Paper towel a suck will fade, this drink can still drink?
Recently, a video titled “Drinks will fade when stirred by paper towels” caused a hot debate on the Internet. In the video, a glass cup filled with a brand of orange drink. An item similar to a tissue paper is put into the glass and then stirred with chopsticks at high speed. After about a minute, it is clear that the tissue paper has turned an orange color similar to the original drink, while the liquid in the cup is nearly transparent.
Many netizens questioned the excessive coloring of this drink, “Drink coloring so much, can you still drink it?” Come on, the rumor monger is on the move!
The original conclusion of the experiment is not scientific
The rumor monger with a fiery eye can see at a glance that this message adopts the “resort to fear” formula – to seize people’s concern for life safety, coupled with the effect of surprise and the lack of logical connections, so that readers feel fear and thus have to believe that the content of its The truth of the content.
The phenomenon in the video is something we often encounter in our lives, but we just don’t notice it. Let’s say a water purifier removes impurities from the water, but can we say that the water is overloaded with impurities? Obviously not. Exceeding the standard is a matter of ratio, that is, the content of a unit of pigment in the drink exceeds the prescribed proportion, and we can not obviously draw that conclusion from the experiment.
Paper towels have many tiny holes, and these microscopic pores are able to adsorb colorants. From the video, we can roughly tell that the color of the drink mainly comes from lemon yellow and sunset yellow, which are two synthetic colors widely used in food. Generally speaking, no matter natural or synthetic pigments, they can be easily adsorbed by good adsorbent filter paper or filters, and “detach” from the colored beverage.
Therefore, logically, this experiment proves that paper towels have an adsorption effect on colorants, both natural and artificial. Although the paper towel did change color, but on the one hand, it can not distinguish between the absorption of artificial pigments and natural pigments, which is more, and on the other hand, it can not prove that the beverage color exceeds the standard. If you want to prove that the color in the drink exceeds the standard, you need formal testing, such as involving professional chromatography: high performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography – mass spectrometry, etc..
Artificial coloring is harmful
Color in food refers to the raw materials that can give food a certain color, which is divided into natural color and artificial color. Generally speaking, people are more worried about the harm caused by artificial coloring to human body.
As a matter of fact, China’s food additive use standard stipulates the maximum use limit of 7 synthetic colors in beverages, including lemon yellow, sunset yellow, seductive red, amaranthine red, carmine red, bright blue and erythrosine, which can be added into beverages within a reasonable range.
From the website of the Ministry of Health, it can be found that the standards for adding some food additives, including colorants, are revised every year. Interested partners can click on the Health and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China to learn more~.
However, it is undeniable that artificial coloring itself has some harmful effects. We know a lot of these examples, the famous ones such as Sudan Red and so on. Sudan red is classified as a chemical coloring agent, which is carcinogenic. 2005 Heinz Chili Sauce was detected to contain “Sudan red No.1”, and in less than a month, it was detected in the products of a number of food service companies, including KFC, etc. Some studies have found that artificial coloring is harmful.
Some studies have found that the illegal use of artificial colors can be harmful to human health, leading to reduced fertility, teratogenesis, etc., and some substances in the human body may be converted into carcinogenic substances. 1968-1970, the former Soviet Union on the effects of amaranth red in the body of the animals in the long-term experiments found that its carcinogenicity rate of 22%. Creamy yellow, which used to be used to color margarine, has long been shown to cause liver cancer in humans and animals when ingested in excess. For children, some artificial colors can cause adverse reactions such as emotional instability and poor self-control.
However, artificial colors are maintained within the prescribed limits and will not cause greater harm to the body.
Generally speaking, people drink beverages out of beverages different from plain water, its visual colorful, unique taste, fully satisfy their taste and visual needs. However, drinks “refreshing not refreshing” – artificial coloring is mostly found in high-carbohydrate, deep-processed, low-nutrient-density beverages.
It is also due to the fact that the face value of plain water is not outstanding enough, so that people tend to overlook its fascinating connotations.
From a nutritional standpoint, no sugary or functional beverage is as good as plain water. Because pure plain water is the easiest way to quench your thirst, it is easy on cell membranes when it enters the body, boosting metabolism and delivering nutrients. At the same time, it can also make the body dehydrogenase activity increase, reduce the accumulation of lactic acid in the muscle, so that people are not easy to produce fatigue.
In other words, with the same thirst-quenching effect, plain water is much healthier than beverages.
After reading this article you, hydration? If not, drink more water!
Interactive session
The coloring adsorbed by the paper towel in the video is
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
