Carrageenan

[Guest guest]

At 04:20 PM 11/6/2001 -0800, you wrote:

" Carrageenan is a short-chain sugar. When linked with water, it mimics the

texture of fat. Just as pork fat is solid at room temperature and liquid

when heated— which is why it melts in the mouth— so short-chain sugars join

with water molecules to form a semisolid structure when cool. When heated

in the mouth, the links between the sugars and the water weaken, and small

sugar molecules spread smoothly out onto the tongue. "

from http://www.discover.com/mar_01/featchemistry.html

" Carrageenan is extracted from red seaweed varieties that are unlike those

used for agar. Carrageenan exists in several forms that are mainly

classified as iota-, kappa- and lambda-carrageenan. Kappa- and

iota-carrageenan solubilize only in hot water and form thermally reversible

gels. Lambda-carrageenan is cold-water soluble and, while it is primarily a

thickener, it can form a light gel in the presence of milk proteins. Kappa

and iota are even more reactive to milk casein and often are used to

stabilize dairy products. Because of their reactivity to milk casein,

carrageenans can be used at levels ranging from 0.01 to 0.25% versus 0.2 to

1.0% for water-based systems. "

from http://www.foodproductdesign.com/archive/1993/0193CS.html

This is a very good page for learning about the function and history of

gums and binders

You may want to read this from the NIH

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2001/109p983-994tobacman/abstract.html

Abstract

In this article I review the association between exposure to carrageenan

and the occurrence of colonic ulcerations and gastrointestinal neoplasms in

animal models. Although the International Agency for Research on Cancer in

1982 identified sufficient evidence for the carcinogenicity of degraded

carrageenan in animals to regard it as posing a carcinogenic risk to

humans, carrageenan is still used widely as a thickener, stabilizer, and

texturizer in a variety of processed foods prevalent in the Western diet. I

reviewed experimental data pertaining to carrageenan's effects with

particular attention to the occurrence of ulcerations and neoplasms in

association with exposure to carrageenan. In addition, I reviewed from

established sources mechanisms for production of degraded carrageenan from

undegraded or native carrageenan and data with regard to carrageenan

intake. Review of these data demonstrated that exposure to undegraded as

well as to degraded carrageenan was associated with the occurrence of

intestinal ulcerations and neoplasms. This association may be attributed to

contamination of undegraded carrageenan by components of low molecular

weight, spontaneous metabolism of undegraded carrageenan by acid hydrolysis

under conditions of normal digestion, or the interactions with intestinal

bacteria. Although in 1972, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

considered restricting dietary carrageenan to an average molecular weight >

100,000, this resolution did not prevail, and no subsequent regulation has

restricted use. Because of the acknowledged carcinogenic properties of

degraded carrageenan in animal models and the cancer-promoting effects of

undegraded carrageenan in experimental models, the widespread use of

carrageenan in the Western diet should be reconsidered. Key words:

carcinogenesis, carrageenan, carrageenase, diet, furcelleran (furcellaran),

hydrolysis, inflammatory bowel disease, nutrition, poligeenan, promoter,

sulfated polysaccharide. Environ Health Perspect 109:983-994 (2001).

[Online 24 September 2001]

The rest of the article is for members only unfortunately...

This is from U of Iowa

CONTACT: L. E. OHMAN

283 Medical Laboratories

Iowa City IA 52242

; fax

e-mail: lohman@...

Release: Immediate

UI professor: Food additive may have breast cancer-causing properties

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Lambda-carrageenan, a food additive widely used in milk

products such as infant formula, pudding, ice cream and whipped cream, may

have cancer-inducing properties.

A form of lambda-carrageenan has been shown to cause intestinal cancer and

ulceration in animals. In addition, the food additive has been shown to

cause the kind of changes in intestinal cells that lead to malignant

tumors. These facts made University of Iowa College of Medicine researcher

Dr. Joanne Tobacman wonder if the additive also affected breast cells in a

way that might lead to cancer.

In the laboratory, Tobacman, assistant professor of internal medicine,

examined the effect of the food additive on mammary myoepithelial cells she

grew in tissue culture. She found that lambda-carrageenan exposure caused

destruction of the cells and eventual cell death. This finding was reported

in the July issue of the journal Cancer Research.

One of the most important points of her study, Tobacman says, is that

lambda-carrageenan caused myoepithelial cell death at concentrations far

below those normally found in food products. The finding is potentially

significant.

" The mammary myoepithelial cells form a barrier between the blood supply

and epithelial cells. Compromise of this barrier may lead to the

development of malignant or invasive tumors, " Tobacman says.

In fact, most malignant tumors arise from epithelial cells, and

myoepithelial cell absence is used as one criterion for the diagnosis of an

invasive malignancy.

Do these findings mean that lambda-carrageenan, which has been on the

market since 1937, is a cancer-causing food additive?

" We can't say that, yet, " Tobacman says. " We have taken one step forward

and found an interesting association. Having new territory to explore with

regard to environmental agents that may be " smoking guns " with regard to

breast cancer is good news to cancer epidemiologists who have been looking

for an environmental etiology for breast cancer. "

Tobacman would like to find out more precisely how lambda-carrageenan

affects the breast myoepithelial cells. She is seeking funding for further

studies and would like to bolster the laboratory findings with

epidemiological evidence, though it is difficult to quantify the intake of

carrageenan. She and other investigators are reviewing the diet

questionnaires filled out in 1986 by more than 50,000 women involved in the

Iowa Women's Health Study, in order to obtain more information about

carrageenan intake.

9/26/97

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Jay Bigam

Marketing and Information Technology Manager

Kinnikinnick Foods Inc.

www.kinnikinnick.com

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