What's All This Talk About Carageenan?

As part of my recent clean eating change, I've been paying a lot more attention to the ingredients on food labels. Well, since I've been eating more cleanly, the nice thing is that I've been eating a lot more foods that don't have labels. Think about it: when you eat an apple, the only ingredient is...apple. Pretty nice. (Of course, we're assuming it's an organic apple and you've washed it...there's always a way to complicate these things...)

 

Apple. Ingredients: Apple. Brilliant!

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But when you are eating something with a label, it shouldn't come as a surprise that you should probably be able to recognize the ingredients for it to have a chance of being good for you.

I've been drinking a lot (A LOT) of almond milk lately. In my morning oatmeal/quinoa, in my iced coffee, in my smoothies...I buy like three containers at a time of this amazing stuff. When planning out how to start my clean eating switchover, my aunt (who is an amazing healthy lifestyle guru! Seriously, check her out!) warned me to make sure that I bought a nut milk labeled "Shake Well" since this would probably indicate it didn't contain carageenan.

 

There you are, Carageenan (Carrageenan?)! Now, what are you?

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Car(r)ageenan? What's that? We can't even seem to agree on how to spell it. That should raise some eyebrows right there. According to prevention.com, it's a natural ingredient derived from seaweed. You're thinking, great, it's natural...no big deal, right? Wrong. Apparently, this carageenan stuff has been linked to inflammation, gut irritation, and even cancer. So now the healthy almond milk people are out to get me?! That's what it feels like.

 

I'm looking at you, Almond Breeze.

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Carageenan is pretty much only added to nut milks to keep the ingredients mixed. How lazy do you have to be to not be able to shake a container of almond milk?! Seriously. Shake your own almond milk or drink a carcinogen almost daily? Pretty sure I can handle shaking a box of almond milk.

What's the lesson here? CYL! Check Yo Labels! I know it seems like there is a new killer ingredient written about everyday, but when it's so easy to avoid something potentially harmful, why wouldn't you?

Here are some more articles on this creepy ingredient:

Harmful or Harmless: Carageenan

The Natural Ingredient You Should Ban From Your Diet

Is Carageenan Safe?

Want to just scrap it all, become a pioneer person, and make your own almond milk? Go right ahead. Just to let you know, making your own almond milk will probably involve buying a nut milk bag. Which is both a real thing and a hilarious to say out loud.

xoxo,
E