You would be correct.

Adding to the emulsifier part, carrageenan, guar gum, xanthan gum, and polysorbate 80 is right in that pile too, that one and carboxymethylcellulose are the two the flagship research actually used. You'll find them all through sour creams, creamy milks, cottage cheese, the stuff that's supposed to feel smooth and hold together.

And the gut microbiome is still really misunderstood, how the brain and the gut talk to each other. Your gut makes most of your serotonin, the happiness chemical, so when you put non-food things in your food and they start chewing at the gut lining and the mucus that protects it, that reaches further than your stomach. The early research points that way, and the food industry isn't in a hurry to fund the rest of it.

Titanium dioxide is the one that makes me laugh, just not happily. I avoid it like the devil. The EU pulled it from food in 2022 because they couldn't rule out harm from the nanoparticle form, and North America still sells it. Same candy, different answer depending on which side of the border you buy it. That's the line that never updates, standing right there on the label.

The dyes are the same ride. Red 40, yellow, blue, the petroleum colors in everything bright, and the US is finally pulling them now, Red 3 banned outright and the rest getting squeezed out state by state. It took a cancer ban and a state law to move that line, not a memo, and again the science was sitting there for years. The kid-brain finding is the solid part, and the gut work is early, but early in the same direction as everything else in this pile.

Now put all that into your daily intake, and your water is tainted yeah I'd be pretty fucking suss about who is "looking out" for me.