Carrageenan, the Dark Side of Chocolate Milk

What is carrageenan? Is there a connection between carrageenan and cancer?

You take the perfect thing like milk and you combine it with another perfect think like chocolate and what results is awesomeness by the glassful. So why do things that we love so much have ingredients that are so hard to pronounce? Does anyone remember their Mom adding carrageenan to their chocolate milk?

First of all, what is carrageenan? It is actually in the family of gums derived from plants (which differ from gelatins, “think protein” derived from animals) which “are complex carbohydrates, long chains of sugar molecules (polysaccharides) that have the ability to absorb liquid in an amount that is many times their volume” (Joachim & Schloss, 2008). Carrageenan is widely used as a thickening agent because it can attract water, can be ethically harvested, has excellent properties for industrial food processing plants and is pretty cheap.





Carrageenan in food is actually not new, it has been around for hundreds of years because of where and how humans have developed it as a natural resource. Carrageenan Moss also known as “Irish Moss” or Chondrus Crispus is a type of seaweed. Its job in seaweed is to help hold the plant erect while yet allowing it to be flexible as it gets tossed about in the surf. The carrageenan in plant cells improves the strength of the plant fibers without allowing it to break—think of a water bed. As mentioned above, it is among the most ethically harvested crop produced by small aquaculture farmers because it does not require soil to be tilled or fresh water to cultivate this plant (FMC Corporation). The Chinese have been recorded to use it as far back as 600 BC (Bechtel, 2012) and it also appears to be a long standing part of Irish culinary tradition.

Modern uses for carrageenan in food includes veggie burgers, soy milk, beer, ice cream and yes, chocolate milk. Here is why: “In industry they [gums like carrageenan] are highly valued because they have the ability to thin under pressure and then return to their original viscosity, a quality that makes them ideal for being pumped through factory pipelines without losing their thickening abilities” (Joachim & Schloss, 2008).





When Scooter was a baby, he showed allergies to milk—pasteurized homogenized feed lot milk to be exact. He was a breast fed baby so he was fine with real milk and likely would have been fine on raw milk, but we were not including that as a part of our family’s diet then. However, he did well on soy milk, so the-ever-thrifty-Chaya decided that we could save some money if we bought a plant milk maker to make soy milk, almond milk, hazelnut milk, etc. No matter how hard we tried or what recipe we followed, our final product never came out like the store bought stuff—why not? It lacked the wonder additive carrageenan.

If you have ever eaten sushi, then you have likely had seaweed, so what is the big deal? It turns out that there is much discussion and some disagreement on this food additive. It is “natural” and even has been accepted as being organic. The disagreement surfaces around the nexus between carrageenan and cancer. Just when you thought that there was not one more thing that could cause cancer, carrageenan gets thrown under the bus—but wait . . .

It turns out that carrageenan comes in three main classes (kappa, iota, and lambda) and two clear types diverge from there: degraded and undegraded. This is where the food label conscious consumer needs to keep a sharp eye out for how the words get parsed. The neigh-sayers for carrageenan claim that the degraded variety can cause inflammation (a red flag precursor for cancer) and has been linked to show that it causes colon cancer in lab rats. Degraded carrageenan is basically short chain polysaccharides. Where have we seen this before? Corn sugar is not bad, but when you break long chain corn sugar into short chain high fructose corn syrup—all kinds of bad things happen in the body.





On the pro side of carrageenan are some heavyweights like Stoneyfield Organic, the FDA, the independent scientists of the Joint Food, the Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) (Lundgren, 2012). The above group clearly draws the line between degraded (not used in food) and undegraded (approved for use in food) as the link between carrageenan and cancer. The plot thickens (pun intended) . . .

Concerns about carrageenan have centered on the “degraded” type which is distinguished from the “undegraded” type by its lower molecular weight. Most of the studies linking carrageenan to cancer and other gastrointestinal disorders have focused on degraded carrageenan. But Dr. Tobacman thinks that undegraded carrageenan – the kind most widely used as a food additive – might also be associated with malignancies and other stomach problems. She suggests that such factors as bacterial action, stomach acid and food preparation may transform undegraded carrageenan into the more dangerous degraded type (Weil , 2002).

We have clearly made the line between degraded (clearly bad) and undegraded (bad?) carrageenan in food sources, yet that above quote seems rather indicting to carrageenan altogether. So what else can be said about the transformation of carrageenan from undegraded to degraded inside the gut—is this possible? Turns out that science has asked this question too, and here is a quote from Stoneyfield’s website:





Undegraded carrageenan resists degradation in the digestive tract, and is therefore unlikely to be absorbed by the intestine, according to a review of the toxicology literature on carrageenan conducted by Cohen and Ito in 2006.

“Because carrageenan is extracted from seaweeds under alkaline conditions, degradation to smaller polymerized polysaccharides is avoided. As long as the pH is maintained above 6.0, carrageenan is stable to heat processing. Once carrageenan is in the gel configuration, as is the case for its use in food systems, the carrageenan becomes highly resistant to degradation, even under more acidic conditions, such as occur in the stomach (see Section 1.2.3).” They go on to state, “Carrageenan ingested in the gel form (either as a homogenous carrageenan gel or one consisting of a carrageenan /protein gel from a meat or a dairy food) is also stable to the conditions of passage through the digestive tract (Abraham et al., 1972; Benitz et al., 1973; Arakawa et al., 1988; Weiner, 1988). Because of its large molecular weight, carrageenan remains within the lumen of the digestive tract and is not absorbed (Weiner, 1988; 1991). Thus, there are no systemic effects of carrageenan following ingestion by rats, mice, or monkeys.” [Emphasis Stoneyfield] (Lundgren, 2012).

It becomes much more clear now. Milk is acidic (lactic acid) and the stomach is definitely acidic (hydrochloric acid), so the PH seems to be within tolerance and the gut will not transform the carrageenan from undegraded to degraded as was hypothesized by Dr. Tobacman. However, there are those who are against carrageenan getting a “free pass” (Bechtel, 2012). Juxtapose that with other supporters like the website Carageenan.info and you have another conflict of claims. However, the science above settles it for me.

So why do I personally not want to drink chocolate milk with carrageenan in it? Let us look at these three labels for Trickling Springs Organic Chocolate Milk, Trickling Springs Natural Chocolate Milk and Nesquik respectively:





If you look at the Natural chocolate milk and the Nesquik® you see that they both contain carrageenan. Hmmmmmm, and then you look at the label on the left that says the organic chocolate milk does not have carrageenan in it—wait, I thought that carrageenan was approved for organic foods?





Here is a little secret, Trickling Springs Creamery out of Chambersburg, PA (and other responsible dairies like this) is a commercial grass fed dairy farm. Their creamline style milk (the label on the left) is as lightly pasteurized as the law will allow and usually has a big head of cream on it, while their “natural” style milk (label in the center) is pasteurized and homogenized. This organic grass fed milk is loaded with the fat soluble activators that makes grass fed milk nutritionally superior, thick and naturally creamy to boot. So why do I not drink chocolate milk with carrageenan in it anymore? Because grass fed cow’s milk does not need to be thickened—the carrageenan is unnecessary. You can always take raw milk (where legal) and Frontier Cocoa Powder and have the best chocolate milk ever!

Wilson

Pro Deo et Patria





Addendum: My whole argument above concludes that the organic milk does not need to have carrageenan in it because the milk is better off as a raw product and does not need a thickening agent. I recently had a reader look up the Trickling Springs Creamery labels and find that the organic chocolate milk ingredients list does have carrageenan. “Please advise” the reader wrote. While I have had this milk and have enjoyed it, I did not notice that TSC has added carrageenan now making my above statements only true on the date that I wrote this blog one year ago. I was glad that someone took the time to fact-check my work, but I was disappointed to find out that the organic version does include carrageenan. I have not heard back from TSC on why this is so. –Wilson Nov 2013







Proviso:

Nothing in this blog constitutes medical advice. You should consult your own physician before making any dietary changes. Statements in this blog may or may not be congruent with current USDA or FDA guidance.

Photo Credits:

Chocolate Milk is from http://www.tricklingspringscreamery.com/products/milk/chocolate-milk

Chondrus Crispus is from http://www.carrageenan.info/Home.aspx

Composition photograph contains nutrition labels from Trickling Springs Creamery http://www.tricklingspringscreamery.com/products and Nesquick http://www.nesquik.com/adults/products/nesquikreadytodrink/chocolate.aspx#. The picture of the Chondrus Crispus is from http://www.carrageenan.info/Home.aspx





Works Cited:

Joachim, D., & Schloss, A. (2008). The science of good food. (p. 292). Toronto: Robert Rose.

FMC Corporation. (n.d.). Carrageenan (seaweed extract): Setting the record straight. Retrieved from http://www.carrageenan.info/ClaimsvsFacts.aspx

BECHTEL, J. (2012, March 17). Carrageenan: A food additive that’s not as safe as you think. Retrieved from http://blog.healthkismet.com/carrageenan-cancer-health-inflammation

Joachim, D., & Schloss, A. (2008). The science of good food. (p. 293). Toronto: Robert Rose.

Lundgren, B. (2012, June 01). The question of carrageenan safety. Retrieved from http://www.stonyfield.com/blog/2012/06/01/carrageenan-safety/

Weil , A. (2002, MAR 21). Can carrageenan in some soy milk cause cancer? [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA44833

Lundgren, B. (2012, June 01). The question of carrageenan safety. Retrieved from http://www.stonyfield.com/blog/2012/06/01/carrageenan-safety/

BECHTEL, J. (2012, March 17). Carrageenan: A food additive that’s not as safe as you think. Retrieved from http://blog.healthkismet.com/carrageenan-cancer-health-inflammation