This common food additive may be killing you

Carrageenan.

Are you a label reader? If not, it’s time to get started.

Spending just a few more minutes in the grocery every visit scanning labels may actually not only save you money on your bill, but also save you massive amounts of the same on your health bills later on.

What is Carrageenan? Derived from seaweed or red algae, this food additive is as ubiquitous as your ex during Carnival season - and you will find it used in foods as an emulsifier, binder or thickening agent as it has no other real nutritional purpose. You may think that seaweed is good for you and as it’s derived from the superfood, it should also be beneficial to your diet when in fact, it may be sending you to your grave.

It’s been linked to:

• Large bowel ulceration

• Ulcerative colitis

• Foetal toxicity & birth defects

• Colorectal cancer

• Glucose intolerance and insulin resistance

• Inflammation

• Liver cancer

• Immune suppression

• Promoting the growth of abnormal colon glands, which are precursors to polyps

But there are conflicting studies and the history of the additive has been one of near bans followed by prevailing conditions of approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other organisations. In 2016, however, the US National Organics Standards Board did vote to have it removed from the list of additives allowed in organic foods (after first allowing it in the early 1990’s)

According to The Cornucopia Institute, “Animal studies have repeatedly shown that food-grade carrageenan causes gastrointestinal inflammation and higher rates of intestinal lesions, ulcerations, and even malignant tumors.” But a 2014 article published in the journal Critical Reviews in Toxicology pointed out that “due to its molecular weight, carrageenan is not significantly absorbed or metabolised by our bodies, which basically means that it flows through your GI tract like most other fibers and is excreted in your feces.”

Studies on food additives, however, are immensely difficult to control when you think about it. For example, seaweed and red algae are not uniformly created in the first place so that each creation of carrageenan will also vary. Studies of the substance are also done on rats and pigs and yield very different results for each species. Additionally, administering it via food, or via water or via intravenous blood dosages will also all yield different results. There are also two types of carrageenan: Undegraded is approved for human consumption while degraded (also known as poligeenan) is not.

In 2001, Dr Joanne Tobacman, author of a full study on the additive, pointed out in the official journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the following, “The widespread use of carrageenan in the Western diet should be reconsidered” due to evidence that “exposure to undegraded as well as to degraded carrageenan was associated with the occurrence of intestinal ulcerations and neoplasms.”

So where will you find this commonly?

Everything from dairy including whipping cream, chocolate milk, ice cream, sour cream, cottage cheese, squeezable yogurt to dairy alternatives including soy milk, almond milk, hemp milk, coconut milk, soy desserts, soy pudding as well as in sliced turkey (and it’s even used to clarify beer).

Best advice? Skip it. As always if the food you are eating isn’t Close to Source (C2S), avoid it and honour yourself and your body with some actual seaweed punch - just skip the milk if it’s not fresh or make your own almond milk.