Experiencing tummyaches after you drink these milk substitutes? Suspect carrageenan!
Organic foodies share a number of reasons for buying organic foods. We trust the foods for what they don’t contain—chemicals and toxins, and that includes GMOs. Or organic foods are blessed relief for family members having a food sensitivity. Or, diligent label-reading is no longer necessary. Those are the main reasons why we became dedicated buyers of organic foods. Still, once in a while, an unwanted ingredient shows up in even those organic foods wearing the USDA organic seal. Take carrageenan (carr-a-GEE-nan). For quite a while, the food industry has steadfastly claimed the seaweed derivative was safe for humans to consume. To be sure, it’s been a controversial issue, but now, new studies say carrageenan is not safe. Before I even knew about the studies, my GI tract was saying, No more!
When I was a kid, my family would occasionally break bread at my aunt and uncle’s house. Joining us at the dinner table were five or six quart bottles of milk. My older boy cousins were milkheads. Each of them was good for at least a quart a meal. Good thing Aunt was on a milk delivery route, otherwise, she’d have had to park a dairy cow outside her kitchen door. Any left for me, their little girl cousin? Yes, but no. Because I was lactose intolerance, I’d never developed the habit. Instead, my folks bought me fresh goat’s milk from a farm on the outskirts of town. Gut pain from eating or drinking is a deterrent and a turnoff. Another likely turnoff was knowing that the milk in those bottles was room temp, but the cousins slammed it down, anyway. Shouldn’t milk be cold when you drink it?
Since my kidhood, I’ve ditched the goat’s milk habit, but we occasionally enjoy chevre (goat cheese). It’s a source of calcium, and all of us who don’t tolerate milk know we still need a steady supply of that mineral from somewhere. Not until we started shopping at the organic food co-op did we find a happy substitute for cow’s and goat’s milk. Of course, solid foods like avocados, dark leafy veggies, eggs, fish, kale, raspberries, broccoli, cabbage, kale, salmon and sunflower seeds—just to name a few—contain calcium. But what about that milk-substitute find we found at the co-op? We’ve tried rice milk, hemp milk, almond milk, and coconut milk. I liked the coconut milk by So Delicious® best, and so, too, did Heather, my daughter and our household’s designated cook/baker. It works well for her in both cooking and baking.
Happy that I’d discovered my calcium solution, daily, I’d drink a small glass of coconut milk as a mid-afternoon snack, jazzed up a bit with the addition of fresh blueberries or raspberries, or both. Daily, I noticed a stomachache followed. What could be causing it, I asked myself. Answer: No clue.
Then The Cornucopia Institute‘s latest ezine landed in my inbox. I was all eyes when I saw the article titled, “Is Your Favorite Food Making You Sick? Carrageenan: Upated Shopping Guide and Questionnaire.” The article begins, ”Carrageenan is a highly processed seaweed-based ingredient that acts as a stabilizer and thickening agent in foods. Dozens of scientific studies have linked food-grade carrageenan to gastrointestinal inflammation and disease, including several studies showing higher rates of colon tumors in rats given carrageenan in their diet.”
I checked out their updated shopping guide, and there it was: In the column listing products with carrageenan was So Delicious® coconut milk. Bingo! The mysterious cause of my gut-aches was solved. With my last gut-ache, I’d also had my last glass of this milk. The tummyaches stopped.
So Delicious makes a tasty product as do other milk-substitute brands. But—and it’s a big one—until they find a healthier, safer stabilizer replacement for the carrageenan, they’re off my shopping list.
Natalie M. Rotunda's Organic Pantry Blog 
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