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Carrageenan: a skin trigger to consider

August 26, 2014 by Christina


Carrageenan is a natural ingredient found in a lot of gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan or vegetarian goods.

Canned or bottled coconut milk, almond milk, hemp milk, lactose-free milk, greek yogurts, puddings, and many other dairy substitutes and products often contain carrageenan as a ‘natural’ thickener.

But just because something is ‘natural’, doesn’t always mean it’s good…

Earlier this month I had a peculiarly interesting breakout and unfortunately, it had to do with coconut milk—one of my favorite dairy substitutes.

I say interesting, because even though I have a long history with eczema, this wasn’t an eczema breakout. It also came about pretty quickly, which is more of an allergic reaction, rather than old eczema creeping up.

Let me back up a bit.

Reacting to carrageenan in coconut milk?

What happened is that my forehead started to break out in tiny little bumps–a cross between whiteheads and pimples. I don’t eat gluten or dairy, so at first I thought it could be sugar. However even after a few days of significantly lowering my sugar intake, the breakout wasn’t going away.

Basically, I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary, so there was really no reason for me to experience a breakout–and especially one that wasn’t from my old eczema.

So what was it?

I went through my whole pantry, kitchen, and products to find out. The ONLY thing that was different from the rest, was that the brand of coconut milk (Silk) I had been drinking for a week, was different from the one I usually buy (So Delicious).

I’m not allergic to coconut milk or oil, so at first I didn’t pay attention. But when I continued to break out, I decided to take a good second look at ALL the ingredients in my food items, including the ones in the coconut milk.

Reading the ingredients, I noticed one that stuck out: carrageenan. Coming from a history of eczema, I like to know all my ingredients before putting them in my body, and carrageenan was one I wasn’t familiar with.

Researching more, I found that there are indeed links between carrageenan and gut irritation and inflammation, which could cause skin breakouts due to high inflammation levels.

In fact, scientists have conducted laboratory animal experiments using carrageenan, and have found that when the animals were given carrageenan, higher rates of gastrointestinal inflammation, colitis-like diseases, and even colon cancer were present.

Now, before I get into the details of carrageenan, it’s important to remember that not everyone reacts the same way to this ingredient, and some people don’t have any problem digesting carrageenan at all.

However, if you have a history of sensitive skin (like me!), then your intake of carrageenan is definitely something worth looking into.

What is Carrageenan?

Carrageenan is derived from red algae or seaweed, and is most commonly used as a natural emulsifier, thickener or stabilizer for food, because of it’s gelling properties.

carrageenan

Carrageenan seaweed in food preparations actually date back a few centuries, but our main health concern is with the refined, isolated carrageenan that is put into everyday foods–including my coconut milk!

Recently, carrageenan has been advertised as a natural ingredient, allowing food companies to use it in foods and goods labeled as ‘natural’.

But just how good is natural?

Studies have shown that even though carrageenan is natural, it still carries a large amount of toxins that can have pretty serious side effects.

Some of these side effects include: inflammation of the colon and large intestine, ulcerations, cancer of the gastrointestinal tract, flatulence, diarrhea, and bloody stool.

Carrageenan was petitioned to be banned.

Dr. Joanne Tobacman, a physician-researcher, filed a petition against the usage of carrageenan in foods, after convincing evidence that carrageenan’s side effects were hazardous to human health.

However, the FDA rejected this petition in 2012, claiming that the research was ‘disputed’.

Cornucopia, a non-profit food policy research group, is one of the most outspoken groups on the safety hazards of carrageenan, and are calling for the FDA to reevaluate a petition to ban carrageenan.

They claim that the FDA’s denial of Tobacman’s petition was “riddled with overt bias which appears to protect an industry’s profits at the expense of public health.”

According to one of their statements:

“Natural does not mean safe….Poison ivy is natural, but you wouldn’t put it in skin lotion…carrageenan side effects appear to do to your gut what poison ivy does to your skin.”

Carrageenan affects your skin through inflammation.

Regardless of the politics behind carrageenan, there is one undisputed medical truth that still remains: carrageenan causes high amounts of inflammation.

I’ve talked in detail here about the gut-skin connection, and most of you who are starting the 30-day program already know how important it is to lessen the inflammation in your gut and immune system in order to heal your skin.

Probably one of the most dangerous ways carrageenan affects our skin, is that it can cause high amounts of inflammation, causing the pores in our intestinal tract to widen, permitting bacteria, undigested foods, and other toxins to enter our blood stream.

When we have too much foreign toxins leaking through these widened pores into our bloodstream, our body often tries to flush this out through its elimination organs.

As a result, our skin (the body’s largest elimination organ), gets a lot of these toxins pushed out through it. While this is good flush for our body, for our SKIN, it usually results in pimples, acne, eczema, psoriasis, and other skin diseases.

This is also called ‘leaky gut syndrome’, the root cause of eczema breakouts.

Eat carrageenan-free products to avoid inflammation

In order to have clear skin, and get rid of your eczema, you need to stop the toxins from leaking through the wide holes in your gut. One way to do this is by lessening inflammation.

The less inflammation we have in our body, the easier it will be for our gut to heal and “patch up” those holes, so the toxins don’t escape onto our skin!

Once your gut is healed, and your immune system is up and running as it should, your body can afford to take more inflammatory foods without experiencing an eczema or skin breakout.

However, until then, it’s best to help your gut out the best you can and stay away from inflammatory substances, including carrageenan.

Carrageenan-free products?

Here are some PDF links you can check out if you want to start going carrageenan-free. These products don’t contain carrageenan, and I’m going back to my So delicious coconut milk instead!

So Delicious dairy free products that don’t contain Carrageenan

Carrageenan-free shopping guide from Cornucopia

Again, carrageenan is found in a lot of ‘natural’ products, so the best advice I can give you is to carefully check your ingredient labels.

In conclusion.

There are 3 main things to take away from this:

1. Carrageenan, even though a natural additive, has more negative side effects than good. In fact, as of now, carrageenan has no known nutritional value whatsoever. Since I’ve stopped consuming carrageenan my skin has gone back to normal, so it seems that I react more badly to it than others. In my case the cons far outweigh the pros, so I won’t take the risk of eating it in excess again!

2. The side effects of carrageenan are worse if you have unhealthy gut issues. If you have sensitive skin, or are suffering from eczema due to high inflammation levels and a leaky gut (like I talk about here), then I suggest you stay away from products containing carrageenan, as this could only make it worse.

3. Natural doesn’t always mean good! You can’t always trust the packaging, so read your labels and know what you’re putting into your body. If you don’t understand what an ingredient is, look it up!


Any thoughts on carrageenan? Did you have any reactions to the ingredient? What do you think about banning it from natural products? If you’ve never heard of carrageenan before, did this article help?

I want to know what you think, so don’t forget to leave a comment below! 😀

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Filed Under: Eczema Diet & Triggers, Eczema Triggers - What's causing a breakout?

Comments

  1. Clarissa Cyprian says

    December 30, 2014 at 4:11 am

    Wow! Great post, Christina. And Carrageenan actually has no nutritional value.

    • Christina says

      January 5, 2015 at 12:27 am

      Thanks Clarissa, glad the post helped!

  2. scammy says

    February 5, 2015 at 7:23 am

    OMG i was so excited after month of bad skin issues 6 doctors visits 1 biopsy 1 food allergy test and many creams and prescription meds my skin was finally looking and feeling like it used too. i was so happy then other day i made some oatmeal using coconut milk immediately my lips started burning, the following morning my lips was swollen and tender to the touch. i took allergra and i thought i was all good then i started with the old breakouts again. The only thing i differently was i added silk coconut milk to my diet 🙁 i now know why. thank you for this article.

    • Christina says

      February 5, 2015 at 10:36 am

      So glad you found out what is triggering your breakouts!

    • Kathryn says

      November 19, 2015 at 2:04 am

      Thanks so much for your internet post. I too has those same issues and for someone over 50 with huge facial cysts and “all of a sudden” upper intestinal sensations that were puzzling. Thanks!

  3. Denise says

    August 22, 2015 at 5:41 am

    Thanks so much for this. I recently started taking a supplement that I didn’t realize had this ingredient. I developed one of the most severe eczema outbreaks that I’ve ever had, with a fair amount of scarring left over. It was not until I was reading reviews of the product on Amazon that I received the tip to look further into carrageenan. My skin had been doing really well before I started taking the supplement and I was just telling a nurse practitioner yesterday that I couldn’t figure out what had triggered it. I will definitely avoid this in the future.

    • Janice Marie Foote says

      August 23, 2015 at 9:33 am

      Check your toothpaste too. Even the natural brands use it in their, too many too list. You may even want to do online research so you can just go out and buy one, instead of reading all the labels once at the store.

    • Christina says

      August 24, 2015 at 11:51 am

      Oh no, thank goodness you stopped taking it! Hope your skin is doing better.

  4. Janice Marie Foote says

    August 23, 2015 at 9:37 am

    I avoid carrageenan like the plague, and it’s in absolutely none of my foods/drinks/snacks/desserts at all! And my digestive issues went away after I 100% stopped consuming it!

    Though I just recently discovered that carrageenan is used in even a lot of the high quality all natural toothpastes. So check your toothpaste too. Even the natural brands use it in their, too many too list. You may even want to do online research so you can just go out and buy one, instead of reading all the labels once at the store. You can do this by going to the toothpaste brand’s website and looking at the ingredients 😉

    I just dumped all my carrageenan infused Jason and Tom’s of Maine toothpastes and will “dyi toothpaste” it until I find a carrageenan free toothpaste brand that I like 😉

    Also, I won’t order anything at a restaurant, even a juice/smoothie joint, unless I’m 100% sure they’re carrageenan free!!!

    • Christina says

      August 24, 2015 at 11:48 am

      Wow thank you so much for the tip!

      I’ve been getting canker sores again (they disappeared when I stopped eating gluten), and I couldn’t figure out why…. Until I looked in my toothpaste and there was carrageenan again! From what I know, canker sores can be triggered through an inflammatory response, so I thought that could be it. Changed toothpaste for a week, and they’re gone! Again, thanks for the tip 🙂

      • Shannon says

        October 26, 2020 at 9:09 am

        This is how I found out about carrageenan. I found an almond milk I loved which I used small amounts of daily in my coffee and began getting endless canker sores. It was incredibly distressing. For tuna you a friend put me on the track of checking for Carrageenan. I haven’t heard about anyone else who gets this reaction so I am grateful for your comment here.

  5. Hannah says

    September 1, 2015 at 6:46 am

    Hey! Do you have a photo of what the bumps on your forehead looked like? It would help me SO much, I have been going through a nightmare skin situation for 3 months, and like you, the almond milk I consume contains carrageenan. I drink it in my coffee daily, I have been buying all these crazy products to try and clear my skin and nothing is working. I’m going to go 1 week without the coffee and see what happens, but I would really like to see a photo of your old condition to compare it to mine. I have dozens on tiny red inflamed bumps that my my forehead look like an unpaved road and it’s so embarrassing, it’s really waring down my self esteem.

    • Christina says

      October 5, 2015 at 10:54 am

      Hi Hannah! Hmm, I can check my old photos and see if I do — if I find one I’ll add it to the article in an update.

      If it helps, they were mostly in the forehead T-Zone and were red and bumpy — similar to what you’re describing with yours! If you suspect your skin breakouts are related, try switching to carrageenan-free products for now, and see if things improve. There are other milks that don’t contain carrageenan.

      • Ana says

        February 10, 2016 at 11:38 pm

        I have the exact same thing and this article is giving me hope! I stopped using my crest toothpaste today and this is the first night in forever when my ankles haven’t itched and gotten red when I brush my teeth!!! It’s developed slowly and I feel so silly having not made the connection sooner! Carrageenan is AWFUL and I am so excited to start healing from the damage its done to my body!!!

  6. Dona Cangelosi says

    November 3, 2015 at 3:49 pm

    Three years ago I began to break out slowly into what was diagnosed as psoriasis over 90% of my body. Not on my face. Then it escalated into something called erythrodermic psoriasis which is like a chemical burn all of your body. Life threatening. I drink carrageenan in a nondairy creamer that I get from Trader Joe’s. I’m wondering if it was trigger. I am now on methotrexate a chemotherapy agent because the psoriasis became life-threatening. I’m going to give up the creamer and see if that was the trigger. My friends believe it has to be an allergy. Thanks for making me think.

    • Sylvia F. says

      April 25, 2021 at 7:38 pm

      Carrageenan makes my skin itch on my ankles. Once I found out it caused the itching, I quit consuming it. No more red itchy breakouts! So Delicous is the way to go.

  7. Michelle says

    November 14, 2015 at 9:47 pm

    Hi. This is so interesting to me. I can’t use seaweed products on my skin and recently found out this includes carrageenan. I get cystic acne. Now I’m wondering about eating it too…I have a lot of digestive issues. Thanks for the article.

    • Christina says

      November 17, 2015 at 11:07 am

      Sorry to hear that! Glad the article on carrageenan and breakouts was able to help. You should really try avoiding it in foods too.

  8. Elaine Cunningham says

    February 29, 2016 at 10:47 pm

    For two days (mostly night time – last night I had to dunk my feet in a bowl of cold water to alleviate) have suffered itching on feet and hands, so much so that sleep is disturbed. I drank a litre of banana flavour milk more or less in one go. This morning I figured it must be allergic reaction possibly, couldn’t think of why skin would itch like this. Checked the ingredients on bottle and it came up with carrageenan. Possible cause? I have started a course of antihistamine – the thoughts of another disturbed night is not pleasant. I will self monitor for a couple of days.

  9. vegansfirst says

    March 19, 2016 at 8:22 am

    I want to say first I love your blog and really enjoyed reading this post. This is an extremely well written article. Thank you very much for this interesting post.

  10. Carla says

    June 13, 2016 at 6:58 pm

    Several years ago I noticed I would break out after drinking Swiss Miss cocoa. I narrowed the culprit to one ingredient – carageenan. I recently had a break out and happened to notice that my Aldi deli sliced turkey had carageenan. Since I stopped eating it, the break out has ceased. I’ve noticed that most ice creams have carageenan as an added ingredient. However, I have found two that don’t: Breyer’s chocolate and Aldi’s premium vanilla (which is delicious!).

    I was happy to find your article which confirms my problem with carageenan.

  11. Marie says

    February 7, 2017 at 6:26 pm

    I get a cold sore under my lower lip only when I use toothpaste with carrageenan. It’s happened twice (immediately after brushing) with the same toothpaste, which I used when my usual toothpaste ran out. There seems to be no doubt that it’s causing problems for many.

  12. Sara Harman says

    February 8, 2017 at 7:05 pm

    I have been struggling with cystic acne and other inflammatory skin issues. This week, I finally realized that it is this ingredient! After eating ice creams and sorbets, I noticed large painful swollen patches appearing either on my forehead or chin. It is this product!!!! I’m sure the dairy I eat, doesn’t help but I don’t have digestive issues, mostly just skin. My life is now forever changed and I can’t wait to see the results as I cut this ingredient out! Amazing. Life long sufferer of skin issues. Thanks for confirming!

    • Christina says

      February 10, 2017 at 9:37 am

      Hope things get better! If it does, come back and leave a comment to let us know. It’s so helpful when other people share their triggers too.

  13. Flo says

    March 8, 2017 at 7:10 pm

    Wow. I’ve been suffering really bad skin for several weeks, if not months. Bumpy red skin, especially on my forehead, and the driest flakiest chin that was getting really bad and sore. Went down with the flu for several days so couldn’t get to shops to buy my usual dairy free milk. And voila – my skin has cleared up! And yes, the dairy free milk contained carrageenan. Thanks to your article I’m convinced this was the cause, and now I can have good skin again!! Never been allergic to anything else, although I did find soy milk didn’t suit me. Vegans especially need to be informed about these crazy side effects!

    • Christina says

      March 17, 2017 at 10:10 am

      Hi Flo, I’m so happy that your skin is better after stopping carrageenan! Feel free to share the article with others who might need to know about it too. 🙂

  14. Jessica says

    March 15, 2017 at 2:07 pm

    I just wanted to say that I recently discovered how carageenan has been causing my stomach problems for about 10 years. What I didn’t think about was how it could be in out face and hair products as well. I was recently using a new face moisturizer and I started getting little white bumps everywhere. I couldn’t figure it out nothing had changed. So randomly I read the ingredients of the face moisturizer it had carageenan in it. A month after I stopped using it my face was back to normal. I juse thought I would give a heads up. It was nothing that had occurred to me to look for in my products.

  15. Ally says

    June 5, 2017 at 12:55 am

    I am thinking that this is the reason for two ulcerative colitis flare ups recently – something that hasn’t really happened for years. Thank you for the tips. I look forward to seeing if my skin improves as a result of avoiding Carrageenan.

  16. Murph says

    December 15, 2017 at 5:11 pm

    I take thyroid medication daily. When i eat carrageenan, a few hours later and the whole next day i feel extremely, extremely depressed. It blocks my thyroid medication from working properly. I avoid it like the plague but now companies are allowed to hide it in their ingredients list.
    As of Fall of 2016 if it is in a product (like cream for example) and you buy say hollendaise sauce, they can put just “cream” in the ingredient list, they dont have to tell you carageenan is in the cream they used anymore. Makes it much harder to avoid.

  17. cara says

    March 26, 2018 at 2:41 pm

    Pretty sure there might be some unlisted carrageenan in whole foods almond milk. I drank a lot of it and had severe bloating, stomach pains, gas, chest tightness and even eczema which I’ve never had before

  18. Grace says

    June 23, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    I’ve had skin issues for over a decade, it doesn’t resemble typical eczema at all but after biopsies and food allergy tests they say it’s “eczema” (the catch all when they have no idea what is actually going on), although my allergist suspected dermatitis herpetiformis (atypical Celiac) I’ve been off gluten for over a year and while my symptoms have greatly improved I now have been breaking out on my face just as you described. It’s horrible and embarrassing and has killed my self esteem. It’s itchy and painful. I have been drinking coffee drinks that most definitely contain carrageenan pretty much everyday for years. I was at a loss for what to do, especially since no doctors at all are helpful. I’m done and I’m going to avoid it to see if that may be my real problem. There’s hope yet! Thank you!

  19. Ruth Bowler says

    August 30, 2018 at 7:50 pm

    After eating items containing carrageenan I get itchy bumps on my stomach, my butt, and sometimes on upper arms. The bumps usually show up a few days after ingesting the carrageenan (which is not listed as an ingredient on some packaging such as Oscar Meyer Naturals deli turkey) but even after I stopped eating the deli turkey new bumps keep forming for a week or more. After they finally went away for a while the itchy bumps came back. That was when I discovered carrageenan was in Weight Watchers chocolate covered ice cream bars.

  20. Cami says

    November 20, 2018 at 10:39 pm

    My brother and I are both allergic to carrageenan. After consuming it, I immediately get sick and the skin on my fingers begins peeling off in sheets. After prolonged exposure, I get scaly rashes all over my body.

    I was sick on and off for a decade before my brother finally figured it out. Sadly, it’s not as easy as checking the labels. As another poster mentioned, often the label will just list “cream” and the carrageenan won’t be listed even though it’s a sub-ingredient of the cream. It’s getting so hard to find convenient meals to make without getting sick all the time 🙁

  21. Kate Chappell says

    January 20, 2019 at 3:03 pm

    Thank you. My 4 year old daughter started itching violently 8 hours after eating Alpro custard, so I searched for info on the ingredients and found your super-helpful blog. You’ll have saved my little one many hours of painful scratching (she doesn’t have excema) and me many hours of angst. Thank you again.

    • Christina says

      April 9, 2019 at 4:25 pm

      Oh that’s great news. So glad to hear you found a solution!

  22. KP KB says

    September 6, 2019 at 10:06 am

    Is there a test to see if a person is sensitive/inflammatory toward carrageenan? I imagine if there is, it’s an antibody test. It just seems like all these dietary allergies and sensitivities have few objective markers…leaving people to just guess and try going off the product/food. There’s all these “interleukins” and “cytokines” that people make in the inflammatory process but they too are non specific. Ugh….the field of medicine and biology has far to go!

  23. Sharon says

    April 23, 2020 at 7:55 pm

    I been drinking a LOT of almond milk for about six months now, I wonder if carrageenan can cause hair fall out since carrageenan causes inflammation. My scalp feels like there is some inflammation going on and Im loosing too much hair. I have tried organic biotin shampoos, biotin supplements, saw palmeto etc. . I decided just now to stop the almond milk and see if my hair loss stops. I started loosing hair around the time I first started drinking almond milk. Has anyone had massive hair loss drinking a lot of almond milk?

  24. Barbara Taylor-Moiirez says

    February 12, 2021 at 4:45 pm

    I look for foods with no carrageenan for a couple of years. It is hard to find many foods even cream that does not contain this awful product. I would like it banned. I cannot buy so many items that contain it. Barbara Taylor-Moirez

Christina Reeves
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