Carrageenan, Schmarrageenan

The other day my husband and I stopped at Starbucks for his usual (mocha frap, no whip) and I tried an earl gray tea latte, which was surprisingly tasty. In fact, I'd have lattes, tea or coffee, more often if they weren't so flipping expensive. If only Starbucks carried some sort of soy creamer, then I could have a simple coffee for much less than a latte and be satisfied (as I take my coffee - or used to anyway - with cream).

Was there even such a thing as soy creamer, I wondered? Because then I could enjoy a coffee at home on occasion (I've given it up on a daily basis) and save even more money.

So......

(wait for it....)

I googled. Turns out Silk does make several varieties of soy creamers! But just because it's soy doesn't necessarily mean it's something I want to ingest all of the time, so like a good little vegan I researched the ingredients:

Organic Soymilk (Filtered Water, Whole Organic Soybeans), Palm Oil, Maltodextrin (from Corn), Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Soy Lecithin, Potassium Phosphate, Sodium Citrate, Tapioca Starch, Natural Flavors...

So far, so good...

Carrageenan.

Huh? What in the world is carrageenan?

Again, I googled. Apparently, carrageenan is a type of seaweed used as a thickening agent in many dairy and dairy-like products such as yogurt and soy milk. Okay, makes sense. Soy isn't naturally all milky. But then I stumbled upon a number of websites whose authors did not approve of carrageenan consumption because of its links to causing cancer.

(*sigh*)

According to Andrew Weil, M.D., there are two types of carrageenan: degraded and undegraded. The degraded carrageenan is the type that can cause cancer. The undegraded version is what is used as a food additive. Yippee! Oh, but wait. Due to various factors such as food preparation or how the food is digested, the undegraded stuff in our food can become degraded as we ingest it.

Oh...come...on.

Here I am, changing my entire diet, eliminating refined sugars and processed foods, eating only whole grains and chucking simple carbs, saying goodbye to all animal products and replacing them with fruits and veggies, and now I'm supposed to say goodbye to my organic soy milk because it contains carrageenan? I know, I know. Not all soy milks contain carrageenan. Well, all the ones at my grocery store do. And I really like this brand of soy milk.

So too damn bad! If I'm going to the measures of veganism for a healthy lifestyle and the Good Lord is going to take me of intestinal cancer from the carrageenan in my soy milk, He must really want me with Him. I'm not fighting that battle.