A clinical study reports that carrageenans, food additives found in many industrial products, create inflammatory conditions in the intestine that could contribute to the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
It is now well established that modern Western diets promote the development of all chronic diseases and all countries, without exception, which adopt this dietary pattern are grappling with a skyrocketing incidence of obesity, type 2 diabetes and several types of cancer.
This westernization of eating habits means that chronic diseases are now directly responsible for 75% of all deaths worldwide.(1)
Ultraprocessed foods
One of the major problems of the Western diet is the increasingly important place occupied by foods manufactured by the food industry, in particular those which are “ultraprocessed” (in Canada, approximately 50% of daily calories come from these foods ).
Industrial treatments used to improve the appearance, taste, texture and shelf life of these products create two main problems:
1) they promote overconsumption of these foods, by chemically disrupting our physiological appetite control mechanisms (up to 500 additional kcal per day according to studies), which can obviously quickly lead to excess weight;(2)
2) they require the abundant use of several classes of food additives (colorings, emulsifiers, stabilizers). The omnipresence of some of these additives, emulsifiers and stabilizing agents in particular, currently raises many questions, because these molecules act as emulsifiers (biochemical detergents) and could therefore disrupt the integrity of certain protective barriers in our tissues, notably the layer of mucus that covers the surface of the intestine.
Gelling algae
Carrageenans (or carrageenans) are one of those classes of food additives used ubiquitously in the manufacturing of industrial products.
These molecules are sugar polymers (polysaccharides) extracted from red algae which have gelling and emulsifying properties and are used to improve the texture of a wide range of foods (ice cream and sausages, among others).
Although carrageenans are generally considered safe, studies in animal models show that the breakdown products of these polymers cause inflammation in the intestine and reduce glucose tolerance, a risk factor for diabetes. 2.
Given that the average daily intake of carrageenan in the population has increased fivefold in recent decades (from 45 to 250 mg/day between 1970 and now), it is possible that these additives could have contributed to the meteoric rise of this disease which has occurred since the start of the millennium.
Intestinal permeability and inflammation
To evaluate this possibility, a randomized clinical study examined the effects of high carrageenan intake on intestinal permeability, degree of inflammation, and insulin response.(3)
In this study, young, healthy men received a placebo or a dose of carrageenan every day in addition to their normal diet (500 mg) for a period of two weeks.
The researchers first observed that the consumption of the additives caused an increase in intestinal permeability and the production of inflammatory molecules by certain white blood cells (monocytes), suggesting that these products can create a climate of chronic inflammation conducive to the development chronic diseases.
They subsequently showed that in overweight volunteers (which corresponds to the situation of 2/3 of the Canadian population), the effectiveness of insulin in getting glucose into the organs was significantly reduced (in particular in the liver) by carrageenans, a warning sign of the development of type 2 diabetes.
They also observed that these subjects showed signs of inflammation in the hypothalamus, a region of the brain involved in sugar metabolism, another key element in the progression to type 2 diabetes.
Given that these changes occurred in just two weeks of intervention, it is highly likely that daily consumption of foods containing carrageenan will have even more pronounced negative impacts in the longer term.
Whether for their high caloric density or their high content of various additives, ultra-processed industrial foods must therefore be considered as real metabolic disruptors which create conditions conducive to the development of chronic diseases.
(1) Adolph TE, Tilg H. Western diets and chronic diseases. Night With 2024; 30: 2133-2147.
(2) Hall KD et coll. Ultra-processed diets cause excess calorie intake and weight gain: an inpatient randomized controlled trial of ad libitum food intake. Cell Metab. 2019; 30: 67-77.e3.
(3) Wagner R et coll. Carrageenan and insulin resistance in humans: a randomised double-blind cross-over trial. BMC Med 2024; 22: 558.
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