Carrageenan
Last updated
Last updated
Carrageenan is neither an essential nutrient nor is it even used by our bodies - it is a harmful carcinogen that is derived from red seaweed and used as a food additive for thickening, stabilizing, texturizing, and emulsifying.
While red seaweed contains carrageenan, nori (the green-coloured seaweed used in sushi, sometimes called dried purple laver) and agar agar do not contain carrageenan. And there are a variety of benefits of consuming nori and agar agar. Nori, for example contains vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and K, as well as other nutrients, including iron, potassium, zinc, copper, manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, selenium, and taurine.
Carrageenan is harmful to human health. It can cause cancer, heart diseases, neurological disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, bloating, and other digestive issues. However, research has been insufficient to fight against the lobbying that keeps it legal. Nonetheless, researchers strongly urge for the government to ban it. "Degraded carrageenan, also known as poligeenan, is a proven carcinogen [...] researchers have found poligeenan labelled as carrageenan in some products. In some of them, it was as much as 25 percent." "the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 1982 identified sufficient evidence for the carcinogenicity of degraded carrageenan in animals to regard it as posing a carcinogenic risk to humans [...] exposure to undegraded as well as to degraded carrageenan was associated with the occurrence of intestinal ulcerations and neoplasms"