Monday, September 21, 2009

Carrageenan and Milk

I couldn't pass this up. I don't think I'll ever drink milk, or at least chocolate milk, again.

I was sitting with a co-worker at break tonight, discussing Nutrition (we're both studying it). She has been slowly taking on an... elimination diet, if you will (elimination from processed foods, etc). I'd bought a chocolate milk. She mentions how she doesn't drink milk anymore, but almond milk instead (which I tried tonight, and it's quite tasty, btw). She looks at the ingredients and aside from sugar being the second ingredient, carrageenan was the third. She says, "I don't even know what carrgeenan is, but I'm sure I don't want it if it's in my milk". I'd heard of it before but forgot what it was.

Oh. My. God. Well, thanks to good 'ol Wiki, I looked it up. See the page here. Go ahead, I'll wait until you read it. Take your time. Oh, you might want to read all of it, including the bottom where they say it's used as a personal lubricant.

I can't look at chocolate milk the same anymore. Thoughts? Discussions? I might have to wait a day to even comment, myself. I'm still sort of... in disgust.

5 comments:

XBurner said...

You should stop being a pansy and drink more chocolate milk! Those chocolate cows need support too!

Tilly said...

Well, I love chocolate milk like some people love the lord so I had to look into this more deeply and after doing some research I have to agree with XBurner, ya pansy! :)

Carrageenan is made from a specific type of seaweed and primarily used as a thickening agent in dairy products, probably so they don't have to add so much cream. And yeah, it can also be used as a 'personal lubricant' but that's only because it's glucose based. Most 'personal lubricant' and oil based products began life as a glucose based plant product. Remember that everything is made of the same basic chemicals and most food products have a lot more in common with products you might find disgusting than you'd like to think. Processed cheese slices are only one carbon bond away from being chemically identical to plastic garbage bags. All processed whip cream is made from edible oil products.

Plus, if you're going to give up dairy because it includes carrageenan, are you really willing to give up everything else that includes it as well? Desserts, ice cream, milk shakes, beer, pate, processed meat, toothpaste, shampoo, diet pop, skim and soy milk (and I would wager almond milk too since that stuff isn't terribly thick on it's own), pet food and most pharmaceuticals, among other things.

I find it personally offensive when people say things like, "I don't even know what carrgeenan is, but I'm sure I don't want it if it's in my milk."

If you don't know what it is, how do you know you don't want it? Why not educate yourself before saying something so blindingly stupid and small minded? But no, she's decided to drastically change her eating habits and spread her inflammatory disinformation rather than spending 5 minutes with google educating herself on the food additives she doesn't understand.

I'm sorry to blather on dude, but willful stupidity gives me The Rage.

Anonymous said...

Carrageenan is a very bad ingredient. I was giving it to my young son in low-fat frozen yogurt. it had Carrageenan in it and it almost killed him. Diarrhea, bloody diarrhea and ulcers in this gut. Please read the following report..
http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2001/109p983-994tobacman/abstract.html..
or any reports by Drl J. K. Tobacman..thank you

Perovskia said...

XBurner - Dude, not cool.

Tilly - *sigh* Before someone rides me again about this whole thing; Yes, I know it's derived from seaweed. I was being dramatic. Yes I understand it might be in a lot of other items, but that's what I'm going to research now. I have a right to question an item that is both in a food I consume and an item I may use. It's a pseudo-pastic. I agree that my friend made a possibly ignorant comment. Having said that, I'm going to take this to her and educate her. I do back her up in her food choices/decisions (they're intelligent ones, although difficult to see from an outside, unexplained point of view). I may not take on all the habits she is, but I learned a couple things and I'm researching things further for my own interest.

Anonymous - Thanks for your post (I read that article). When I read Wiki, I thought it was interesting that it's been known to cause ulcers, so thank you for expanding on that. What sort of diet do you feed him now? Has he recuperated? (I hope so.) How long did it take?

As a side note: I looked up the almond milk I tried. It too, has carrageenan in it, but it isn't (gladly) the third ingredient, its seventh. If one's going to look at 'healthy milk' to drink, coconut milk is another alternative.

This just supports having a raw diet even more.

Perovskia said...

Anonymous - I apologize. I just read that first page, not the entire article which I'll try to do soon. I'll relay more when I have.

Copyright Text