831. Food emulsifiers are everywhere—from ice cream to peanut butter to bread. How do they affect gut health, inflammation, and chronic disease risk?
831. Food emulsifiers are everywhere—from ice cream to peanut butter to bread. How do they affect gut health, inflammation, and chronic disease risk?
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They’re in your ice cream, your peanut butter, and your oat milk–improving the texture and shelf-life of some of your favorite foods. But could they also be stirring up trouble in your gut or raising your long‑term health risks? Today, we’ll explore what the science says about emulsifiers.
Welcome to the Nutrition Diva podcast, where we take a closer look at nutrition news, research, and trends so you can feel more confident about what you eat. I’m your host, Monica Reinagel.
I recently heard from Zoe, a long-time listener, who says she’s been seeing a lot of alarming information about the emulsifiers used in industrial food production and wondered whether the concerns are legitimate—or overblown.
In today’s episode, we’ll take a look at what emulsifiers are and why they’re used, explore the different health concerns that have been raised, and look at what the science—and the food industry—have to say. And, as always, we’ll finish with some practical advice to help you make informed choices without falling into unnecessary fear or confusion.
Let’s start with an overview of what ingredients we’re talking about and how and why they are used in food production.
If you’re in the habit of making your own salad dressing, you’ve probably noticed how a simple vinaigrette of oil and vinegar will separate into two layers if it sits for even a few minutes. Oil and water just don’t like to stay mixed.
Some basic techniques can help. For example, if you add the oil to the vinegar in a thin stream and whisk vigorously, you break the oil into tiny droplets that will stay suspended in the vinegar, creating a silkier and more stable vinaigrette. Similarly, if you’ve ever made homemade mayonnaise or hollandaise, you know that the final step involves drizzling the oil into the blender while it’s running, which creates a stable emulsion and a smooth sauce.
Ingredients you probably keep in your kitchen are also useful in stabilizing emulsions…a bit of mustard in your vinaigrette or the egg yolks in your hollandaise act as natural emulsifiers, helping the oil and water-based ingredients cling together instead of drifting apart.
The food industry uses the same principle—just on a larger scale and with more specialized ingredients. Commercial emulsifiers keep your ice cream creamy, your chocolate milk smooth, and your “no-stir” peanut butter from developing that layer of oil on top. Emulsifiers prevent separation of the ingredients, improve the texture and mouthfeel, and extend the shelf life of some of your favorite foods.
Some of the most common emulsifiers you’ll see on ingredient labels include:
For decades, these ingredients have been considered safe under the “GRAS” designation—Generally Recognized as Safe—because, from a classic toxicology perspective, they’re not poisonous or carcinogenic in the amounts that you would normally get from diet. But more recent research has raised new questions: How do these additives affect our microbiome, metabolism, and gut health? Could the ingestion of these ingredients lead to health issues over time?
To answer these kinds of questions, we look first to the research literature. And most of what we know about emulsifiers and health comes from studies done in test tubes and laboratory animals. When researchers feed animals diets that are high in emulsifiers, they often see a cascade of changes.
The protective mucus layer that normally lines the gut can get thinner, and this allows some of the bacteria that usually live safely in the middle of the intestine to get closer to the intestinal wall. This can nudge the immune system into a low-level state of alert.
Researchers have also noted a shift in the balance of gut microbes, toward species that are more inflammatory. Over time, some animals develop blood sugar problems, weight gain, or other signs of metabolic stress. And in animals that are bred to be prone to conditions like colitis, these changes can tip over into full-blown digestive disease.
That last point is important. Using animals that are genetically predisposed to disease helps scientists study how these conditions develop, but it also means that we want to use caution in extrapolating those results to healthy animals (including humans). In other words, these studies might suggest what could happen under the right conditions, but not necessarily what will happen for most people.
The human research on these questions is still somewhat limited. A small study involving just a handful of people tested the effects of 15 grams per day of CMC for 11 days. That is five to ten times more than a typical person would consume from food. Most participants experienced only subtle changes in their gut bacteria, but two out of seven showed signs that bacteria were moving closer to the gut wall—a pattern that might promote inflammation over time.
The largest signals in humans come from observational research—studies that track people’s diets and health outcomes over time. For example, the NutriNet-Santé cohort in France has found that people who consume more foods with certain emulsifiers, particularly mono- and diglycerides, tend to have slightly higher rates of heart disease and certain cancers, including breast and prostate cancer.
Of course, we need to take into account the limitations of observational studies. People who eat more emulsifiers are generally eating a more processed diet, which is likely to differ from a less processed diet in a lot of ways besides just the emulsifier content. Even with statistical adjustments, it’s hard to tease out whether it’s the emulsifiers themselves or the overall diet pattern driving the risk. Observational studies can raise red flags, but they can’t prove that emulsifiers are the direct cause.
Some have speculated that emulsifiers could be one of many dietary factors contributing to the worrisome rise in colorectal cancer among younger adults. For some, the existence of any plausible link to such a serious disease is reason enough to invoke the precautionary principle, which would restrict such ingredients until proven safe beyond doubt.
The current administration appears more receptive to these precautionary arguments than some previous ones. But while the trend in colorectal cancer is indeed concerning, and a connection to modern dietary patterns seems plausible, there is at least one counterargument: in the largest observational study to date, the NutriNet-Santé cohort, no correlation was found between emulsifier intake and colorectal cancer risk.
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So where does this leave us?
For the vast majority of people, consuming emulsifiers in typical amounts doesn’t seem to cause any obvious harm. But there does appear to be a smaller, more sensitive group—people with inflammatory bowel conditions, metabolic issues, or other gut vulnerabilities—who may feel better if they avoid these ingredients. If you suspect that you may be sensitive, a short trial where you avoid commercial emulsifiers as much as possible could be a practical way to see whether it makes a difference.
But avoiding emulsifiers can be a challenge. It involves a lot of label reading and you may really have to search to find products that are made without them. Whether you are doing it as a temporary trial or an ongoing necessity, avoiding emulsifiers does place a significant burden on consumers because they are so widely used in so many staple products: things like yogurt, cottage cheese, bread, peanut butter. Even foods targeting health-conscious consumers, such as plant-based milks and meat alternatives often rely heavily on these ingredients.
And this raises a fraught question:
Should the entire food supply be regulated or reformulated to protect a relatively small number of consumers? Because removing emulsifiers entirely would come with real tradeoffs. If regulators were to require manufacturers to eliminate these ingredients, we would all see changes in the cost, availability, and even the taste or texture of some of our favorite foods. On the other hand, leaving things as they are puts more responsibility on sensitive individuals to monitor their diets and seek out products that work for them.
For now, regulatory agencies and food manufacturers are walking this line by monitoring emerging research without rushing to overhaul the food supply. And that leaves consumers with a choice: most people can eat these foods in moderation without worry, while those who are prone to gut issues might benefit from some extra label reading and selective avoidance.
One of the simplest ways to reduce your exposure to emulsifiers is to cook more from scratch. Homemade soups, sauces, dressings, and baked goods typically don’t rely on industrial stabilizers. Because dose matters, even a partial reduction in packaged and processed foods will substantially reduce your intake.
And that’s where a balanced approach can preserve both your health and your sanity. Unless you have a clear sensitivity or medical reason to avoid emulsifiers completely, you could decide to keep an eye out for these ingredients and skip them when it’s relatively easy—for example, choosing a brand of nut butter or salad dressing without them. That way, you don’t need to worry as much about the occasional scoop of ice cream or convenience food that may contain them. Reducing your overall exposure is likely to reduce any potential risk, without the stress of trying to avoid them entirely.
If you have a question you’d like me to answer, you can email me at nutrition@quickanddirtytips.com. If you’d like to find out about having me speak at your next live or virtual event, you can learn more at wellnessworkshere.com
Nutrition Diva is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Holly Hutchings is our Director of Podcasts. Steve Riekeberg is our audio engineer, Morgan Christianson heads up Podcast Operations & Advertising. Thanks also to Nat Hoopes for his support and most of all thanks to you for listening!