I really wish I wasn’t writing this post right now. The information I am about to share with you will likely make you pretty angry and it should. Do you consume any of these brands in the picture below (Silk, Starbucks, So Delicious, Horizon, Zico, Blue Diamond, Pacific, Carnation and Tempt)? My guess is that you probably do.
A few days ago, the Cornucopia Institute released a Video by it’s co-founder and Senior Farm Analyst, Mark Kastel and a full PDF Report that shares some very startling practices between the USDA and the NOSA “National Organic Standards Board”- the agency that regulates organic food. This report explains the details behind several allegations of corporate corruption that has allowed several agribusinesses to use chemicals in organic products without sufficient regulatory oversight.
A Carcinogen Hiding In Organic Dairy & Dairy Substitutes
One of the findings has to do with a carcinogenic ingredient all these products have in common, a substance derived from red algae called carrageenan. Carrageenan can be found in most milk substitute products, infant formula, deli meats, cottage cheese and some flavored coconut waters regardless if the product is certified organic by the USDA. I know so many people who get soy lattes from Starbucks to avoid having to consume conventional milk products, so I thought it would be pertinent to include them here on the list below, since they and many other coffee shops use soy milk that contains carrageenan.
I’ve had my doubts about carrageenan for a long time – it started in 2011 when my cousin from Ohio sent me a Facebook message asking about whether or not it was ok to feed store bought almond milk that contained this additive to her toddler aged son. Since I didn’t have all the facts, I erred on the side of caution and suggested she make her own almond milk from scratch only.
Now, there are sound reasons and a plethora of studies that the Cornucopia Institute has summarized that has made all my hunches come true. Their report detailed out several specific studies that showed that food safe and approved “undegraded” carrageenan is containaminated with the non-approved degraded carrageenan. Furthermore, when you ingest the undegraded version, it actually starts to degrade in the gastrointestinal tract and in the liver and turn into a carcinogen, resulting in a serious inflammatory agent that also can cause intestinal abnormalities. Because of this reason and other studies conducted the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer and the National Research Council of the United States both have determined that carrageenan is a carcinogen – a substance that causes cancer.
How In The World Can A Carcinogen Be Allowed Into Organic Food?
This is where the Cornucopia Institute does a extraordinary job showing you 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. Below is a chart taken from the Cornucopia website that shows the relationship big food now has on several smaller organic companies. Please note – This was taken in 2009 and is even worse now, for instance Kraft has since bought Cadbury and so on.
Every time I mention a particular ingredient and it’s harm, I come across opponents to my line of arguments, saying that I am being alarmist or using scare tactics. They love to point out that it’s “food grade” or is safe in “low doses.” Looking at the findings and report on carrageenan, you can see these arguments can be seriously flawed. It reminds me of the times where I discussed the ingredient proplyene glycol in Panera Bread’s salad dressings and TBHQ in Chick-fil-A’s sandwiches. Just like the NOSB has accomplished with the USDA, the FDA also has continuously approved countless chemicals to be added to our food in a low doses. Does anyone really know what the cumulative effect of these additives is over time? Our soil is already depleted of several vitamins and minerals and the nutrition content of our food is declining every single year. How can we afford to put these chemicals in our body? Should we let the FDA tell us what percentage is safe? Or should we use our common sense and decide as a collective group not to consume these additives and chemicals?
I don’t know about you but I feel personally duped by carrageenan. I assumed that once a product was certified organic like Pacific Almond Milk, that it was perfectly safe to drink. I’ve even recommended this product and some others that contained carrageenan here on this site. I’ve since cleaned up my ingredient lists on my recipes and made sure my pantry staples list does not contain any products with this additive in it. We are all learning here together and I hope you forgive me for ever assuming this substance was safe to consume, because it is clearly not.
What You Can Do Instead
Milk substitutes are wildly popular and something many people consume almost everyday, so it’s important that if you were relying on one of these products above to start making your own milk or find another substitute. It’s so easy to make your own.
Check out my books The Food Babe Way and Food Babe Kitchen for nut milk recipes and strategies you can use to break free from the toxins in your food! My recipe for cashew milk takes 1 min and super easy to make!
Even though Cornucopia estimates they are close to 300 chemical additives approved to be used in organics, there are still thousands approved for conventional products. The facts presented here should not discourage you to eat less organic food, but to encourage you to fight for its regulations and ultimate safeguard. I urge you to watch the Video by Mark Kastel and read the Full Cornucopia Report when you have time and to spread this information to as many people as possible – Please feel free to share this post on Facebook, Twitter and your own blogs.
In The Best of Health Always,
Food Babe
P.S. Check out Cornucopia’s new shopping guide to find out which products do and do not contain carrageenan (Tree of Life, 365 Brand Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s (cold section) are a few).
8/19/2014 Update: In response to this blog post and your activism, Whitewave committed to remove carrageenan in 2015, but has not been completed yet.
Hey, I just wanted to share an update. I just got off the phone w a rep from “So Delicious” and she said they are re modifying all their ingredients in their products. First to be realeased will be half gallons of coconut milk without carrageenan in them, to be on the east coast first, and they are following suit w all other products.
Alright! That is great news!
why would you reward a company that didn’t care about poisoning people before and is only slowly stopping it now because they’ve been caught??
There are other brands that pass the muster, or you can make your own products. Don’t take the lazy way out just like they did. They don’t deserve our money!!!!!!!!! These companies are just taking advantage of the “trend” of healthy food and never care about actually making it healthy or still not poisoning people! Forget them!!
i just bought so delicious coconut milk at whole foods yesterday…. staring at the carrageenan in the ingredient list. it’s going back……. grrr.
Just because it sounds like something that causes cancer doesn’t mean it is. Think for youself!
Why would.you risk it?
Where on earth did you get the idea that the conclusion of carcinogenicity came from it “sounding like a carcinogen”? Smh. Read the article again, please, without inserting your own interpretation this time.
do the research sam. what a pathetic post you made
Did you not read that STUDIES confirmed it is now considered a carcinogen ?
I have known for over 20 years that something is not right with carageenan.
That was when I found “heavenly tasting whey”. ..just mixed the powder in cool water and “Ahhh !”. BUT each time I drank a glass, I immediately experienced a painful cracks in corners of my mouth. So did my husband. …Calling the manufacturer did nothing ..”Hey, it is safe this carageenan.” – So I tossed all the product left – and no more sores ! .. We ate it 2x before, each time to experienced the cracked mouth. That is a 100% correlation ! – And as mouth is the beginning of our digestive system it reflects what is going on in the invisible parts of our digestive highways.
Forward 20 years – last summer we purchased “Rainbow Organic Ice Cream”. This time the carageenan in the product caused powerfully upset intestines – in me, and in my husband. We ate the ice cream twice – twice powerfully upset PAINFUL intestines…in both of us ! – I called the Rainbow company, and again, I was given the “OK doKey…Carageenan is safe ..They even promised the recipe maker would call me…sad to say -nobody called.
I am glad you are onto this Food babe !
I buy sometimes Silk Almond Milk, not sweet, just the original version and it does not list Carrageenan on it’s Ingredients List. It has the Labels ‘USDA Organic and NON GMO
Most other so called Organic Brands have Carrageenan in it.
Sure it is always safer to make your own Nut Milk, but with Prices of Raw Organic Almonds ,currenly I would pay here in IA $18 for a Pound, it is cheaper to buy the milk already ready to drink
Barbara, I pay $ 8-9 for Spanish raw almonds. Also you can sometimes buy raw directly from small growers. See my post above about the “Organic” carageenan in Rainbow Organic Ice Cream. – It is a choice we all make – buying good quality, we can eat less, and chew more, to derive the same or higher nutritional benefit.
My East Indian teacher taught us to make our own organic almond milk from 10 soaked almonds (soak overnight, skin and run very smooth in blender. Mix with a 1/2 ripe banana for a superb smoothie – you can add a drop of vanilla).
What about Earth’s Best Baby formual??? i don’t see it listed, but now i am worried it isn’t safe (even though it’s organic and i’m spending a premium)!!
Hey Natalie! Have you checked out this article? Looks like the safest Organic Formula is the “Baby’s Only” brand
https://foodbabe.com/2013/05/28/how-to-find-the-safest-organic-infant-formula/
So… Are there different types of carrageenan?
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-710-CARRAGEENAN.aspx?activeIngredientId=710&activeIngredientName=CARRAGEENAN
For anyone looking for soy milk without carrageenan… check out edenfoods.com.
Eden foods does not support providing all forms of birth control required by the Affordable Care Act for their employees. They were part of the Hobby Lobby lawsuit. I can’t in good conscience buy their products until they treat their employees as individuals with autonomy over their bodies.
Thank you for the posts about EdenFoods! I will definitely be buying from them!!!
They only refuse to provide any birth control that kills the developing fetus, in this case a fertilized egg. What is wrong with that? They, like Hobby Lobby, pay for a long list of birth control medications. They are very good to their employees and are life affirming and deserve to be supported.
In defense of Eden Foods, I find them worthy of my support and respect. They have had the courage to stand up for life at it’s most vulnerable stage, while paying for insurance coverage of most other birth control medications. I will definitely be looking to purchase their product!
No, we’re not all paranoid, some of us have actually been experiencing very real, unfortunate problems due to all the crap that’s allowed in our foods and people are getting sick of it. Other countries in Europe and Asia have actually banned carrageenan from their food supply so why is it still allowed here? Because not enough people in this country don’t bother or care to find out what’s in their food and it’s gotten out of control and they obviously don’t seem to mind eating toxic junk. By the way, water has fluoride (dumbs down the population) and not the good kind.
Just found it in a Trader Joes label ice cream. Admittedly not organic, but still!!!
Come on Trader Joes, you say your looking out for your customers, what’s up with this? Get it out!!!
Oh I really feel so sad for people who have an allergy to soy because that stuff is in almost everything out there! Very difficult to avoid.
Sorry, my response was for someone who mentioned they have an allergy to soy but my reply ended up in the wrong place.
Califia farms contain it too!!! Feel so duped
Just found Carrageenan listed in Trader Joe’s Soy Creamer-made with Organic Soy beans. Very disappointing!! Who is responsible for protecting the people of this country? Maybe talking among ourselves isn’t going to do it? What is?
The key is to use a blender and then strain it through cheesecloth. That is what I am going to make a habit of doing and not just once. Now to find decent produce that isn’t grown with additives. This is a small town and my husband and I have no car, so we are stuck walking to the local supermarket, which is one with bad standards. One really has to be careful.
I like banana milk–just water and a banana in the blender and yu can control how thin you want to make it. Nutritious and very yummy. Great for babies too!
Carrageenan is for thickening. Image what does inside of your arteries? Something to think about. WestSoy is a great soy milk only organic soybeans and water and it tastes great…….
What about toothpaste? I just realized many toothpaste has carrageenan in it. We don’t “eat” toothpaste but it seems wise to avoid it altogether. There’s another post for you toothpaste brands that have it and ones that don’t.
Nice info on the article.
Too bad these companies have lobbyist that will keep these in production.
Too bad, I thought Blue Diamond would be ok to drink, didn’t know about Carrageenan.
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA401181/Is-Carrageenan-Safe.html
I cannot find any information on Almond Sense almond milk. Carageenan is not listed in the ingredients. Can you tell me if this is indeed true and if it is non GMO?
http://bit.ly/CarrageenanFree
This is a list from So Delicious and they are working tirelessly to remove carrageenan from all of their products. You should talk about that on your blog too.
My Horizon milk just saysorganic grade A milk and vitamin D3. It does not like Carageenan. Didn’ you say Horizon products? What by them has carageenan?
Not all products by a particular manufacturer have carageenan in them. While reading the article, I went to my fridge to check my products. My Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream contains carageenan, but my Organic Valley Grassmilk does not.
I guess I’m going to just have to double check all products as I buy them.
I will not buy anything from Horizon or anyother Dean foods owned company. They have had unsafe shady business practices. I call it fake organic. They’ve been caught a few times.
I’m horrified! My son has been drinking the So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk for more than 2 years! He’s 4!!!! I am sick that I’ve been giving this to him, he needed a milk substitute and we opted for coconut because of the healthy fats it contains, and he’s a little guy. Does anyone know of a safe coconut milk alternative? I’m all for making nut milks but I think making coconut milk in the quantities he drinks it would be impossible. He drinks a litre every 3 days or so :/
Thanks so much for talking about Carageenan. I suffered with IBS for years until I eliminated Carrageenan from my diet. My sister-in-law has MS and has had digestive troubles she thought was related to that. She eliminated Carageenan from her diet and her digestive troubles have gone away. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that most people who believe they are lactose intolerant are really reacting to carrageenan in many dairy products.
It’s hiding everywhere – salad dressings, cottage cheese, yogurt, ice cream, coffee creamers, sour cream, whipping cream, flavored milks of all kinds, Costco’s cheese tortellini… Although I try to read labels, some things that I would never suspect have it. If I have a flare up, I check the labels of what I recently ate and sure enough, there it is. How can we rid our food of this harmful and unnecessary ingredient?
365 Unsweetened Almond Milk sold at Whole Foods contains:
Organic almond milk (filtered water, organic almonds), tricalcium phosphate, sea salt, xanthan gum, potassium citrate, sunflower lecithin, vitamin a palmitate, ergocalciferol (vitamin d2), dl-alpha tocopherol acetate (vitamin e).
I have also found that this brand is slightly less expensive than other popular brands out there.
Barbara, I pay $ 8-9 for Spanish raw almonds. Also you can sometimes buy raw directly from small growers. See my post above about the “Organic” carageenan in Rainbow Organic Ice Cream. – It is a choice we all make – buying good quality, we can eat less, and chew more, to derive the same or higher nutritional benefit.
My East Indian teacher taught us to make our own organic almond milk from 10 soaked almonds (soak overnight, skin and run very smooth in blender. Mix with a 1/2 ripe banana for a superb smoothie – you can add a drop of vanilla).
Dont forget your pets too.
I’m trying to switch my cat’s wet food to a healthier option and Carrageenan is in many brands of cat food. I emailed his current favorite meow mix (part of Dole) to see if they had other options without Carrageenan or if they had plans to remove it from their products and the below is the response I received.
Thanks for visiting our website and for your email.
Carrageenan is an extract from a species of red seaweed. Because of its texture, carrageenan is often used as a thickener or emulsifier in foods such as ice-cream, yogurt, and baked goods. A small amount of carrageenan is commonly added to wet pet food as an emulsifier. Carrageenan has been used in food processing for many years, and over 150 studies on the health effects of consuming un-degraded carrageenan concluded it is safe to eat.
We appreciate the opportunity to respond and your comments will be shared with our management.
Donna, DLM Foods Canada Consumer Affairs
I would find a report or study or two stating it is harmful and send it right back at them. Even a Dr. on YouTube if you can’t find one. Try Dr. Richard Blaylock. I’m sorry but I just don’t see the reasoning in waiting around til labeling gets past if it ever does. Monsanto has caused the deaths of people all over the world and they need to be shut down and thrown in jail, now! Along with Obama who was obviously paid off by them as he had promised we would have labeling and then turned around and signed a law stating Monsanto cannot be sued.
There is a cat care blog that lists canned cat foods that don’t contain carrageenan; or bpa; (naturalcatcareblog.com). She reminds me of the Food Babe but for cats!
I saw that Desert Essence toothpaste contains Carrageenan (Plant Derived). Is this any different than the Carrageenan talked about here? Sorry if this has already been discussed. I am new to foodbae.com . Thank you.
I have been making my own for a couple years now to save money. Baking soda, sea salt, and peppermint extract. I started by googling for recipes for homemade tooth paste. Its cheap easy and I don’t have to be afraid of the harmful chemicals anylonger.
I have made my own toothpaset for a couple years now. So easy. You can google lists of recipes on google
That’s foodbabe.com . Sorry.
I have searched high and low and have finally found one brand of almond milk that does NOT have carragenan – Tree of Life. I don’t know if it’s organic or not, but almond milk is one food I am not willing to make myself, and I’m willing to do a lot of things, so for now I will drink this brand.
I don’t think Silk almond contains carrageenan but their soy milk does – weird.
Trader Joe’s cottage cheese has carrageenan (organic too)
TJ plain unsweetened almond milk does not have it.
Merriam-Webster defines organic as relating to “food produced without employment of chemically formulated fertilizers, growth stimulants, antibiotics, or pesticides.” So, I’m not sure why whether something causes cancer or is digestible to human beings has anything to do with whether it can be “organic” or not. Organic does not equal healthy. End of story. Fish high in mercury are not healthy, but they are certainly organic unless a human added the mercury after they were caught.
Regarding the safety of carrageenan, there has been an amazing amount of misinformation being blogged about carrageenan being unsafe as a food ingredient. In spite of this misinformation, carrageenan continues as the safe food ingredient it has always been. If it were not, the principal regulatory agencies of the world (US FDA, FAO/WHO JECFA, EU EFSA, and Japan Ministry of Health) would not approve its use, and all of them give the necessary approvals. The only application restricted as a precautionary measure is stabilizing liquid infant formula and a definitive toxicology is about to be published that is expected to remove this restriction.
Why all the concern about the safety of using carrageenan in foods? Starting in the 1960s there have been research studies showing that if excessive doses of carrageenan are consumed in animal trials inflammation can be induced in the small intestine. Likewise, inappropriate methods of introducing the carrageenan into the animals, i.e. in the animals’ only source of drinking water, have induced an inflammatory response in the small intestine. However, there has never been a validated inflammatory response in humans over the seventy plus years carrageenan has been used in foods. The anecdotal “upset tummies” reported in blogs as coming from consuming a food containing carrageenan are hardly
reliable sources of information on the safety of carrageenan.
Inflammatory responses in animals only occur when carrageenan can cross the blood membrane barrier of the small intestine. This only occurs when the extreme feeding conditions mentioned above are employed. Normal feeding regimes induce no such response.
Over the last decade a group of molecular biologists at the University of Illinois at Chicago lead by Dr Joanne Tobacman have been exploring the in vitro interaction of carrageenan with various genes and conclude that carrageenan can cause inflammation in the gut via a binding mechanism involving TLR-4 receptors. This group also concluded that carrageenan degrades in the gut and the degraded carrageenan can permeate the membrane barrier. Recent studies refute both of these claims, and furthermore this recent research questions the validity using in vitro studies to mimic the in vivo events in the GI tract when a human consumes a food containing carrageenan.
The bottom line on the safety issue is that in spite of all the efforts to downgrade or question the safety of carrageenan, particularly by bloggers, carrageenan is a safe food ingredient in all of the major regulatory jurisdictions of the world.
Hm, Ingredients Solutions – you seem to write like an industry representative.
If you actually are, here are my 2 irrefutable experiences with Carageenan to pass onto the proper place who SHOULD BE regulating this:
1. Consumed it in powdered whey (that listed it on label) – 2x after drinking it, immediately I experienced painful cracked mouth corners. So did my husband who drank it as well.
2. Last summer consumed carageenan in Rainbow Organic Ice Cream. 2x, my husband an I experienced painful inflamed gut feeling, and then diarrhea.
We are both smart people who notice easily EVERYTHING about our bodies, and what food does to them.
Regardless of your rant here this 100% “Drink/eat carageenan and experience a virtually instant problem” presents a proof much more reliable than the corrupt FDA and USDA opinions combined.
From the Ingredients Solutions web site:
http://ingredientssolutions.com/
“…ISI is now the World’s Largest Independent Supplier of Carrageenan…”
Martin, thank you for your discovery. This is what Ingredients Solution wrote to me, after I reported 100% adverse reaction to Carrageenan containing products. Reaction that occurred in 100% of the 2 of us, in 100% occasions we ate it.
Yes, reaction was minor in his mind, because we did not die, and we were not hospitalized. If it did not happen on our day off, we would have had to take a day off due to violent diarrhea DIRECTLY related by the Carrageenan Ice Cream by Clondike. We bought it second time just to make sure it was not an infected batch or something. The IS violent comment at the end of his email confirms my suspicion – and INDUSTRY rep. What do you think after you read this:
“For a self-professed smart person, those arguments ought to be an embarrassment. The FDA and USDA are corrupt, so the ingredient they claim to be safe is actually unsafe? Regulatory bodies are lacking, weak, corrupt, etc., so that’s the reason why the ingredient has yet to be banned? You could apply that dubious logic to any ingredient. The apple would be banned if not for the inaction of the corrupt regulators, whose true allegiance must be to those who make money by selling this dangerous product to consumers. How is that any different than carrageenan? Because the industry representative can’t refute two times you ate something containing carrageenan and the same minor reaction happened in both you and the other person who ate it? Men feared witches and burnt women with proofs like yours.
My son was having terrible coughs and stomach aches. We took him off carrageenan and he improved wonderfully. I know American Exceptionalism tends to say that other countries are wrong while we are right..but heck if other countires have banned it….we Americans should take notice.
The only instance where carrageenan was not allowed as a good additive was in the EU in infant formula and the EU has since reversed that decision upon more recent study results. There is now no instance where carrageenan is banned from being used as an additive.
Ingredient Solution (AKA Company shill) i had to laugh at your answer. You didn’t even respond to the heart of the comment whivh was the terrible pains and terrible coughing carrageenan caused my son. I see that carrageenan is supposedly “good” for coughing…as an expectorant. But wow, that kind of harrowing cough is heart-rending for a mom to watch…especially when it’s for no good reason. Making something that irritates the lungs into something to help children “cough” is just warped. And regular food just shouldn’t cause innocent children to have harrowing coughs as a side effect.
What americans have to understand is… stop buying packed productsat all and go 100% natural from scratches! Yes, it takes time and nowadays everybody is busy having a succesful career and earning tons of money but what’s the point of it if you are dying from toxic food? Our mothers and fathers here in south america still are old school style parents, who take the time to cook for us and truly nurture us, (with super foods like quinoa, kaniwa, amaranth, that we have for centuries since Inka times). I encourage your to make your own foods like your grandparents did! This is how we still do in 3rd world countries (who by the way man of you consider primitive and underdeveloped)…here people are poor and can’t afford expensive packed and manufactured foods (that are considered fancy here, go figure) and we tend to make our food from scratches and btw we still have no gmo foods in our markets (here in Peru). Goverment wanted to open the nation doors to Monsanto and ruin our precious biodiversity but we, people, resisted and forced to our congress to say NO. Then who is the underdeveloped now?
Ginebra, you hit the nail on its head!
I understand clearly what you are saying. My wife is from Colombia and my grandparents and other relatives from Mexico…you talk about old school, that is the school to attend!
Foodbabe, would you please address degraded and undegraded carrageenan. There is so much information floating around it is difficult to decipher.
Hi. Need advice. I just tried to make my first batch of almond milk. I bought the large bag of Kirkland almonds from Costco, soaked a cup overnight and used 4 cups of filtered water, added 2tsp of vanilla and the milk tastes SO gross to me. Did I do something wrong? Or is it the Costco almonds?
Help appreciated – thanks
I have found that since they have started pasteurizing ALL RAW ALMONDS IN CALIFORNIA
Since they started pasteurizing ALL RAW ALMONDS grown in California, my almond milk has never been as good. In fact I have pretty much stopped making it unless I can find some “truly raw” almonds. Even the raw ones from Europe don’t make as good an almond milk as the old raw California almonds.
Silk’s unsweetened original does not have it. I’ve checked and double checked. I’m still working toward making my own, but where do I find organic, nonGMO almonds?
#foodbabearmy Please read your labels carefully! I just got duped when I bought Califia farms almond coconut milk and it listed just almond milk and coconut cream. When I got home I took a closer look and there was another section that read “contains less than 2% of” and included a whole bunch of ingredients including carrageenan! Lesson learned…read even the finest of print on the label even if it’s separate!
WOW! Thanks for this article. I landed here accidently after having a hard time finding soymilk that was not “Dean Foods” produced. I found some farms that sold GMO free soybeans and a machine to make the milk. Now after a day of reading not sure the soy route is the option I want to take and don’t really want to be going with much dairy if at all. So in checking out protein content of brands and types of milk alternatives I landed here.
The soymilk I currently drink is Organic Valley Unsweetened-I have been thinking that making my own would be better as it looked processed!
Now the real thing that makes me so angry-after reading this article I found it too has carrageenan. So many trust this brand like no other.
As stated in the article above the only safe way is to make your own. I have really got to the point, if it’s processed it’s bad, attitude. It seems like it’s a USA trend to pass poison off as food. So I will probably buy the soymilk maker or use a blender or something and go it on my own for ???milk. Just to figure out what I will use almond, hemp ??? Cocunut has little protein, less than a gram.
Just another killer toxin and another item that needs to be made at home.
I live in Canada, presently in Nelson, BC and here are some brands you can eat that don’t contain Carrageenan:
Thirsty Buddha Coconut Water with Mango
Happy Planet Fruit Drinks and most likely the Veggie drinks also
Nuts to You Nut butters – Almond, Cashew, Macadamia
Daiya non-soy cheese, dairy free in Mozzarella, Cheddar, Gouda flavours
Earth Island Mayo and Tartar Sauce
Happy Days Goat Milk for those who drink milk from animals
Red Mill Rice Cereal and Scottish Oatmeal
Genuine Health Vegan Greens and they also have Vegetarian
Amy’s Organic Soups
I realize that carrageenan is probably what has been affecting me with my stomach pain and IBS. I have FM and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome but it isn’t from that as I noticed that the products that did have carrageenan would always upset my stomach.
I hope this helps!
For the past 4 years I have been dealing with an inflammatory digestive condition that my doctors have been unable to diagnose. I consume organic coconut and natural almond milks regularly. Now I know these could very well be the cause of my condition! I cannot wrap my head around the lengths that our government agencies and the large corporations will go to make a buck. What happened to putting people first?
Almond Breeze (silk) doesn’t have it in it Unsweetened. we must READ all ingredients..
homemade flax seed milk is very simple to make…1/4 cup flax seed to 7 cups of water..I just mix the seed with water and toss in my nutribullet for a minute..all done!..you can add some vanilla extract or stevia, add more seed if you like the milk to be thicker. Much cheaper then any packaged milk, and 100% organic with only 2 ingredients
What law did Obama sign that says monsanto cant be sued? I was going to volunteer for him but what a waste if monsanto owns him.
I buy the original almond milk from Silk, and I don’t see Carrageenan listed on the ingredients label. I even looked up the ingredient list online thinking that maybe it just wasn’t a complete list on the label and it’s not listed. Maybe they’ve changed their ingredients…I just want to make sure I’m not consistently purchasing and ingesting something carcinogenic.
SIlk almond milk is clear, but their soymilk contains carageenan. Loads of these brands have some products with carageenan and some without, eg Starbucks soymilk, whipping cream, and light frappuccinos (but not regular ones) contain carageenan, and likewise Organic Valley “Pasture Raised” heavy whipping cream, but not “Farm Fresh” whipping cream. (I’m allergic to seaweed, so the does-this-have-carageenan game is old hat for me)
Food babe thank you so much for sharing your great information! !! Love reading your blog. Please list which brands of coconut milk you like and trust. Thanks!
I give up! Just when I think I’ve got this healthy eating stuff down, another article comes out…what good is the FDA if they’re not monitoring/regulating this crap???? This is exhausting, frustrating, not to mention expensive!!!!
1. How do you know that it was actually and only the carrageenan that caused the problems. I rather doubt that you do. Most people assign blame to the first thing that comes to mind as a possible cause, and they are often wrong.
2. There is considerable variability among people, genetically speaking. The vast majority of people are not sensitive to most food ingredients, but a much smaller percentage does have sensitivities to many things. It is very possible that your son is one of that smaller percentage that is sensitive to it. If thgat is the case then change his diet, but his sensitivity is not proof that a blanket ban on an ingredient needs to be instituted.
Just out of curiosity because I’m using the Similac Ready Feed formula that contains carrageenan…I thought carrageenan was used medicinally to treat intestinal issues?? If this isn’t true, then I will consider using the powder form which upsets my daughters stomach more than the ready feed.
Looks like the link to the almond milk video is wrong…
I can’t even begin to tell you how mad this makes me!
I had never heard of this before…I just checked some of my organic items and found this in my organic cream which I use in my coffee every morning and also in my organic cottage cheese…I’m going back to no dairy… thank you so much for this information!!
I also just started buying a creamer for my coffee instead of using aspartame!
Uuuugh. Just read this article and I have a feeling of doom as I prepare to check my cottage cheese (a major staple) and my Almond milk (anther staple). -_-
Stonyfield Farm yogurts squeezers have it too- I have yet to find a tube type yogurt for kids that is organic but does not have carrageenan…
I buy the Stoneyfield Farm yogurt squeezers for my 5 yr. old grandson…this makes me so angry…Never buying it again!
Ladies, please stop purchasing those convenience type items…consider the packaging. Only buy items you can recycle…why worry only about what you eat? What about the world you are living in?
I got slim snack tubes to make my own non toxic snacks, squeeze yogurts, and ice pops for my 4 kids. Its so scary to think even the organic dairy free milks are bad, makes me want to throw my hands up! But I guess we will roll up our sleeves instead 🙂
To Tina, your so right. Even if the food safe and healthy the squeeze tubes are not. You should do some research about what poisons are in them.
Another trash item for the landfill, that will never rot.