sitio Every minute is a choice

do an elimination diet (read all 6 entries…)
carrageenan - an additive I should shun? 2 years ago

Ok, you nutritionist and medical folk. Help me out here. I’ve started the Stage 1 Elimination diet.

In stage 1, among other things, I am not allowed:

1. Food additives
2. Sugar
3. Caffeine of any sort (no coffee, tea, soda)
4. Processed meats

I am allowed fresh meats, vegetables, wheat and dairy. In later phases, the exact kinds of meat and vegetables is limited, and no wheat and no dairy (and I think no soy).

So, this brings me to a question about some additives. Actually, I’ll just ask about one now: carrageenan

I don’t really like milk and haven’t had it for years. It is easy to find additive free, sugar free, milk. But I drink soy milk (soy is still ok in stage 1). I found an unsweetened organic soy milk, but it has carrageenan, which is a processed seaweed that apparently keeps food from separating.

It is also in organic cottage cheese.

Should I therefore skip these foods on the grounds of them having additives?

I’ll add that the book says that I can eat Shredded Wheat as it has no sugar added. If I can’t have this soy milk, I’ll have to put milk on it. That doesn’t thrill me.

What do you think?

Aug 08, 2007, 12:03PM PDT | 2 cheers


Comments:

Benji is very happy to see Mari back!

I was brought up to believe

that carrageenan was ok, I don’t know about the processed type, but my mother was a vegan and we were taken to a homeopath instead of the doctor as kids when we were ill and she always said it was a far better way of thickening foods than things such as corn starch and gelatine (obviously….).

You can make a gorgeous dessert out of carrageenan moss actually, I should dig out the recipe.

Don’t know if that helps at all though.

{EDIT} you can get an alt to soy milk made form rice in the UK, I guess it should be available in the states too, I think it’s called Rice Dream, my mother used to have that too, if I remember correctly it was slightly more expensive than soy milk, but tasted quite good.

Aug 08, 2007, 01:19PM PDT | Thread | Respond to this 1 cheer

sitio Every minute is a choice

Great on both fronts

Good to know that carrageenan is vegan welsh mother approved and also, rice milk. I didn’t think of that. It was staring at me in the same aisle and all I did was huff about not knowing what the crap carrageenan was.

I can’t recall when I’ve had rice milk, but if it doesn’t taste like the inside of a cow, it’s on the menu.

Of course, I am now taking nutritional advice from a bottle of absolut* – not that I see anything wrong with that.

Thanks very much for taking the time to respond. It helps a lot.

  • For historical purposes, her avatar was at the time of this post, a bottle of vodka…

Aug 08, 2007, 02:48PM PDT | Thread | Respond to this 1 cheer

Benji is very happy to see Mari back!

Just to confuse the issue

I have reverted to a more life like avatar…

Glad to be of some help. Bonkers vegan mother also had an obsession with dandelion coffee… Don’t go there it really does make you pee profusely.

Aug 08, 2007, 05:13PM PDT | Respond to this 2 cheers

pioneerspirit is re-discovering 43

can you use

almond milk or rice milk? Or is it the additives in those?

Good luck with the elimination diet, I did one for a year once, it sucks.

Aug 11, 2007, 10:36PM PDT | Thread | Respond to this 1 cheer

sitio Every minute is a choice

thank you, yes

I got some rice milk last night. It is without any additives and it is very yummy.

A year? Wow. Did you learn what you’re sensitive to and did you lose sensitivity to it after so long an abstinence? My book says that even a few months without the provoking foods can be enough to reduce or eliminate the sensitivity.

It has been interesting how at different times I am desperately hoping not to show sensitivities to different things when I can add them back. Coffee, beer, sugar…

Mostly, though, I’m hoping that I feel a lot better at Stage I and don’t have to move to the Stage II diet. Stage I is challenging enough.

I guess I’ll deal with it when I get there. I’m doing this for a reason.

Thanks again.

Aug 12, 2007, 11:18AM PDT | Respond to this 2 cheers


sitio has gotten 2 cheers on this entry.

 

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