When I was a child, peanut butter came in a jar with all the oil floating on the top. You had to mix it thoroughly or the peanut butter got drier and drier the further down you got. Was it a hassle having to mix it through? Yes, it was and at times could be messy. Now, it has all been mixed through for us.
Wow, that’s great! Or is it?
Emulsifiers are food additives that are primarily used to improve texture, consistency, and stability in processed foods. Their main role is to help ingredients that normally don’t mix—like oil and water—stay combined.
Emulsifiers are considered detrimental to health because they disrupt the gut microbiota and damage the protective mucosal layer of the intestine. These additives increase intestinal permeability—known as “leaky gut”—which triggers chronic, low-grade inflammation. As inflammation is at the core of all disease, it’s impact on the body is systemic. Research has particularly linked this inflammation to obesity, metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes, and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), but any other health condition is affected.
Destruction of Gut Lining
Specific emulsifiers, in particular carboxymethylcellulose (E466, E469) and polysorbate-80 (E433) have been shown in studies to erode the protective mucus barrier of the gut, leading to intestinal permeability (leaky gut). Food intolerances are a common symptom of leaky gut, and this then leads to all sorts of often painful digestive problems. Leaky gut means that unbroken down molecules of food get into the blood stream, wreaking havoc on your immune system – the immune system classes these molecules as “foreign invaders” and attacks them. This can then lead to Autoimmune Disease. There are over 100 different types of Autoimmune Diseases, but think Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriasis, Hashimoto’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus etc. and they all begin with intestinal permeability, so we need to do all that we can to look after our gut health.
Microbiome Disruption
Emulsifiers alter the balance of gut bacteria, decreasing beneficial species and increasing proinflammatory bacteria and various damaging pathogens. This imbalance in gut bacteria is called dysbiosis, and can have a very negative effect on digestive health, causing bloating, flatulence, constipation, diarrhoea, reflux, heartburn. Dysbiosis also leads to systemic inflammation, potentially causing inflammatory diseases like arthritis. In fact, research is showing more and more that while the gut microbiome is not the only aspect of health, it is one of the most critical, foundational, and overlooked aspects of overall health. It is considered to be a “vital organ” or “super organ” that interacts with nearly every bodily system. Our modern way of life is not kind to our gut microbiome – alcohol, antibiotics, gluten, stress and various other assaults have a very detrimental effect, so it is important to minimise the amount of damage.
Systemic Inflammation & Metabolic Disease
By compromising the gut barrier, emulsifiers can contribute to metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) together with any health condition that is associated with inflammation.
Prevalence in Processed Food
Emulsifiers are common in ultra-processed foods (ice cream, sauces, pastries, bread), but even foods like peanut butter contain them.
Potential Cancer Risk
Emerging research suggests a link between high consumption of certain emulsifiers and an increased risk of overall cancer, in particular breast and prostate.
Unfortunately, chemicals are so often “invented” and then added to our food before any long term research has been undertaken. So, while considered generally safe by regulatory agencies, mounting evidence suggests they should be limited to maintain gut health. Common examples of emulsifiers include carrageenan, xanthan gum, lecithin, and poly-sorbates. Some of these different emulsifiers are “worse” than others, but until research catches up, it is best to avoid all of them.
Healthspan vs. Lifespan
While people are living longer, they are spending more time in ill health, with reports showing an increase in years spent with chronic disease. Avoiding chemicals like emulsifiers may sound too “simple” to have a positive effect on your health, but it is the accumulation of these and other chemicals, together with poor lifestyle choices, that is having such a detrimental effect on health. There are a lot of chemicals that simply can’t be avoided, so it makes a lot of sense to avoid the chemicals we are able to avoid in order to give our body the best possible chance of dealing with the the things in our life we can’t change.
References
https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-020-00996-6
https://academic.oup.com/ibdjournal/article/23/suppl_1/S5/4561167
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39778648