More News You Don't Need

  I   think the best thing for me to do to foster a healthy gut biota is to munch on tree branches all day.

Through my endless trolling I come across evidence that emulsifiers—those processed food additives that make things like ice cream creamy—really fuck up the microbiota.

And, as usual, I tend to only pay attention to information from accredited science journals, not some Web MD's book-promotion site, so I'm looking at this carefully.

It would explain a lot of things.

It's not the ice cream per se that's so harmful to your health by making you obese and unhappy, but the emulsifiers added to it, is what these studies seem to be showing.

I went immediately to see what the ingredients in my favourite ice cream—the "healthiest" that I could find on the market (no added sugar!) and immediately saw that it was positively packed full of artificial additives such as polysorbate-80 (an ingredient that I remember seeing on just about every product I've ever bought!) and various other emulsifier culprits.

Take a look (red highlights mine):

Ingredients:
Nonfat Milk, No Sugar Added Dessert Base (Maltitol, Maltodextrin, Polydextrose, Whey Protein Isolate, Tapioca Starch, Guar Gum, Mono and Diglycerides, Tara Gum, Cellulose Gum, Polysorbate 80, Xanthan Gum, Carrageenan, Sucralose), Caramel Ribbon (Maltitol Syrup, Nonfat Milk, Cream, Glycerin, Whey, Salt, Pectin, Caramel Color, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Disodium Phosphate, Carrageenan), Cream

I remind you that this is an ice cream that I have had to search high and low for, for the simple factor of "no added sugar," which is a non-ingredient that simply does not exist in 99% of commercial ice cream (I've looked in large grocery stores here in Montreal but also in California)—in other words, 99% of commercial ice cream has added sugar, and probably lots of it, in addition to all these emulsifiers that I just discovered in my favourite brand.

And I can't get my ice cream just anywhere—I have to actually go to a Baskin Robbins outlet for it.

You read scary shit like this:

They found less diversity in the microbial species than in healthy mice, and found evidence that the microbes had migrated closer the cells lining the gut. Gewirtz and his colleagues suspect that the emulsifiers can break down the heavy mucus that lines the mammalian gut and prevents bacteria from coming into contact with gut cells. If this happens, the bacteria cause inflammation in the gut, which can also lead to changes in metabolism.

Or this:

Emulsifiers are now added to bread, chocolate, ice cream, margarine, processed meat, and more. But why? Add oil to water and the two liquids will never mix. At least not until an emulsifier is added. Emulsifiers are molecules with one water-loving (hydrophilic) and one oil-loving (hydrophobic) end. They make it possible for water and oil to become finely dispersed in each other, creating a stable, homogenous, smooth emulsion.

The study results show that, in a mouse model, two common emulsifiers — caboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and polysorbate-80 (P80) — not only change the composition of the gut microbiota, they also make the gut more porous. The altered microbiota has enhanced capacity to digest and infiltrate the dense mucus layer that lines the intestine — bacteria reach immune cells, thus inducing activation of inflammatory pathways and the development of severe inflammation.

Such changes in bacteria trigger chronic colitis in mice genetically prone to this disorder, due to abnormal immune systems. In contrast, in mice with normal immune systems, emulsifiers induce low-grade or mild intestinal inflammation and metabolic syndrome, characterized by increased levels of food consumption, obesity, hyperglycemia and insulin resistance.

I'm finally beginning to understand just how the famed "Western Diet" is making people obese and screwing up their gut bacteria—and this is just one discovery in a long litany of alarming discoveries, all, I'd like to remind you, that don't come from the tree-hugging fringe of naturopsychopathic Diet Gurus, but from scientific studies actually conducted by actual scientists.

I want some chocolate sprinkles on my frozen emulsifiers!