also on streams and ponds. In simple terms, they examined whether the characteristics of local populations and environments systematically influence the number of submitted observations. One of the key strengths of this approach is that it combines two independent data sources: citizen science data reflect volunteer activity, while HCSO data describe socio-economic and environmental background variables. This independence helps to avoid biases commonly associated with survey-based studies. The applied meta-analysis allowed the identification of both project-specific and general patterns, making the results applicable at multiple levels.

The analysis shows that participation is not random. A positive relationship was found between participation and the proportion of protected areas: in general, municipalities with higher proportions of protected areas receive more observations. Population density shows a more complex pattern: in general analyses, it was negatively associated with participation, but when Budapest was excluded (due to its exceptionally high density and other unique characteristics) the effect disappeared. In this adjusted analysis, the proportion of people with a diploma and the proportion of elderly residents both showed positive correlations with participation.

The study also identified finer-scale patterns. For example, citizen science projects that involve observations in private gardens showed a significant positive relationship with the proportion of children, a pattern not observed in other types of projects. Another interesting finding was that projects focusing on specific habitats tended to receive more observations from municipalities with lower levels of education and income, which may be linked to lower levels of urbanization. At the same time, it is important to interpret these results within their specific context. Participation patterns are influenced by many factors, including the research topic, the effectiveness of communication, and the institutional and social background of each project.

Overall, as the leading author Zsóka Vásárhelyi argues: "the majority of citizen science data are very likely biased"; however, they remain extremely valuable, as long as researchers consciously account for their biases during project design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation.

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Journal

People and Nature

DOI

10.1002/pan3.70335 

Method of Research

Meta-analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Environmental and socio-economic factors behind data provision in 17 citizen science projects

Article Publication Date

21-May-2026