Carrageenan >>> Arthritis

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

I was about to make an experimental recipe, which might become a staple item in my diet. I wanted to add carrageenan as a thickener to boost the viscosity of it, but couldn't find it anywhere. It is a well known thickener, made from seaweed, quite frequently found in the ingredient list of processed foods/recipes.

Now I have discovered that carrageenen is associated arthritis. Oooops! Indeed, in experiments with animals it is often used to cause arthritis when the investigators need arthritic animals to experiment on.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/r59xn4m352q13152/

(And other rather similar papers can be found with simple searches.)

I have no idea how much of the substance is needed to cause arthritis, but I do not plan to find out! I will not be using it as a thickening agent in this recipe!

Heads up.

Rodney.