Is Carrageenan bad for you?

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I'm a big seaweed lover, so I thought carrageenan was just another way to get seaweed. However, I'm hearing more and more about how this food additive (I think there's tons in McDonald's milkshakes) may cause gastro and BRAIN inflammation. I think I'd rather be safe than sorry. Also, it's in INFANT formula, although in Europe they don't allow it. That tells you something.

My sadness is that the nut and soy milks I make are so watery, while the commercial stuff is so nice...because of carrageenan.

Supposedly carrageenan is about as natural a seaweed extract as high fructose corn syrup is to corn; i.e., they use terrible alkali and so forth to get it out. I'm getting rid of all my carrageenen products right now.

Read more here: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-18/health/ct-met-carrageenan-0318-20130318_1_carrageenan-fda-scientists-food-additive-safety

and here: http://www.notmilk.com/carageenan.html

Chemicals in perfume

You may have already suspected this, but most commercial perfumes contain chemicals, some petroleum based, many cancer-causing, and in the cases of synthetic musk, they may even affect your hormones.

Especially if you are trying to conceive, you might want to be aware of fragrance use both for yourself and "secondhand" fragrance, e.g., by your colleagues at works, etc., so you can avoid it.

The Environment Working Group helps lay out some of the risks: