Additives that don't belong in more nutritious snacks

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Exotic names are great for daydreaming. But an ingredients list on a snack shouldn't read like a mystery. That's why we're giving you a quick rundown of why it's better to skip foods loaded with additives.

Food additives are substances deliberately added to food. There are various reasons for this, such as simplifying the production process. They're also often added to enhance flavour or appearance, or to help food keep longer. Are all additives bad for us? No, but a bit of caution is definitely worthwhile.

The main food additives and what they're used for, at a glance:

• Colourings: artificial or natural (i.e. derived from natural products) colourings.
• Preservatives: substances that slow down bacterial growth, such as sorbic acid.
• Emulsifiers, thickeners and gelling agents: substances that make a product firmer or improve its texture. A well-known example is lecithin.
• Flavour enhancers and artificial flavourings: substances used to boost or change taste. Well-known examples are glutamates.
• Sweeteners: artificial sweeteners used to replace sugar in light products, such as aspartame or saccharin.

When a food product contains additives, this must be clearly stated on the label. You'll usually recognise them by a code starting with an E followed by a few digits. Sometimes they're listed by name on the label instead of by code. 

But watch out! Not all E-numbers or additives are necessarily bad for us — vitamin C, for example, is listed as E300.

Although additives are regulated and food manufacturers are allowed to add them to their products, that doesn't mean all additives are good for you — quite the opposite, actually. On top of that, they often have no nutritional value and offer your body nothing useful. Sometimes they're even added to avoid using pricier (and usually more genuine, pure) ingredients.

In a more nutritious diet, it's always important to choose food that's as pure and unprocessed as possible. A simple rule is: the more processed a food or snack is, the more additives it tends to contain. Luckily, E-numbers stand out pretty clearly on an ingredients list. Not sure whether a certain E-number is fine? Just ask Google, then you'll know exactly what you're dealing with.

But a good rule of thumb is that if you have to wade through a whole list of unpronounceable names on the label, you're better off choosing a more nutritious alternative with pure ingredients. Because some additives really aren't good for us.