Know different flavors and their health benefits

Know different flavors and their health benefits

Perception of flavors is an evolutionary benefit that helps us have a more varied diet and hence meet various nutritional needs. But flavors helps us appreciate and enjoy our food even more. We love flavors and the food industry capitalizes on this by enriching our foods with a host of natural and/or artificial flavors. But what are natural flavors and which ones are artificial? And probably the biggest question, how do they impact our health?

Knowing Natural Flavours

Natural flavors are generally extracted from natural foods such as fruit, fruit juice, oils, barks of trees, edible yeast, vegetables or their juices etc. Basically, natural flavors are those which are derived from something which is edible in its original form.

The key to calling any flavor a natural flavor is that it should be extracted solely by physical process from any edible food source. Some examples of natural flavors are vanillin extracted from vanilla bean, however, castoreum is also a natural source for vanilla flavor, which is extracted from castor sacs of beaver.

So, natural does not necessarily mean that it is sustainable or is good for you, or even that it comes from a single source. For example, Citral is a chemical found in the lemon peel and is marketed as natural lemon flavor, but it can come from any edible source which contains citral like lemongrass or lemon myrtle. 

Understanding Artificial Flavours

Artificial flavors are those which are manufactured completely from scratch. These are a copy of natural flavors and imitate the chemicals which are present in natural flavors, for example, vanillin, the organic compound which is the primary component in the vanilla bean, can be extracted from vanilla bean or can be created in a laboratory from scratch.

Artificial flavors provide the exact same sensory experiences as the natural flavors, since they are essentially the same chemical, in the end, only the source differs.

The downside to artificial flavors is that sometimes it is difficult to achieve the exact chemical composition of a natural flavor and hence some artificial flavors taste too “artificial”. 

Health Effects of Natural or Artificial Flavours

Since flavors do not contain any nutritional value and are simply chemicals which provide a sensory stimulation, there is not much difference between artificial and natural flavorings in the end. The problem can arise due to the fact that our bodies are not naturally inclined to such concentrated amount of flavors (read chemicals) in our food. So it is always better and in favor of your health, to limit the intake of processed foods which contain added flavors.

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