If you eat food that’s not fresh from the farm (hello, 95% of us), chances are, you eat emulsifiers on the reg. If you consume a lot of eggs, you’ve been eating a lot of naturally-sourced emulsifiers too!

What are emulsifiers?

There are a lot of emulsifiers out there and they’re in a lot of products. They’re usually named something weird like: polysorbate 20 or ceteareth 20.

Emulsifiers are substances that create an emulsion (a mixture of two or more liquids that aren’t normally mixable). Oil and water are perfect examples of ingredients that normally don’t blend.

For example:

• Most salad dressings, which generally contain oil and vinegar, stay all nice and blended because of #emulsifiers.
• Without emulsifiers naturally present in eggs, the water and fat in ice cream would basically fall apart.
• And mayonnaise wouldn’t even be possible without them. If you think mayo is disgusting now, trust that you don’t want to see it without its emulsifier pants on.

If you’d like to know if there are emulsifiers in your foods, and you don’t wanna memorize words like “polysorbate 20,” there’s one trick you can employ. Remember that fat and water don’t mix. So you can ask yourself, “Would this product normally mix together like that?”

Products that contain emulsifiers

• Bread
• Dressings
• Ice cream
• Processed meats
• Beauty Products (although they’re not usually ingested…)
• Vitamins
• Vaccines
• Margarine
• Toothpaste
• Cough Drops
• Non-Dairy Creamer
• Laxatives
• Some Cheese Products such as cottage cheese and cream cheese.  Basically any cheese that’s altered a bit, e.g. Kraft singles (a.k.a. “American Processed Cheese Food”), Velveeta, etc.
• Antacids

Whew. That’s a long list and it doesn’t even cover it all. Additionally, some food naturally contain emulsifiers, such as

So why do you care?

Emulsifiers cause obesity and gut inflammation in mice.

Recently a very interesting study (on mice) reported that emulsifiers were found to:

• Thin the protective mucus in the intestine, allowing bad bacteria to “munch” through the lining.
• Cause gut dysbiosis by decreasing anti-inflammatory bacteria and increasing inflammatory bacteria.
• Cause obesity.
• Raise blood sugar levels.
• Trigger chronic colitis in mice with compromised immune systems.
• Increase gut inflammation.

Well that would just plain suck if they affected us that way, wouldn’t it?

However…

Dosage arguments

Some folks are trying to discredit the study by claiming the dosage given to the mice was too high.  Honestly, this happens too frequently to count and is highly annoying. Saccharin was banned for this very reason and I don’t know why scientists mega-dose mice at levels most humans would never achieve.

I did uncover that most of the groups and people attacking the study were “supported” by companies such as Coca Cola, Hershey, Kraft Foods, Monsanto, McDonald’s, etc. All of whom have millions to lose if emulsifiers are removed from the GRAS list. That doesn’t necessarily mean that their claims are incorrect though.

The researchers claimed the mice were given doses, “seeking to model the broad consumption of the numerous emulsifiers that are incorporated into almost all processed foods.”

*Editor note: More research has come out since this study, which I will of course investigate and update soon!*

Emulsifiers used

Unfortunately they only tested two types of emulsifiers (polysorbate-80 and carboxymethylcellulose), so the information is limited to only those two types.

Not conducted on humans

This study was conducted on mice, so take that with a grain of salt. We have no way of knowing at this point if the same reaction will happen in humans. Hopefully the results of this study will lead to more testing on some poor college students looking to earn a buck.

What Does This Mean?

No, I don’t think everyone should grab pitchforks and torches and march to the White House demanding to make emulsifiers illegal. I’m not Food Babe (sorry, not sorry Food Babe), ok people?

And I don’t believe this study proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that emulsifiers are bad for you. This is a new study and, to my knowledge, hasn’t been challenged or recreated in other studies yet.

However, the results could support the argument that we shouldn’t be eating so many processed foods. Unfortunately, millions of Americans don’t really have a choice in the matter.

This info could also be helpful to people who suffer from gut problems. They might want to consider cutting down the amount of processed foods consumed or cut them out altogether (if possible). If you are one of these people, start cooking for yourself, shop the perimeter of the store (where all the veggies, fruits, and meats are), and see if you notice an improvement in your symptoms.

What have we learned?

1. Emulsifiers were found to cause obesity and gut inflammation in mice. However the study is new and was only conducted in mice.
2. Emulsifiers are in a lot of processed foods and products.
3. Processed foods may have negative impacts on your health beyond just making you sick.
4. If you so choose, you can avoid emulsifiers by eating a diet made up mostly of whole foods, i.e. veggies, fruits, seeds, meats, poultry, fish, and oils.

So there’s the information, do with it as you wish.  If you have any questions, please head to my Contact page and shoot me an email!

References

http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2109855

http://www.science20.com/news_articles/emulsifiers_promote_obesity_and_colitis_in_mice-153499

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150225132105.htm

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/common-food-additive-promotes-inflammatory-bowel-disease-and-obesity-mice