Sodium Benzoate can damage mitochondrial DNA...

So says Peter Piper, professor of molecular biology and biotechnology of Sheffield University.

Professor Piper, tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory. What he found alarmed him. The benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the \"power station\" of cells known as the mitochondria.

\"These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it; they knock it out altogether\".

\"The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it - as happens in a number if diseased states - then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA - Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing.\"

Sodium benzoate has already been the subject of concern about cancer because when mixed with vitamin C, it creates benzene.

This stuff is in most every soft drink I looked at in the supermarket.