I avoid products with carrageenan, due to what I've read about its effects on the gut, for example:
"...A recent publication[16] indicates that carrageenan induces inflammation in human intestinal epithelial cells in tissue culture through a BCL10-mediated pathway that leads to activation of NFkappaB and IL-8. Carrageenan may be immunogenic due to its unusual alpha-1,3-galactosidic link that is part of its disaccharide unit structure. Consumption of carrageenan may have a role in intestinal inflammation and possibly inflammatory bowel disease, since BCL10 resembles NOD2, mutations of which are associated with genetic proclivity to Crohn's Disease..."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrageenan
I hadn't eaten in a restaurant for years, because they don't tell you what's in the food and also because there was a time several years ago when I always developed a food poisoning type of problem when I ate at restaurants. Recently, I decided to do an "experiment." I took a spoon that was sealed in plastic and ate two scoops of ice cream at a local restaurant. Just about all ice cream here in the USA now has carrageenan in it, and this gives it a thick, "smooth," and almost spongy quality. The ice cream I used to eat, without any such "binders," had a very different consistency. The ice cream I ate at the restaurant was very spongy and thick. Not long after leaving the restaurant, I noticed that my throat felt like it can after having some acid reflux, but it persisted until the next day. The next day I had to run to the bathroom - my body wanted this stuff out of me, apparently. I did nothing, nor ate nothing different, other than going to this restaurant and eating two scoops of ice cream. I was quite surprised there was such a noticeable reaction, but I'm certainly glad I've been avoiding carrageenan. |
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