- Carrageenan Might Be
- Causing Stomach Aches
- From Patricia Doyle, PhD
- 12-21-6
-
-
-
- Hello, Jeff -- I bought a quart of eggnog for the Holidays
and thought I would snoop around the ingredients. After I had earlier purchased
the Caltrate and found that Caltrate might be better in my car engine than
my stomach, I began looking at ingredients in various other products. Like
my eggnog.
-
- I found that this Southern Comfort eggnog contains things
like Carrageenan. So, I looked up Carrageenan and this is what I found.
It is a very good article for people who think that drinking soy milk or
other milk products is good for their health.
-
- STOMACH ACHES CAUSED BY CARRAGEENAN
-
- From NotMilk.com
-
- 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.
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- IS CARRAGEENAN REALLY NATURAL?
-
- Carrageenan is about as wholesome as monosodium glutamate
(MSG), which is extracted from rice, and can equally be considered natural.
Aspartame (NutraPoison) is also natural, as it is extracted from decayed
plant matter that has been underground for millions of years (oil). So
too are many other substances such as carrageenan that can also be classified
by FDA and USDA as wholesome and natural food additives.
-
- Just because something comes from a natural source does
not mean that it is safe. The small black dots in the eyes of potatoes
contain substances that are instantly fatal if eaten. Got poison? You will
if you eat the black dots on the "eyes" of potatoes.
-
- 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.
-
- High weight molecular carrageenans are considered to
be safe, and were given GRAS status (safe for human consumption) by the
FDA. Low weight carrageenans are considered to be dangerous. Even SILK
admits this.
-
- In order to get more information about carrageenan from
a scientist, I spoke with one of America carrageenan experts, Joanne Tobacman,
M.D. Dr. Tobacman teaches clinical internal medicine at the University
of Iowa College of Medicine. I explained to Dr. Tobacman that I rejected
animal studies (we discussed valid concerns about animal research, and
why they never produce reliable results for humans). I requested evidence
of human trials that might show carrageenan to be a danger for human consumption.
-
- Dr. Tobacman shared studies with me that demonstrate
that digestive enzymes and bacterial action convert high weight carrageenans
to dangerous low molecular weight carrageenans and poligeenans in the human
gut. These carrageenans have been linked to various human cancers and digestive
disorders. Again, I remind you that Tobacman's evidence and conclusions
are based upon human tissue samples, not animal studies.
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- I will cite additional information from four studies:
-
- 1) Filament Disassembly and Loss of Mammary Myoepithelial
Cells after Exposure to Carrageenan, Joanne Tobacman, Cancer Research,
57, 2823-2826, July 15, 1997
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- 2) Carrageenan-Induced Inclusions in Mammary Mycoepithelial
Cells, Joanne Tobacman, MD, and Katherine Walters, BS, Cancer Detection
and Prevention, 25(6): 520-526 (2001)
-
- 3) Consumption of Carrageenan and Other Water-soluble
Polymers Used as Food Additives and Incidence of Mammary Carcinoma, J.
K. Tobacman, R. B. Wallace, M. B. Zimmerman, Medical Hypothesis (2001),
56(5), 589-598
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- 4) Structural Studies on Carrageenan Derived Oligisaccharides,
Guangli Yu, Huashi Guan, Alexandra Ioanviciu, Sulthan Sikkander, Charuwan
Thanawiroon, Joanne Tobacman, Toshihiko Toida, Robert Linhardt, Carbohydrate
Research, 337 (2002), 433-440
-
- In her 1997 publication (1), Tobacman studied the effect
of carrageenan on the growth of cultured human mammary epithelial cells
over a two week period. She found that extremely low doses of carrageenan
disrupted the internal cellular architecture of healthy breast tissue,
leading her to conclude:
-
- "The widely used food additive, carrageenan has
marked effects on the growth and characteristics of human mammary myoepithelial
cells in tissue cultures at concentrations much less than those frequently
used in food products to improve solubility."
-
- Tobacman continued her work by exposing low concentrations
of carrageenan for short intervals to human breast tissue (2), and observed
pathological alterations in cellular membranes and intracellular tissues.
Tobacman wrote:
-
- "These changes included prominence of membrane-
associated vesicles that coalesced to form unusual petal-like arrays...and
development of stacked rigid-appearing inclusions in the lysosomes that
arose from the membranes of the petal-like arrays and from smaller, dense
spherical bodies that formed clumps."
-
- In reporting a historical perspective, Tobacman revealed
that carrageenan has been found to destroy other human cells in tissue
cultures, including epithelial intestinal cells and prostate cells. She
concludes:
-
- "The association between exposure to low concentrations
of carrageenan in tissue culture and destruction of mammary myoepithelial
cells may be relevant to the occurrance of invasive mammary malignancy
in vivo and provides another approach to investigation of mammary carcinoma."
-
- Tobacman's third paper (3) explored the increased incidence
of mammary carcinoma to the increased consumption of stabilizers and additives
such as guar gum, pectin, xanthan, and carrageenan. While no relationship
between the either above named additives and cancer was observed, carrageenan
showed a strong positive.
-
- Although high molecular weight carrageenans are considered
to be safe, Tobacman demonstrates that low molecular weight carrageenans
are carcinogenic. She writes:
-
- "Acid hydrolysis (digestion) leads to shortening
of the carrageenan polymer to the degraded form, poligeenan. It is not
unreasonable to speculate that normal gastric acid...may act upon ingested
carrageenan and convert some of which is ingested to the lower molecular
weight poligeenan during the actual process of digestion. Also, some intestinal
bacteria possess the enzyme carrageenase that degrades carrageenan."
-
- Tobacman's 2002 publication (4) proves her earlier hypothesis.
She writes:
-
- "Mild-acid hydrolytic depolymerization of carrageenan
affords poligeenan, a mixture of lower molecular weight polysaccharides
and oligosaccharide products."
-
- Tobacman is currently preparing and characterizing low
molecular weight poligeenans (carcinogenic) that have been extracted from
human digestion modalities. Her yet-to-be published data suggest that carrageenans
are dangerous for human consumption.
-
- My advice: Read labels. If there is carrageenan in a
product, select an alternative.
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