Carcinogen in your Milk Substitute? VERY likely.

Many people are using milk substitutes as a "healthy" alternative to dairy.

And some of you might even be thinking "what's wrong with dairy now?" In my opinion, dairy milk is not necessarily bad- ideally, if we could drink it in its raw form it might even be beneficial, but since our laws don't allow it in most states, we have to do with pasteurized milk, which depletes a lot of the necessary enzymes in milk that help digest its proteins.  This leads to many more people being intolerant or sensitive to dairy.

So now you are probably drinking coconut, rice, soy, almond or hemp milk.

Better for you, right?

According to a new report – WRONG!

Before I get into it, if you’re drinking any sort of milk substitute, go grab it and look for this ingredient: Carrageenan.

What Is Carrageenan?
Carrageenan is a common ingredient in the majority of milk substitutes, baby formulas, cottage cheese, and even some flavored coconut waters! It’s used as a stabilizer and/or emulsifier.

There are 2 “classes” of Carrageenan: "food safe" and approved and "non-food-safe" or non-approved.

The Research Studies and Its Findings
There has been plenty of published, peer-reviews literature in the scientific community for decades showing that non-food-safe carrageenan is inflammatory and carcinogenic in lab animals.  In fact, non-food safe carrageenan was listed as a “possible human carcinogen” by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer in 1983.

While it is well established that non-food-safe carrageenan is harmful, there have also been concerns with food-grade carrageenan dating back to the late 1970s! In fact, there are studies (including industry-funded studies) showing food-grade carrageenan is also linked to colon inflammation and colon cancer in animals. What?!?!

Additionally, some studies are reporting that “food-grade” carrageenan can degrade in the gastrointestinal tract to the same molecular weight/structure as non-food-grade carrageenan.

Lastly and sadly... it doesn’t matter whether the product is organic or not (Carrageenan was approved for use in organics in 1995 and re-approved in 2008). !@#$%???

How is a Known Carcinogen Allowed in Organic Food?
Recently, the Cornucopia Institute released a Video as well as a PDF Report outlining some upsetting practices between the USDA and NOSA (National Organic Standards Board (the agency regulating
organic food)).

The report shows the timeline of events, lack of regulation, and down right shadiness that all led up to carrageenan’s approval. They show you the series of situations where companies that profit from these ingredients were some of the only reviewers involved in the decision. It’s easy to understand how this can happen, now that organic food companies are being bought by major conventional food companies left and right.

So, What is One to Do?
It just seems like there is too much controversy around carrageenan, and too much risk that it could cause colon inflammation and colon cancer, so I am steering clear of carrageenan.

Check out these major brands that use Carrageenan:

Blue Diamond
Carnation
Horizon
Pacific
Silk (Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk does not have it)
So Delicious
Starbucks
Tempt
Zico

So read your ingredients list closely and stay away from carrageenan, or better yet?

Make it yourself!! 

Next week I will give you the SUPER simple recipe to make your own Almond Milk- it turns out SOOOO delicious, you'll never want store bought again! :)

Stay tuned!!!