Could a Common Food Preservative Cause You to Develop Diabetes?

Updated July 2026

More than 400 million people worldwide have diabetes, and the rate at which people are developing it keeps accelerating. The surge in diabetes and obesity over the last 50 years strongly suggests that environmental and dietary factors, rather than genetics, are driving the epidemic. One line of research points a finger at an unexpected culprit: a common food preservative called propionate.

What is propionate, and where is it found?

Propionate is a naturally occurring substance added to many processed foods as a preservative, where it prevents mold and bacterial growth. It's classified as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the FDA and is a common additive in the food supply. You'll find it in a wide range of everyday processed items, including baked goods like bread, pastries, and pizza dough; breakfast cereals; pasta and noodles; dried and condensed milk; processed cheeses; flavored yogurts and puddings; dairy-based spreads; sports drinks; diet foods and beverages; commercially prepared potato salad; condiments; soups and sauces; and even some nut butters.

Could a food preservative really raise your diabetes risk?

A study raised exactly that concern, suggesting propionate may act as a "metabolic disruptor." Researchers found that the additive disproportionately increased the levels of several hormones associated with the risk of obesity and diabetes, and not at extreme doses, but at the levels actually found in our food supply. Eating even a single meal containing a typical dose increased hormones that control blood sugar in otherwise healthy people, causing blood sugar to spike and insulin levels to rise. We already know that repeated exposure to higher sugar and insulin levels leads over time to insulin resistance and diabetes, as well as easier weight gain.

What should you take away from this?

Mostly, a dose of humility about how little we know. This kind of finding should give us pause, because it underscores how much remains unknown about the effects of the many preservatives and additives we routinely put into our bodies. Even well-meaning agencies like the FDA may not have every piece of information when they judge these substances safe. That uncertainty is precisely why avoiding unnecessary exposure is the prudent default.

There's a reassuring simplicity here, though: most of the foods that contain propionate are ultra-processed foods we'd be better off eating less of anyway. Reduce your intake of processed foods in general, and you automatically reduce your exposure to propionate and a long list of other additives whose effects we don't fully understand. It's one more reason the most protective dietary strategy isn't about memorizing which additive to fear, it's about leaning toward whole, real foods. If you want the bigger picture on why these foods are worth minimizing, I've written more about why ultra-processed foods are so bad for us.

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