Why would the average consumer decide to switch to organic food? Typical reasons include food of higher quality that is hopefully more nutritious although conventional produce grown locally and picked at the peak of ripeness would no doubt rival the nutrition of organic produce picked early and shipped long distances. Consumers also generally assume that any food labeled as USDA Organic will not contain any dangerous ingredients or chemicals like carrageenan.
After all, buying certified organic food is still the only way to avoid genetically modified ingredients as GMOs are regularly slipped into healthfoods labeled as “natural” and even those containing organic ingredients but less than 70% organic overall.
Based on these assumptions, consumers would likely be surprised and even shocked to learn that a likely human carcinogen that triggers massive gastointestinal inflammation and symptoms in many people continues to be allowed by the National Organics Standards Board (NOSB) for inclusion on the list of ingredients permitted in certified organic food – food bearing the USDA Organic label!
This dangerous ingredient, carrageenan, which most consumers are unaware is lurking in so many of their beloved organic products, seems harmless enough at first glance.
Derived from seaweed, carrageenan is a highly processed food additive that has no nutritional function whatsoever.
What it does do is act as a fat replacer or stabilizer in certain types of dairy products, commercial dairy substitutes like soy milk, coconut milk, hemp seed milk, almond milk, and other processed foods.
As you can see, buying lowfat is not a good idea and not just for the fact that you are losing the valuable whole fats that satiate and steady the blood sugar. Â By opting for lowfat or alternative dairy products, consumers are choosing instead to consume a toxic additive that is a likely carcinogen!
Carrageenan a Potential Carcinogen
Even Dr. Andrew Weil has been telling people about carrageenan dangers since 2002.
Carrageenan is so toxic and inflaming to the human digestive system that this food additive is formally classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (part of the World Health Organization) as a potential human carcinogen.
Scientists first discovered that carrageenan causes gut inflammation as far back as the 1960’s. Â Inflammation is a very serious condition as it is a primary symptom in IBS, Crohn’s Disease, ulcerative colitis, and colon cancer as well as dozens of other diseases.
The hype from the carrageenan industry claims that “food grade” carrageenan is different from the low molecular weight, i.e., degraded carrageenan that is toxic to human cells.
This spin fails to mention that not a single sample of products containing carrageenan that were tested could be said to be free of the degraded form. Some samples contained as much as 25% low molecular weight carrageenan. This testing was conducted as part of a 2003 ruling by the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Food which required that a maximum of 5% degraded carrageenan be contained in a processed food which includes the additive.
Another problem is that research available since the early 1980’s indicated that even food grade carrageenan is probably converted during the digestive process to the degraded, highly toxic form. Â More recent research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), pinpointed the exact metabolic process by which carrageenan triggers inflammation. Â Shockingly, this biological event was found to mirror the way pathogenic bacteria such as salmonella wreak havoc in the gut.
The takeaway for consumers from this very discouraging NOSB ruling is to not take anything for granted just because a product is labeled USDA Organic. Â It still could be extremely damaging to your health!
Avoiding lowfat dairy and processed dairy substitutes is a very wise course of action. If you have a dairy allergy, learn to easily make healthy milk substitutes at home that are free of carrageenan dangers!
Be aware that most commercial pet food is loaded with carrageenan too. Check the labels to be sure your furry friends don’t suffer from its unhealthy effects as well.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources and More Information
The Cultivator, News from the Cornucopia Institute, Summer 2012
What about carageenan in aloe? To be applied topically?
if undgraded carrageenan is also toxic, is eating cooked irish moss also not good? from what i could gather, it was traditionally used as food and as an herbal remedy.
here is one site that discusses it:
http://www.complete-herbal.com/details/irishmoss.htm
What about proteins powder? Almost all major proteins consist of Carrageenan.
Carrageenan is awful. I would never knowingly eat it. It causes my stomach to swell up. It also gives me esophagitis. It’s getting harder and harder to find good food. The food companies don’t care about people’s health. I wish I lived on a farm.
Unfortunately, this sensationalism is hitting the presses again. Carrageenan isn’t a carcinogen. If you look up the real toxicology studies you would see there’s no incidence of carcinogenicity. Unfortunately many people read sensational articles like this and make issue with something they don’t know about. I guess you should all start to eat nothing but fresh foods and spare yourself the carcinogens.
Thank you April! It’s so refreshing to see a post from someone who hasn’t bought into the propaganda hype. I applaud you.
So, I read your blog very very often, but have never commented. I’m in transition to almost full WAPF. At any rate, below is my email communication with Horizon after a stomach upset from their whipping cream. Its long, but just proves AGAIN their “wolves in sheep’s skin” mode of operation.
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To Horizon:
Dear customer service rep assigned to read this comment or question. In the last two years I have made the switch to organic milk products and recently began purchasing a (mostly) local unhomogenized low-temp past. milk to make kefir with. You see, I’m lactose in tolerant, and until I began making Kefir, milk was not an option for me. Well, I got the BRILLIANT idea recently to make kefired cream. So, I scurried to the grocery store and bought some Horizon Whipping Cream. I am a label reader, but since I have always TRUSTED Horizon (up until this point), why should I bother? After all, its the best option short of going to a farm! (Or so I THOUGHT!) Anyhow, I was very disappointed when my yummy kefired cream gave me stomach upset just like “regular” milk products!! UGH! I pushed through and thought it was just the high fat content (even though I can down butter oil and coconut oil with NO ill effect.) Round two, I bought more Horizon cream yesterday and made another batch of kefired cream. It was delicious on top of my peaches by the way, but I am currently experiencing stomach upset. SO, I googled your product and read the label, only to find out you put Carrageenan in it! I had no idea what this was, so I looked it up. Here is my question, do YOU people even know what this is?? Sure, it makes products nice and thick and keeps liquids from separating, but do you KNOW that it has been linked to all KINDS of illnesses?? It is extremely difficult to digest and can cause symptoms similar to LACTOSE INTOLERANCE!!! You can’t imagine the anger at Horizon I had at the same time as the relief that I probably CAN after all consume kefired cream as LONG as it doesn’t have Carrageenan in it.
I am ever sadened by the state of food in the western world today. I just want real food, people! GOOD nourishing food! And I want to make the compromise of getting that food conveniently at the grocery store when I don’t have time to truck it to a FARM 30 miles away for $10 a pint!! So, please, please please. Tell me WHY you put Carrageenan in your products? And will you, for one person, stop it?
Thank you,
Ashley from Texas
______________________________________________
From: Horizon Organic
To: —————
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2013 6:00 PM
Subject: Our Response to Your Email
Thank you for your recent e-mail to Horizon Organic®. We appreciate your interest in our products.
Carrageenan is a naturally occurring thickener derived from red seaweed. It is also known as chondrus extract or Irish moss. There are two different types of carrageenan, food-grade and degraded. Silk® Soymilk uses only food-grade carrageenan as a natural thickening agent. It is used in many other food products such as cottage and cream cheeses, pie fillings, chocolate products, ice cream and salad dressings, among others. Degraded carrageenan is never used as a food ingredient.
Recently there has been some negative press on the safety of carrageenan. An article published in 2001 by Joanne Tobacman, a researcher at the University of Iowa, claimed that carrageenan may cause lesions or cancer in the gastro intestinal tract (Tobacman: Env. Health Per., Vol. 109, No. 10, Oct 2001). However, the Tobacman study was performed using only degraded carrageenan, not food-grade carrageenan, an entirely different substance.
A review of existing scientific literature indicates that food-grade carrageenan is safe for all food uses. It is neither toxic nor carcinogenic. Horizon products contain only the highest quality food-grade carrageenan available. We will continue to use only natural and safe ingredients in all of our products.
We hope this information is helpful.
Sincerely,
Adrian Machuca
Consumer Response Representative
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I’m thankful for your quick response, but I’m not buying it. Not buying your product OR your story that it is “safe.” I understand that science is behind your company’s decisions to use this additive, but science is sometimes faulty, and more often, subsidized and biased.
On a side note, as a former customer service representative and current teacher, please make sure your response matches the original inquiry. I was referencing Horizon Whipping Cream. No where did I mention Silk soymilk.
-Ashley
Hi Ashley,
The problem is that carrageenan is basically sulfated galactose.
That’s why people with lactose intolerance may have problems with it. The costumer service’s answer was indeed bad, because they should know that.
However, carrageenan isn’t a carcinogen, in fact it has even anti-carcinogen properties! But maybe the animal gelatine indutry likes to finance studies that carrageenan is bad. That’s dirty science, nothing else.
Carrageenan is in fact very healthy, at least for people without lactose intolerance. The anti-cancer property of seaweed is in fact one of the main reasons for the low cancer rate in Japan (altough they eat a lot of fish poisoned with a lot of carcinogens, they don’t get cancer!).
And no, there are no “unhealthy” seaweed, that’s BS. All edible seaweed is very healthy, and it’s most funny that the less healthiest seaweed is called “Chlorella” and sold for very high prices to sick people, while the most healthiest seaweeds like Nori or Kombu or carrageean containing red algae are often not even mentioned by the health priests, that’s indeed stupid, the same as this article.
For some reasons mothers give lactose to their babies. However as adults we don’t need milk anymore, it has too much calcium. But seewead is still one of the most important and healthiest nurriture for adult humans, usually containing more magnesium than calcium and a lot of sulfated polysaccharides. In fact we all should eat a lot algae, many diseases would just vanish.
So now you can go to the food store and buy all products containing carrageenan as much as possible. And take some prebiotics against the lactose intolerance. Lactobacillus acidophilus should do it. 😉
Sincerely
I found it in Food Lion’s store bakery’s croissants. Unfortunately after eating one and I had throat closing event. What worries me is the fact that it’s a natural/inexpensive product so it’s being used like crazy. I never know if it is in restaurant food or wines in addition to it being in a product that is used in another food product……how far back in the process are food producers required to go to identify ingredients. I ate a ceasar salad at Panera Bread and within 10 minutes my tongue swelled. Is it carrageenan or yet another additive…..
I noticed recently that Tom’s toothpaste uses this ingredient and looked it up on their website. They claim that it’s all a misunderstanding. Naturally, I tend to err on the cautious side of things and believe they’re lying, but I would still like to hear thoughts?
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