Aidan:
Welcome to the Ideal Nutrition Podcast. My name is Aidan Muir. I’m here with my co-host, Torwen Eerkins. This is episode 251. And we’re going to talk about emulsifiers and whether they are bad for gut health.
One of the things that probably kicked this off more in the last six months was one clip on social media. It was from two people. I’d say they have pretty good reputations. And they made some pretty strong claims about emulsifiers being bad.
Although they have strong reputations, there was one thing in there that was factually incorrect for sure. Which makes it even more okay to question some stuff. They talked about Greek style yoghurt having emulsifiers. Did you see the clip?
Torwen:
No, I haven’t.
Aidan:
Okay, well that’s irrelevant. I don’t know if those listening have seen it then. But they talked about Greek-style yoghurts having emulsifiers. If you actually turn over every Greek-style yoghurt in the supermarket, you see a small portion do. But most actually don’t have emulsifiers.
They were basically talking about emulsifiers as in the research is definitely leaning in favour of them being bad for gut health. We’re going to break this down and see if there’s any accuracy to that claim. And share our own thoughts at the end of it.
Torwen:
Absolutely. So let’s start off with what are emulsifiers. Emulsifiers are used to combine substances that normally wouldn’t mix. Things like oil and water. And prevent them from separating into layers. They work by having a water-loving end and a fat-loving end. Which then allows stable mixtures in things like salad dressings, ice cream and mayonnaise.
There are different emulsifiers, both synthetic and natural. We’ll run through some of the common synthetic ones. Things like mono and diglycerides of fatty acids, polysorbates, carboxymethylcellulose or CMC. Natural ones like egg yolks, which are high in lecithin. Soy lecithin. Things like mustard as well. As well as things like guar gum, xanthan gum, pectins, and carrageenan.
Aidan:
And we’re going to start with the benefits of emulsifiers. I always think it is relevant looking at why this stuff is in food in the first place. Usually, people aren’t adding stuff just for the sake of it.
We use a different example. But if we look at oils, right. There are many times people would criticise certain oils for being too refined or whatever. If you look at the process as to why they’re too refined or whatever, it’s one of the reasons. It allows them to get way more oil. If you’re a company and you’re trying to sell it, I see why they would do that.
Then the debate becomes, is this bad, so on and so forth. But let’s just start with emulsifiers. Why are they added to products? There are a few functional reasons. The first one that I’m going to start off with is that I’m just going to use actual examples.
Lecithin is added to chocolate. To ensure that the cocoa butter evenly coats the cocoa and sugar to make sure it isn’t gritty. Polysorbate is added to ice cream. That makes sure that it’s more creamy, not clumpy. And it slows the rate at which it melts. Mono and diglycerides are added to bread to slow down how quickly it becomes hard and stale.
In a lot of other products, it’s as simple as keeping a stable consistency. So, for example, in salad dressings, the oil and vinegar don’t separate.
Torwen:
Absolutely. Which means, across the board, this can help make food more accessible. And products more consistent too. So they are added for a reason.
Aidan:
I’ve got one more there. I’ve got a health benefits section. There’s not heaps here. I didn’t go too deep on this. But I want to be like, okay, there are cases where, functionally, it makes sense.
There are many people in this world. I won’t say it’s heaps and heaps. But there are people who very specifically supplement soy lecithin for benefits. That is one of the natural emulsifiers, right. So maybe if you have the appeal to nature fallacy or whatever. That is something that makes it even more beneficial in a way. But it has some logic behind it.
It’s not something that’s super strongly recommended in many cases. But it provides choline. Which could be good for brain and liver health. It can reduce cholesterol levels. And it has a few other applications. I wanted to point out that there are times people go out of their way to use some of these as health supplements. Let alone before the stuff we’re about to talk about.
Torwen:
I actually did have a look at a specific study in soy lecithin. The dose here was 500 milligrams a day. Which helped to reduce total cholesterol by about 40%. And LDL by about 42% over two months.
Aidan:
That’s huge.
Torwen:
It’s a massive effect.
When I read that, I thought, wow, okay. That actually is a really big difference. But there are a few things that we’re going to talk about which weren’t considered in that specific study. So it’ll be in the show notes. For anyone who wants to have a read through that one.
In terms of how it could potentially be harmful to gut health. That’s what we’re going to run through now. This is what this specific video, I think that Aidan is probably referencing, spoke about.
In terms of what the proposed mechanisms are. Altering gut microbiome composition. Disrupting the mucus layer. As well as increasing permeability in the small intestine. Anything else you wanted to add to that?
Aidan:
Exactly right. If we’re scaremongering, it’s hard to say if it’s scaremongering. It’s just like, well, it’s actually a thing. The scaremongering way of saying that. Is it’s almost detergent-like. And it’s dissolving the mucosal layer over time in the intestines that could lead to increased permeability of the intestines. Or, if you want to use other language, what people could call leaky gut over time.
Torwen:
So, in terms of studies in this area. I had a look at a 2021 study. They looked at food emulsifiers and increasing intestinal inflammation risk. Specifically, this study found that carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate were the ones that affected gut microbiome and increased this risk of inflammation. Whereas things like lecithin, in this specific study, were not as significantly impacting gut health.
Aidan:
Incredible. There is a bunch of animal research. I haven’t written down any of the animal research in my notes. Because the animal research actually did make a bit of a strong claim. It did make it seem like this is a bit of an issue. But there are many things in animal world that don’t translate to the human world. So I do like to prioritise human research. But I figured I’d flag that particular view as somebody who reads a bit more into animal studies as well.
Something else that makes it look a little bit scary. Is a 2024 study looking at exposure to emulsifiers in general. As measured by food diaries. They would basically go through and look at the ingredients list on all of these products. And stuff like that. They found that people with inflammatory bowel disease had much higher intakes of emulsifiers in general than those without.
That sounds scary. If I was going to make a counter argument. That’s not strong evidence by itself. Because indirectly, that is arguably just measuring processed food intake, to a certain degree. There are also many things that could explain that link.
Another thing that does seem to be pretty clear. Is that rates of inflammatory bowel disease have been going up over time. And the trends show very clearly that it’s occurring in countries as they gain more access to this type of food. So you can clearly be like, something’s changing. What is it? If it were measuring processed food intake, a lot of things could be playing a role there. But it is also worth being aware that this link exists with emulsifiers as well. Whether it is or isn’t the actual explanation.
Torwen:
This is a bit of a grey area in research at the moment, I think. Because there is increasing advice to reduce dietary emulsifiers specifically in the IBD population. But the research is a little bit mixed. On the other hand, there is also, like you said, a different trial that I looked at. It was double-blinded, with 24 patients. They looked at disease activity in high and low emulsifier diets. There was really no statistically significant difference.
Aidan:
Yeah, and that’s really reassuring. That study was in Crohn’s. I also mentioned it in the notes, that was 2025. The reason why I mentioned that is because it’s so early in this research. The fact that, in the last two years, we’ve had big studies has probably changed the opinions of a lot of people.
Small sample size. But it does add to the body of research. Particularly because if you’re going down the road of the scariest scaremongering way of saying this. As this detergent-like thing. You would be a bit more reassured. Being like, well, if it was that bad we probably wouldn’t see no difference in a study that went for four weeks. Even though it’s four weeks. With a high exposure versus quite a low exposure. So it adds to the body of research. It doesn’t give me strong opinions at this stage. But I do think it’s relevant. And worth knowing.
Torwen:
Any other studies that you wanted to add on? Should we give a bit of an interpretation of our thoughts?
Aidan:
Yeah, interpretation. Do you want to go first? Because neither of us have spoken off air about our interpretation. So, what have you got?
Torwen:
I’ve got a few thoughts. Because I think immediately just saying, it’s emulsifiers. This is the issue. In nutrition and dietetics, that can be a bit of a problem. Because then people hyper-focus on specific product foods. Whereas, by what you were saying before, it’s much more likely. That the issue lies with the diet pattern. And what sort of foods are being consumed?
Is it just generally a high intake of processed foods. That is contributing to negative outcomes in terms of gut health? Or is it the fact that it’s emulsifiers specifically? I don’t believe that there’s enough research for us to make a strict, or very supported, claim there.
Aidan:
Yeah, absolutely. I am in the same boat on that as well. I have a lot of people who are clients of mine who have IBD, whether it’s Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis who cares a lot about this. I don’t know if they listen to the podcast. But in those cases, I am actively sharing my two cents.
If I was in your shoes, I probably would limit my exposure to this. I wouldn’t go to the point of completely avoiding these things. At the expense of all other variables or whatever. But I would limit my exposure for sure. I would also, in general, try to prioritise nutrient-rich, minimally processed foods. Because that has a bunch of benefits anyway.
Like, if you go down a list of micronutrients and stuff like that. And how that can play a role in inflammatory bowel disease as well. I would definitely be doing that. I think it’s almost like this thing. Where if you pursue that anyway, you’re naturally going to reduce your intake of these things.
So I am still of the opinion that I have some level of caution. I’m very closely watching this research phase. Because I think it is interesting. And I would potentially strengthen my stance on this if more research came out showing that it was more linked. But I also don’t have a strong stance at this stage.
Torwen:
I wanted to add on to that. Because absolutely, I’m with you. If you have a client, or a person, who already has inflammatory bowel disease, it makes sense to be a little bit more sceptical. Maybe a little bit more careful.
In terms of healthy individuals, I think a lot of your recommendations stand. You still want to be consuming a high intake of unprocessed foods. High-fibre, plant-based whole foods generally. Not just processed foods. So I think moderating intake in both populations makes sense. Maybe being a little bit more careful, if you’ve already got IBD.
Aidan:
And the last sense I’ve got on this. I don’t want to name any products. Because it would be very easy for me to name some. But I don’t want to name any in particular without having a strong sense of this. There are a lot of people, particularly in the fitness community who will be having certain products every day that do contain this. Even for the general healthy person, I am cautious enough that I probably wouldn’t go extreme. To the point of having stuff like this every day as well.
Just for the risk of IBD development. But that goes back to the same point. If you’re prioritising minimally processed foods, you wouldn’t be doing that as well.
Torwen:
Makes a lot of sense. Should we wrap up here? This has been episode 251 of the Ideal Nutrition Podcast. Thank you for listening. As always, if you have any other topics you’d like us to cover, please let us know.