Should Carrageenan In Food Be Avoided?

What Is Carrageenan And Why Is It In Your Food?

This substance is extracted from a red seaweed and added to various foods because it improves food texture and makes it thicker and creamier. Carrageenan is also added to drinks like non-dairy milk, shakes, and soups to prevent ingredients from separating (which is a common problem with low-fat products). Additionally this additive falls in the group of gelling agents, emulsifiers and stabilizers.

What Does Food Industry Say?

The US Food and Drug Administration made the following conclusion about carrageenan in 1973:

“While no evidence in the available information on undegraded carrageenan demonstrates a hazard to the public when it is used at levels that are now current and in the manner now practiced, uncertainties exist requiring that additional studies should be conducted.”

This sounds confusing to me. First of all, what levels of carrageenan were consumed in 1973 and what levels are consumed now? Because of population growth and a slight economic growth, the rate of carrageenan consumption is expected to grow by five to seven percent per year.

I don’t know about you, but I just don’t feel comfortable eating something that could be potentially dangerous for my health, certainly when eaten in larger quantitoes. I prefer to eat food which is safe and can even have health benefits ( which is the case with fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds).

Just think about it for a second, imagine how many manufacturers profit from carrageenan or its use in foods and beverages. So it’s natural that their powerful lobby groups will fight for continued FDA approval.

Can You Assume That This Additive Is Safe Because It Is Plant-Derived?

Unfortunately, research has shown that this popular ingredient can lead to multiple health problems. Most of those are related to the digestive organs. Carrageenan researcher Joanne Tobacman MD, associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Illinois School of Medicine at Chicago, explains that Carrageenan can cause inflammation which could further cause ulcers, bleeding and ultimately even cancer. If you are interested in researching this topic deeper you will find a large number of studies which all concluded that there is the link between carrageenan and induced inflammatory response.

Of course the symptoms vary, since we are not all equally sensitive and do not intake the same amount of this food additive on a daily basis. If you have some of the symptoms like bloating, diarrhea, and stomach cramps, you should  try to avoid all carrageenan-containing food  and see if your symptoms will improve.

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Even the absence of noticeable gastrointestinal symptoms does not mean that you are unaffected by carrageenan simply because low-grade inflammation may go unnoticed. Every day more and more people complain about food sensitivities and the first thing they should eliminate from their diets are unsafe food additives, carrageenan being one of them.

Even if most of the researches have been conducted on animals, I think that results are strong enough that we should be aware of the potential dangers of this food ingredient.

So What Should You Do About Carrageenan?

Naturally you will need to avoid all the foods that contain carrageenan.

The first thing you will have to do is start reading food labels. This could be time consuming at first, but when you determine which food brands do not contain this ingredient, your grocery shopping will be much easier and faster.

This is a list of the foods that could contain carrageenan:

• Non-dairy milk (Coconut, Almond, Soy, Oat, Rice and Hemp milk),
• Non-dairy yogurt, Cheese alternatives,
• Vegan and Vegetarian desserts (puddings, ice creams, chocolate milk),
• Frozen dinners (pizza) and
• Regular dairy products (mostly low fat options) like cottage cheese, yogurt, kefir, sour cream,
• Deli meats,
• Canned soup and broths,
• Beer,
• Dips,
• Juices.

From this list we can conclude that even the products which are targeted for people who want to eat healthy (organic foods)  are actually problematic.

For most of these products, you can find a brand that does not add carrageenan, but the healthiest solution is to prepare foods by yourself, which means that you will need to prepare soups, meals, and desserts from scratch. This option is great because that way you will avoid carrageenan as well as many other unhealthy ingredients.

READ What Foods to Avoid and Why

Simple Recipes To Get You Started

Salad dressing - You need to combine extra virgin olive oil and your favorite vinegar or lemon juice plus salt and black pepper. That’s the basic form of the dressing, then you can add mustard and honey or sour cream and mayonnaise. Fresh or dried herbs can just add a flavor, and you can’t go wrong.

Quick soup - One of my personal favorites is broccoli soup. All you need to do is boil broccoli flowers in very little water. Then pour the broccoli and water in the blender, add spices and sour cream.

Pasta sauce - When you have fresh ripe tomatoes, you just need to take skin off the tomato and blend it together with some feta cheese.

Almond Milk - Basically you need to leave almonds covered with water over night, and then blend everything together in the morning.

Deli meats can be substituted with cold cuts (you just need to plan and prepare more meat the day before, so you can make sandwiches or salads the next day)

Juices - The only type of juices that you should drink are freshly squeezed juice or smoothies prepared in the blender.

Carrageenan can also be found  in many non-food products like toothpaste, cosmetics, air fresheners, paints, shoe polish and even your pet is not safe since it can be found in pet food too.

Second, you can speak up. When manufacturers get multiple complaints about carrageenan they will take action; they are completely dependent on their customers and buyers. You can also inform all the people around you about this potentially very dangerous food ingredient.