APEX PWR | Supplement Spotlight
The trillions of bacteria living in your digestive tract, collectively your gut microbiome, do more than digest food. They help regulate immunity, metabolism, mood, and inflammation, and their balance shifts with what you feed them. That includes the additives layered into processed foods and, often, into supplements.
Thorne's science team publishes a detailed breakdown of why certain additives sit on its "No List," much of it centered on the gut. Below is a plain-language summary of that research, with the caveats stated honestly, because the science here is promising and still unfinished.
Sucralose, acesulfame-K, and saccharin are the most studied. Animal work fairly consistently shows they shift gut bacteria, and there is now some human signal too. In a 10-week study, healthy young adults who consumed the equivalent of about four sweetener packets of sucralose daily developed a measurable imbalance in gut bacteria, including a three-fold rise in a bacterium associated with IBS and metabolic problems and a drop in a beneficial Lactobacillus, alongside higher glucose and insulin responses. Saccharin has been flagged for similar microbiome-mediated effects on blood sugar. Human evidence overall is still mixed, and results vary with diet and lifestyle, but there is enough to justify caution with daily use.
Titanium dioxide is a whitening agent used in gum, candy, sunscreen, and some tablets. The European Food Safety Authority concluded it can no longer be considered safe as a food additive, and the European Union banned it from food in 2022. It remains permitted in the United States. Animal studies have linked it to a shift in gut bacteria toward a dysbiotic pattern and to increased gut-barrier dysfunction and inflammation. Since it serves only a cosmetic role, leaving it out costs you nothing.
Sulfites are among the most common food preservatives, and they are also a known trigger for asthmatic reactions in sensitive people. Laboratory research found that sulfites, at concentrations considered safe for food, strongly inhibited the growth of several beneficial gut bacteria, including Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and multiple Lactobacillus species that support a healthy gut environment.
The petroleum-derived dyes that make products bright have long been linked to behavioral concerns in children, including hyperactivity, inattention, and irritability. Research indicates much of the dye is absorbed through the gut, and absorption rises when the gut lining is more permeable, which happens with conditions like celiac or Crohn's disease, food allergies, and low-fiber diets. These are colorants that add nothing nutritional.
The pattern across all of these: they are added for looks, taste, or shelf life, not for your health. When the potential downside is a disrupted gut and the upside is a whiter tablet or a sweeter powder, the trade is easy to refuse.
It is easy to picture these additives only in soda and candy, though they are just as common in the supplement aisle. Sweeteners make powders palatable, dyes make capsules eye-catching, and preservatives and fillers make manufacturing cheaper and faster. If you take a supplement every day, you are also taking whatever is packaged with it every day.
This is the logic behind Thorne's No List, which names dozens of these ingredients the company refuses to use, from artificial sweeteners and colors to titanium dioxide, sulfites, and industrial fillers. It is also why we built the APEX PWR dispensary on Thorne. You can browse it at apexpwr.com/thorne, where everything is 25% off for life.
We hold research to a fair standard, so here is the balanced view. A good portion of the microbiome evidence comes from animal models and laboratory studies, which do not always translate to humans. Human trials are fewer, and some, including industry-funded ones, find little or no effect. The strongest human signals so far are around sucralose and saccharin with regular use, and the clearest regulatory action is on titanium dioxide in Europe.
None of that is a reason to panic about a single diet soda or a colored vitamin. It is a reason to minimize unnecessary additives where it is cheap and easy to do so, and the easiest place of all is the supplement you have already decided to take daily.
Shop clean, independently tested supplements and get 25% off for life through the APEX PWR Thorne dispensary.
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