Posted on 12/02/2021 3:36:41 PM PST by ConservativeMind
New research indicates a widely used food additive, carboxymethylcellulose, alters the intestinal environment of healthy persons, perturbing levels of beneficial bacteria and nutrients.
Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) is a synthetic member of a widely used class of food additives, termed emulsifiers, which are added to many processed foods to enhance texture and promote shelf life. It had long been assumed that CMC was safe to ingest because it is eliminated in the feces without being absorbed. Experiments in mice found that CMC, and some other emulsifiers, altered gut bacteria resulting in more severe disease in a range of chronic inflammatory conditions, including colitis, metabolic syndrome and colon cancer. However, the extent to which such results are applicable to humans had not been previously investigated.
The team performed a randomized controlled-feeding study in healthy volunteers. Because the diseases CMC promotes in mice take years to arise in humans, the researchers focused here on intestinal bacteria and metabolites. They found that CMC consumption changed the make-up of bacteria populating the colon, reducing select species. Furthermore, fecal samples from CMC-treated participants displayed a stark depletion of beneficial metabolites that are thought to normally maintain a healthy colon.
Lastly, the researchers performed colonoscopies on subjects at the beginning and end of the study and noticed that a subset of subjects consuming CMC displayed gut bacteria encroaching into the mucus, which has previously been observed to be a feature of inflammatory bowel diseases and type 2 diabetes. Collectively the results support the conclusions of animal studies that long-term consumption of this additive might promote chronic inflammatory diseases. Therefore, further studies of this additive are warranted.
"It certainly disproves the 'it just passes through' argument used to justify the lack of clinical study on additives," said Dr. Andrew Gewirtz.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
If you know someone who has a bowel disorder, this would be worth limiting.
A lot of companies don’t really care what they sell you.
“CMC is used in baking for its thickening and stabilizing properties. CMC is a food grade water-soluble gum used for its thickening and stabilizing properties.”
Tortillas: CMC is added to tortillas for shelf life extension and to maintain a pliable texture.
Gluten free bread and cakes: Improves the internal structure like gluten proteins and helps with moisture retention and mouthfeel.
We can’t rely on the experts
Yep.
Diabetics, like myself, have a pretty tough time of it.
One of my pet peeves is Malitol/Maltitol - an artificial(?)
sweetener used to replace sugar. It's supposed to be safe
for diabetics to eat - problem is that it is only a few points
lower on the glycemic index scale than is white table sugar
made from sugar cane.
So it's maybe 1/2 of a percent 'healthier' for diabetics than sugar.
And therefore, by law, manufacturers can - and do - put
'SUGAR FREE' and 'SAFE FOR DIABETICS' on the labels
of their manufactured food products.
So you've got to educate yourself as a food chemist, and then
stand around in the supermarket reading food ingredient labels.
I find it rather annoying.
But hey - 'Let The Buyer Beware!'.
Maybe, for sweetness you could use cinnamon, or a little vanilla extract.
Pretty much it is wallpaper paste. also useful as lubricant in veterinary medicine to rectally palpate cows and mares. Yes, we wear plastic arm sleeves.
AND it causes massive stomach upset and diarrhea in a not insignificant number of people who eat it.
My wife and I stay away from “Malitol/Maltitol.”
That stuff blows everything out the end of your colon, if you eat too much.
In my wife’s case, it was very tasty “sugar-free” ice cream.
It takes a day to recover.
Sounds like the Google reviews for sugar-free Haribos gummies.
"...That stuff blows everything out the end of your colon..."
"...it causes massive stomach upset and diarrhea..."
The sweetener Sorbitol also does those things -So since I was eating sorbitol-containing breath mints
every day for years, when my endocrinologist
(diabetes doctor) saw that my potassium was alarmingly
low in my blood work, he put me on huge horse-pill sized
tablets of it.
I can barely swallow the huge damned things.
(And yes, I quit those mints.)
But hey, potassium is just needed to keep the heart beating
in proper rhythm - so it can't be all that important, right?
I should become a professional nutritionist,
instead of merely an amateur one - really.
Low sodium V8 has 850 mg of potassium per 45 calorie serving.
We enjoy drinking it.
Look into erythritol and allulose.
We primarily use erythritol, erythritol with monk fruit, and just occasionally allulose.
I prefer cane sugar, in moderation. :)
kombucha........ soles many bowel problems
Yep. Thanks!
I've got a bottle of it in the fridge.
Yummy stuff.
I use erythritol, sucralose (Splenda), and occasionally
if I'm baking something yummy, unsweetened applesauce
and/or a dab of unsulfured molasses.
Haven't tried Monk fruit or allulose yet, though.
.
I just looked up Allulose - glycemic index of Zero - good.
I'll try it out. The Monk fruit also.
Thanks.
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