UK study lifts the lid on plant-based alternatives: nearly double the additives
A new UK study matched 71 plant-based products to their closest animal-based equivalent and found the plant versions had almost double the additives (199 vs 100) and more E-numbers overall. The gap was biggest in dairy and meat substitutes — the animal-based dairy products used zero additives.
The researchers are careful to say more additives ≠ more harm — they didn’t measure quantity, or how often people actually eat these foods. But it raises a real question for anyone eating “plant-based” for health reasons rather than ethics: are you actually eating cleaner, or just eating processed food that looks clean?
Where do you land — does additive count matter at all if everything’s within legal safety limits, or is “more ingredients = more processed = worse” a fair rule of thumb?
I wrote an article on this: