Your Gut on Carrageenan
Posted on December 05, 2012 by Lynda Buitrago, One of Thousands of Health and Fitness Coaches on Noomii.
Why should we be concerned about eating foods containing carrageenan?
Because carrageenan causes inflammation in your body.
You know I advise you to stay away from processed foods, especially those made with “conventional” (usually GMO) ingredients. One reason for this is the hazardous food additives that you’d expect to find in conventional processed foods.
However, one very common food additive, carrageenan, shows up in some organic foods, so if you’re going to eat anything from a package, it’s important to read the ingredient label. If you see carrageenan in the ingedients list, don’t buy it! If the product’s already in your home, return it (be sure to tell the store why) or toss it.
What is carrageenan?
Carrageenan is a food additive derived from red seaweed. First patented in the 1930s, carrageenan has been used by the food industry for about 50 years as a thickener and stabilizer to keep ingredients from separating. In addition to giving you the huge convenience of not having to shake the container before serving, carrageenan is often used to give a creamier texture to low-fat dairy products and to dairy alternatives like soy milk and liquid “coffee whitener.” [1,3] Seems harmless enough, right?
So, why should we be concerned about eating foods containing carrageenan?
Because carrageenan causes inflammation in your body.
Joanne Tobacman, M.D., Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Chicago, has spent the last 20 years studying the effects of carrageenan in both animals and human cells. Tobacman notes that “Inflammation is well-known to be the basis for many human diseases and is associated with over 100 human diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and arteriosclerosis, and inflammation is also linked to cancer.” (emphasis mine) 2
The fact that carrageenan causes inflammation is no news to researchers. In fact, it’s so widely known that carrageenan causes inflammation that over the past several decades, in thousands of lab experiments, carrageenan has been reliably used to induce inflammation in animals. 2
Carrageenan may contribute to insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes
More shockingly, Tobacman and many other researchers have found that normal dietary amounts of carrageenan in the human diet (on average, about 250mg/day, or 4mg/kg of body weight) are enough to cause inflammation. [2,4] Additionally, mice developed glucose intolerance and insulin resistance from ingestion of amounts of carrageenan far less (2mg/kg) than in the standard American diet (SAD). It took the mice only 18 days to get to an advanced stage of pre-diabetes! Human liver cells showed a similar response, suggesting that eating carrageenan may be a significant factor in diabetes in humans. 5
Now that I’ve scared you, read those labels! Better yet, stay away from packaged foods as much as possible. Here’s a list to help you do that: the Shopping Guide to Avoiding Organic Foods with Carrageenan, compiled by the Cornucopia Institute.
Read the labels on your favorite “healthy” packaged foods at home. How many contain carrageenan?
Reference:
1. Zerbe, L. The Natural Ingredient That’s Wrecking Your Gut. Rodale News. http://www.rodale.com/carrageenan
2. Tobacman, J. Letter to National Organic Standards Board. April 27, 2012. http://www.cornucopia.org/DrTobacmanComment_toNOSB.pdf
3. Tobacman, J. Review of Harmful Gastrointestinal Effects of Carrageenan in Animal Experiments. Environmental Health Perspectives. Oct 2001, 109(10): 983-994. http://www.cornucopia.org/DrTobacmanComment_toNOSB.pdf
4. Choi HJ, et al. Pro-inflammatory NF-kB and early growth response gene 1 regulate epithelial barrier disruption by food additive carrageenan in human intestinal epithelial cells. Toxicol Lett. Jun 20, 2012;211(3):289-95. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22561171
5. Bhattacharyya S, et al. Exposure to the common food additive carrageenan leads to glucose intolerance, insulin resistance and inhibition of insulin signaling in HepG2 cells and C57BL/6J mice. Diabetologia. 2012 Jan;55(1):194-203. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22011715
