What do Ice Cream and Dish Soap have in common?

A strange question you may ask, but actually an important one if you are in the business of avoiding diabetes and staying in good health.

What your favourite ice cream and your dish soap have in common is

Emulsifiers.

A recent study published in The Lancet in May 2024, analysing data from 104139 adults enrolled in the French NutriNet-Santé study, found :

"direct associations between the risk of type 2 diabetes and exposures to various food additive emulsifiers widely used in industrial foods".

Emulsifiers, crudely speaking, are things that make oil and water mix together. So your ice cream stays soft and your dish soap dissolves the grease in your pan.

What happens, though, when we ingest them?

Emulsifiers will have a kind of a "dish soap like" effect on the mucus that lines our gut and on the cell walls of the bacteria that form our gut microbiome. Emulsifiers also make it easier for us to absorb fats, which will feed certain types of bacteria more than others and can mess up the delicate balance and diversity which is so important to that environment.

As you can imagine, that is not optimal. Both our mucus and our gut microbiome play a crucial role in protecting us from "invaders" and much much more. Messing with their well being is like cutting the branch we are sitting on.

I am not suggesting that all emulsifiers are the devil. Many, in fact, are derived from natural sources. The occasional ice cream or piece of chocolate is not going to kill you. Our gut cells are some of the fastest to regenerate.

The devil here is in the dose - and the frequency. Because emulsifiers are everywhere: pastries, cakes, milkshakes, ice cream, desserts, chocolate, bread, margarine, nut butters (the ones where you do not see the oil on top), pre-made frostings and icings, ready meals, sauces … the list is long. So...

Be smart about what you choose 

You can spend that extra 2 mins stirring your nut butter, rather than buying one that looks smooth but has unnecessary things added.

Read the labels. All these are emulsifiers 👇 :

• Lecithin (e.g., soy lecithin, sunflower lecithin)
• Mono- and Diglycerides
• Polysorbates (e.g., Polysorbate 80, Polysorbate 60)
• Sorbitan Esters (e.g., Sorbitan monostearate)
• Carrageenan
• Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) or Cellulose Gum
• Guar Gum
• Xanthan Gum
• Locust Bean Gum
• Gellan Gum
• Pectin
• Acacia Gum (Gum Arabic)
• Sucrose Esters
• Calcium Stearoyl Lactylate
• Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate (This is the one that is also found in dish soap!)

You will not find any of these in a regular kitchen. This should always raise alarm bells. 

I know that it is not realistic or possible to avoid them all, all the time. Although I strongly recommend avoiding Polysorbate 80 (P80) and Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) which have been shown in studies to be particularly nasty.  

And if you like ice cream - stay tuned. In a few days, I will be showing you how to make one in no time in your own kitchen - no dish soap involved😉.