Society has always had an objective and prudent attitude towards food additives, including one additive carrageenan, which has been controversial for decades, and even scientists have raised warnings calling for the prohibition of adding carrageenan to food.
Carrageenan has aroused widespread skepticism among scientists
Carrageenan is also known as unicorn gum, stone cauliflower gum, carrageenan, carrageenan, because carrageenan is a hydrophilic colloid extracted from red algae seaweeds such as unicorn, stone cauliflower, staghorn, etc., and is widely used in the production and processing of jelly, ice cream, pastries, fudge, canned, meat products, eight treasure porridge, white ear bird's nest, soup food, cold mix food and so on.
If you only look at the source of carrageenan, it seems to sound more natural, and the reason why scientists have such a skeptical view of the ingredient is also due to years of scientific research experiments. Among them, researchers have found that the intake of carrageenan stimulates gangrene factor-alpha (tnf-⍺), which stimulates and induces inflammation in the body, while also triggering some cell death. This process seriously interferes with the body's ability to resist harmful bacteria from the outside world, which is not conducive to the health of the immune system. In addition, many chronic inflammation-related diseases are also thought to be associated with (tnf-⍺), including asthma, immune system diseases, inflammatory enteritis (IBD) and even cancer.
Meanwhile, scientists and doctors from world-renowned universities such as the University of Chicago School of Medicine, Sorbonne University, University of Iowa, University of Liverpool, Michigan State University, Korea University Faculty College, Technion,University of Massachusetts School of Medicine, and other world-renowned institutions have called for a ban on the addition of carrageenan to food. An associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Illinois in Chicago once said, "Eating products containing carrageenan will obviously cause inflammation, and the amount of carrageenan used in food has been enough to cause such inflammation, and degradable and non-degradable carrageenan will be harmful." The PhD in Pathology from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom also proposed that "the use of carrageenan as a food additive in the consumer diet needs to be strictly vigilant." ”
In addition, independent scientists have proposed the need to reduce the content of degraded carrageenan in food grade carrageenan to less than 5% to ensure its safety, but few manufacturers can do this at present.
The dangers of carrageenan remain inconclusive
Even with so many scientists in the society, there is still no definitive answer to the harm of carrageenan. The European Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the US FDA, the US Department of Agriculture and other official agencies are still allowing the use of carrageenan, but no authoritative regulatory agency has come forward to clearly state that carrageenan is absolutely safe.
Many things are not absolute, even food-grade carrageenan (non-degradable carrageenan) is difficult to be completely pure, even a small part of the harmful debris residue, it is possible to cause more or less inflammation or harm to the eater, not to mention high acid, digestive enzymes, intestinal bacteria, high temperature and other environments, may convert a part of the food grade carrageenan into harmful degraded carrageenan.
These diametrically opposed arguments have also made the safety of carrageenan unpredictable again, and consumers have less judgment about the harm of carrageenan, which is also reminiscent of the debate about genetically modified foods. It is expected that in a short period of time, the controversy over carrageenan will continue, and the industrial production with carrageenan will not stop.
This is also a great inspiration for everyone, as far as possible to avoid the intake of carrageenan food, perhaps the most direct way to deal with it, just like the treatment of genetically modified food, in daily life to notice its existence, know the situation under the premise of making objective and rational choices.