Featured posts & Nasty Food product of the month 16 Jul 2007 07:00 am
Nasty Food Of the Month: Carrageenan
And how nasty it is!
Carrageenan is seaweed you know? So it’s natural, right? Ha! About as “natural” as MSG (which comes from rice), Splenda (which comes from sugar…kinda), and Aspertame (comes from oil). One finds it in processed foods: milk, ice cream, cottage cheese, yogurt, frosting, cheese spreads, baby formula….the list is quite long.
Long ago I started weeding out and avoiding foods that contained Carrageenan for the simple reason that it is an additive used to replace fat and gelatin qualties in foods that I preferred to have in their whole state. For instance, I think MILK should be MILK…pasturize it if you must but adding crap and homogenizing it is officially taking a whole food and making it a processed food in my opinion. Until recently I couldn’t/wouldn’t afford good, unhomgenized milk, but I had avoided Carrgeenan in ice cream, cottage cheese, yogurt…I make our frostings from scratch, we don’t eat cheese spreads, I breastfed the babies, etc.
But beyond just messing with something whole and making it a “recipe”, it turns out Carrgageen, and most especially the solvents used to process it, is a highly antagonistic additive. Consider some of these quotes:
Some folks can eat just about anything. Some people might
have no problem producing a tall glass of homemade soymilk,
then converting it to chocolate milk by adding the
following ingredients: Three teaspoons of sugar. One
teaspoon of chocolate powder. Two tablespoons of Vaseline
petroleum jelly. The Vaseline might produce gastric
distress, and the soymilk drinkers would erroneously
conclude that they are “allergic” to soy. Some people
do not experience gastric discomfort caused by the
Vaseline-like food additive, carrageenan. Many people do.Carrageenan is a commonly used food additive that is
extracted from red seaweed by using powerful alkali
solvents. These solvents would remove the tissues
and skin from your hands as readily as would any acid.Carrageenan is a thickening agent. It’s the vegetarian
equivalent of casein, the same protein that is isolated
from milk and used to thicken foods. Casein is also
used to produce paints, and is the glue used to hold
a label to a bottle of beer. Carrageenan is the magic
ingredient used to de-ice frozen airplanes sitting on
tarmacs during winter storms.
And from the same website, which is notmilk.com:
Carrageenan is a gel. It coats the insides of a stomach,
like gooey honey or massage oil. Digestive problems often
ensue. Quite often, soy eaters or soymilk drinkers react
negatively to carrageenen, and blame their discomforting
stomachaches on the soy.
Studies have been done that link Carrageenan to colonic cancer and gastro issues…hmmm, inflammatory bowel syndrome anyone? Here in our household we have well (ha haa) documented gastro issues of the rather pungent kind when nasty ice cream like Mayfield, containing Carrageenan, is consumed. Out here in our county, along with no wine, one also can not buy a brand of ice cream that does NOT contain Carrageenan. So we gave some a shot recently. BAD IDEA. On a much more serious note, our son Wheaton had an as-of-yet undiagnosed metabolic disorder as an infant and was not growing. The doctors surgically installed a g-tube in his belly and force fed him forumla containing high amounts of Carrageenan (not that they cared; it was the scientifically engineered nutrient content they were after). The more they insisted we pump through him, the sicker he became, the more mucous his body produced, and he nearly died. Rapid improvement occurred when we stoped feeding him the formula under a new doctor’s care, who wanted him breastfed and self-selecting his diet (which was all whole foods) while his gut healed. It was then that we started looking into food additives, most of which trigger our boys’ gastro-reflex issues.
During the latter half of the twentieth century, inflammatory bowel disease and gastrointestinal malignancy have been major causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Even with improvements in treatment and cancer screening, colorectal cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States. The Western diet has been considered a possible source of inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal malignancy, and intensive efforts have been undertaken to study the impact of specific constituents of the Western diet, such as fiber and fat (1-3).
In addition to food additive uses, carrageenan has been used in cosmetics, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals, as well as in toothpaste and room deodorizers. It has been used as a treatment of ulcers and as an emulsifier in mineral oil laxatives, liquid petrolatum, and cod liver oil. However, its predominant role has been in food preparations, in which it is used across a wide variety of food groups because of its ability to substitute for fat and its ability to combine easily with milk proteins to increase solubility and improve texture. Hence, it is used in low-calorie formulations of dietetic beverages, infant formula, processed low-fat meats, whipped cream, cottage cheese, ice cream, and yogurt, as well as in other products. From its original use several centuries ago as a thickener in Irish pudding and its incorporation into blancmange, the food additive use has extended widely and cuts across both low-fat and high-fat diets. It is often combined with other gums, such as locust bean gum, to improve the texture of foods (12-14,22,41,42).
Inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal malignancy represent major sources of morbidity and mortality in the United States. A possible factor in the etiology of these pathologies is exposure to carrageenan.
The potential role of carrageenan in the development of gastrointestinal malignancy and inflammatory bowel disease requires careful reconsideration of the advisability of its continued use as a food additive.
Read the whole study here.
So my bottom line? My body was made to process FOOD. That is what I should feed it; not manufactured substitutes. Real fat is more digestable than some slimy chemical added to replace the fat, never mind all the nutritional and health BENEFITS from fat! Ice Cream should be Ice CREAM, not Ice CANCER-SLIME. Makes a real treat too, rather than a motivating force to run for the bathroom.
on 16 Jul 2007 at 7:38 am 1.carol said …
OH WOW! Just WOW!
We just got our soy milk maker last week. I’ve been making a quart and a half of milk, every day,every other day. I’d warned everybody to take it easy on drinking it ’cause it might take our digestive tracts some time to get used to it. I noticed right away that the uncomfortable side effects that I/we would sometimes get from commercial soymilk NEVER occurred from the homemade. Now I know why. Here I’ve been bemoaning the fact that I can’t get a nice thick homemade milk. I’m not doing anything wrong! Its the way soy milk is SUPPOSED to be. I’m sure thats why I can eat certain brands of ice cream w/o any issues and others send me to the bathroom for days.
GOOD ARTICLE, THANK YOU!
on 16 Jul 2007 at 8:53 am 2.gerry medland said …
An excellent article,thank you for taking time out to make us aware of hidden dangers such as these.Fortunately I purchased a soya milk maker last year and have had no bad effects since making my own milk.Once again,thank you so much!
gerry m
united kingdom
on 16 Jul 2007 at 7:32 pm 3.Blogging About Blogging » Time Keeps On Ticking Into The Future said …
[...] got my post up on Living Deliberately for the Nasty Food of the Month and just minutes later found a youtube video for an even nastier [...]
on 17 Jul 2007 at 5:58 am 4.Melinda McDowell said …
My son Wesley was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, come to find out it was the Low-Fat Frozen Yogurt from Sam’s that I have been giving him.. very bad. Once he stopped eating the stuff all of his symptoms went away.. This is very bad stuff..
on 17 Jul 2007 at 10:55 pm 5.dalimama said …
Thanks for the info. I’ll have to see what it’s in. Luckily, we can get ice cream here that doesn’t have it but I am sure it’s in a few of the things we do buy and I’d like to do whatever I can to help my dh with his chronic indigestion.
on 18 Aug 2007 at 5:27 pm 6.Living Deliberately » The cryin’ shame of hospital food. said …
[...] carrageenan [...]
on 21 Feb 2008 at 12:16 pm 7.laura dahl said …
When will people get it! Eating whole foods is what our bodies were designed for. I just shudder when I see what parents put into their kids stomach. don’t they care or are they health dumb?
on 22 Nov 2008 at 3:35 am 8.Jan said …
I recently was diagnosed with Collagenous Colitis (Microscopic Colitiis, one of two of this type). I was informed by my wonderful naturopath to leave Carageenen alone and I agree. I don’t eat ice cream or most of the stuff it is found in as I’m allergic to eggs and dairy. Anyway, I’m looking for the other words to look for that mean Carageenen). I agree about eating whole foods…it’s not easy but it’s better than being sick all the time I’ve controlled my diarreah with a bland diet but still am getting sick.
on 10 Dec 2008 at 11:21 pm 9.andi said …
I had very painful bloating. My GI recommended having my gallbladder removed. I still had bloating. Went for a 2nd opinion with another GI. He ordered a blood test for celiac. Bingo! My numbers were very high for celiac. The upper GI also showed I had Barrett’s esophagus. I am very grateful that these two very serious disease were found before turning to cancer, but in spite of eliminating ALL gluten from my diet and following a reasonable diet for acid reflux, guess what? I STILL had the painful bloating. I finally determined that I had a carrageenan allergy and since eliminating it from my diet I have had NO problems. This process took 7 months. I think many people are misdiagnosed with IBS or something else and it is actually a carrageenan allergy.
on 13 Feb 2009 at 1:16 pm 10.Larry said …
In 2001 the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) completed a re-evaluation of carrageenan that began in 1998. The JECFA is an independent international body of expert scientists that functions under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO). Members of the JECFA Committee that reviewed carrageenan included representatives of universities and government agencies of the following countries: Norway, Australia, Canada, Finland, United States (FDA), Japan, Netherlands, Denmark, France, and the United Kingdom. During the course of the re-evaluation, the JECFA specifically reviewed the matter of the potential for gastrointestinal effects from ingestion of carrageenan. This included an evaluation of the effects of stomach flora on carrageenan, food processing conditions on carrageenan and the degradation of carrageenan in the stomach. Throughout the course of the re-evaluation, the JECFA considered genotoxicity studies, metabolism, reproduction and developmental toxicity, and short term and long-term mammalian feeding studies (including a 7.5 year feeding study in monkeys). The JECFA also considered information about the current understanding of the concept of cell proliferation and promotion of tumors.
In their review, the JECFA correlated carrageenan feeding levels (and effect levels) in test animals to human intake of carrageenan. This is lacking in the Tobacman review article. The JECFA estimated that the human intake of carrageenan is 30-50 mg/person/day. However, the JECFA concluded that based on the rat studies, if effects from ingestion of carrageenan were observed, the levels of ingestion far exceeded those of human consumption. For example, the JECFA noted that no proliferative effect of carrageenan in the colon mucosa was observed at 1.5% carrageenan in the rat diet. This corresponds to an intake of carrageenan of 750 mg/kg body weight per day, which far exceeds the aforementioned estimated human intake. To put this consumption level in perspective, this carrageenan intake level of 750 mg/kg body weight/day corresponds to a daily consumption of 58 gallons of chocolate milk per day by a 150 lb person!
The fact that proliferative effects were seen at 2.6% in the diet is moot because the estimated carrageenan consumption is below the threshold concentration for these effects. Further, the JECFA also noted that at 5% in the diet of rats, carrageenan did not act as at tumor promotor. Effects seen at exceptionally high levels of exposure to carrageenan were determined to be caused by altered toxicokinetics. See the adjacent table for a comparison of the estimated human carrageenan intake and the experimental carrageenan intakes noted in the JECFA review.
Overall, the JECFA concluded that there was no concern to the continued consumption of carrageenan and assigned it to the group “Acceptable Daily Intake – not specified”. This classification is used when the JECFA has determined that a food additive does not represent a hazard to health. It also allows for the use of the additive at the level necessary to achieve the technical or functional effect in food, also referred to as the level of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). The complete report of this review was made publicly available in 2003 and therefore post dates the review by Dr. Tobacman.
In plain english: Carrageenan can’t hurt you, no matter how much of it you eat, so stop whining about it.
on 13 Feb 2009 at 1:28 pm 11.Tia said …
Thanks for the research information Larry. But in plainer english…if it has to be studied on rats, I’d rather not eat it.
on 13 Mar 2009 at 10:12 pm 12.Wayne said …
I think some of you miss the point. Peanuts are generally regarded as safe, however they will KILL some people if they eat them as they have an allergy.
To some people a bee sting is an uncomfortable thing to get, to others it could mean life or death.
To say something is safe because some bigwigs got together and said it was, does not make it so.
Many things end up on the market that are later found to be unsafe. [just recently a certain plastic in bottles has been deemed unsafe after being on the market for years]
Think of all the meds that go through years of testing,trials, double blind studies and get released and are later pulled from the market because of problems.
Smoking at one time was considered safe. I think some people think things are safe just because it does not immediately kill you. We are consuming things now that years from now we will find out there is a problem because of the years of build-up in our systems.
Anyway, the main point I am trying to make is just because it is safe for one person does not mean another will not have a reaction or suffer from consuming it.
on 03 May 2009 at 7:30 pm 13.Ruthie said …
Haagen Daz has no carrageenan and is delicious, however, fattening. The yogurt and low-fat ice creams also have no carrageenan.
on 26 May 2009 at 10:14 am 14.Lindy said …
I was taking a liquid cal/mag supplement that would upset my stomach right after I took it. I thought that it was an all “natural” supplement, then looked again at the ingredient list. The only thing in it other than calcium and magnesium was carrageenan. I stopped taking it and had no problems with my next cal/mag supplement. Yesterday I bought a chocolate soy milk and had the same discomfort after drinking it, not realizing that it had carrageenan added. From now on I’m not buying anything with carrageenan, or any kind of additives for that matter.
on 30 May 2009 at 6:15 pm 15.mary said …
I think I am very sensitive to carrageenan, not in my digestive process, but in my muscles and bones. They hurt and ache several hours after ingesting it. Has this happened to anyone else?
on 01 Jun 2009 at 4:19 am 16.Jason said …
I was sicked to discover I had unwittingly been eating carrageenan all these years. Anyway, I only buy Haagen-Dazs and Straus Family Creamery ice cream now. I can’t stand the slimy gooey melty texture of carrageenan-infused ice cream. I also make my own whipped cream at home using organic cream-with no carrageenan and it’s amazing! Great on pumpkin pie (hard to find pumpkin pie without carrageenan!) I hate xanthan gum so much. Stop putting these nasty slimy disgusting ingredients in our meat, dairy products, and condiments!