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Paleo Food List > Is Carrageenan Paleo?

Is Carrageenan Paleo?

No

by Marla Sarris, updated August 29, 2016 Posted on April 27, 2015

Marla Sarris
Marla Sarris is the founder of Paleo Porn, co-author of Pigskin Paleo, Studio Manager & Barre Instructor at The Dailey Method, Personal Trainer & Small Group Fitness Instructor at Legit Fit, as well as the Executive Producer of Minimalism. After tirelessly dedicating six years to teaching Mathematics at one of the top High Schools in the nation, she left her all-consuming career in pursuit of a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. She continues to indulge her passion for teaching through Paleo Porn.

At it’s most basic definition, carrageenan is an indigestible polysaccharide derived from red algae. It’s often used as a thickener or stabilizer in many of today’s industrialized foods. But is it Paleo?

When we talk about carrageenan in our food, what we’re really talking about is undegraded carrageenan. Degraded carrageenan is not approved for use in food, although the term carrageenan is often used to refer to both.

Cancer Scare

Much of the alarm surrounding carrageenan comes from a review of about 45 animal studies that implicated carrageenan in the formation of ulcers and cancer. However, most of these studies used degraded carrageenan (also known as poligeenan). Carrageenan has been shown to accelerate cancer formation, but only when combined with a known carcinogen (source).

Possible Harm to Digestion

Some animal studies have found carrageenan can cause intestinal damage, while other studies found no intestinal damage. The results suggest it is highly dependent on the species, which makes it more difficult to determine the effect on humans without directly studying human participants.

On the other hand, the animal studies tend to add the carrageenan to the animals’ drinking water, which could have a more severe effect than consuming it with food (because carrageenan interacts with protein molecules). The studies also tend to include carrageenan in much higher doses than we tend to consume it (1% of the total diet, as opposed to 1% of our can of coconut milk, for example).

Caution Without Fear

At the end of the day, it doesn’t look like there’s any reason to run screaming from anything that includes carrageenan on its list of ingredients. On the other hand, there is evidence to suggest you might want to exercise caution. Cooking all your own meals and buying only whole foods with one ingredient is always the best way to go.

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About the Author Marla Sarris

Marla Sarris is the founder of Paleo Porn, co-author of Pigskin Paleo, Studio Manager & Barre Instructor at The Dailey Method, Personal Trainer & Small Group Fitness Instructor at Legit Fit, as well as the Executive Producer of Minimalism. After tirelessly dedicating six years to teaching Mathematics at one of the top High Schools in the nation, she left her all-consuming career in pursuit of a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. She continues to indulge her passion for teaching through Paleo Porn.

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