Cellulose gum is a consistency and bulking agent that the food industry puts in a wide variety of foods and drinks nowadays – even though it irritates and damages the gut! Both the intestinal mucosa and the intestinal flora deteriorate and inflammation occurs. This is serious! Cellulose gum and other similar microcrystalline cellulose are used to induce irritable bowel syndrome in animal studies – so avoid any food that contains this cheap bulk chemical as an additive.

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Addendum: This blog received a lot of attention when many people became upset about the use of harmful cellulose gum and the like in the capsules of dietary supplements. Several supplements also contain microcrystalline cellulose as a filler, and companies seem to think it is natural dietary fiber like that found in vegetables. This is not true, because they are semi-synthetic and harmful cellulose compounds produced from tree cellulose or cotton by strong chemical processes.

None of those listed at the bottom are good for our health. But unfortunately, these cellulose compounds are approved as food additives by the Swedish Food Agency. Worst of all, they are found in many convenience foods (see below). Therefore, it is important to inform food producers – or not to buy their cellulose products. As usual, the Swedish Food Safety Authority has not set an upper limit on how much can be used. Our health matters little, because the interests of their funder the food industry (the filling industry?) come first. That’s why it’s important to avoid foods with cellulose gums and the like (see below).

But I have to ask you two things: 1. Be patient with the dietary supplement companies needing to realize this and change (preferably have natural gelatin capsules again), and 2. Feel free to write and call them and influence so that we get an improvement – but use a friendly tone please! Understandable to get angry, and the anger gets on us but kindness gives results.

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I discovered this when I ate an organic gluten free bread but got bloated in the gut and so swollen around my shins that my ankles disappeared! (see picture). So I absolutely cannot tolerate cellulose gum – but it goes without saying that we humans should not eat cellulose – wood fibers?! ️

Cellulose gum is added to many breads to make them stick together well, but unfortunately it is also used a bit everywhere including in beer, wine, pastries, ice cream, biscuits and more and sometimes it is not even exposed (see list below). A cheap bulking agent put in the most unexpected places, like sprayed in tiger prawns to give more weight….

Many people also react to this unnatural additive, which is also used in gluten-free bread. One woman told me: “I gained 10 kilos when I switched to a gluten-free diet after my celiac diagnosis. Fluid accumulated in my body and my stomach was constantly bloated. Today I only eat naturally gluten-free and try to avoid all gluten-free bread and pasta.”

The emulsifiers carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), often called cellulose gum, and polysorbate 80 (known as Tween 80), keep sauces smooth and prevent frozen sweets from separating into their different components. They fluff up fast-food milkshakes and keep salad dressings creamy – but damage our delicate gut ecosystem.

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Cellulose gum irritates the gut (IBD)

So, cellulose gum is everywhere in modern food – but how harmful is it? When CMC has been fed to rats in volumes that mimic widespread human consumption, it triggers low-grade inflammation, weight gain and obesity. It caused worrying changes in metabolism and altered gut flora.

Animal studies consistently show that carrageenan and CMC trigger the cellular changes on the intestinal mucosa typical of irritable bowel disease (IBD) – while at the same time changing the gut flora (microbiome).

They disrupt the intestinal epithelial barrier, inhibit proteins that provide protection against microorganisms and stimulate the development of pro-inflammatory cytokines. The latter means that they stimulate the cells of the immune system to produce small biochemical substances that create inflammation, which is really bad. Studies in humans are of course unethical to conduct, but recent studies on changes to human epithelial cells (the intestinal mucosa) and the human microbiome support the results obtained from animal studies. So you create an ‘irritable bowel syndrome’

Sadly, it is also used to supplement the ‘vegetarian capsules’ that have now replaced most gelatine capsules. So I open them all, pour the contents into a glass of water and drink it. It tastes like that… but you get used to it too. Time to take back the gelatine capsules because they are neutral for the gut! Tapioca capsules are a vegan alternative.

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Where is microcrystalline cellulose found?

They’re also widely used in medicines, which is crazy considering how harmful they are! It should be on the packaging but not always like wine and beer – and check the E-number list at the bottom. This is another reason to be careful with or avoid industrially processed food.

• Ice cream: It reduces the risk of ice crystals forming in the ice cream and reduces the need for low temperatures, eliminating the need for conventional mixers or salt ice mixes. CMC prevents ice cream from dissolving into an ugly soup when left outside, and therefore the packet of ice cream retains its shape even when thawed
• Bread, cakes and biscuits: As an emulsifier or filler/improved texture with gum properties that hold together, and to save money with less fat and/or egg yolk.
• Sweets: Provides “smooth dispersion in flavor oils and improves consistency and quality”. CMC is used in chewing gum, margarines and peanut butter as an emulsifier.
• Beer, wine and soft drinks: Provides a good spread of aromas over the tongue and in the oral cavity.
• Toothpaste: Binding and filling agent.
• Medicines: consistency agents as in gel capsules, to make pills dissolve in the stomach and keep medicines suspended (well soluble) in liquids.
• Vegetable capsules: used for food supplements and medicines.

This is how the research group Rinninella E et al. write in 2020:

The interactions between diet, gut microbiota and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have many complex mechanisms that are not fully understood. Food additives are a component of the modern human diet that deserves attention from science and government policy. Exposure to food additives can induce dysbiosis and dysregulation of gut homeostasis with an alteration of the gut barrier and activation of the immune response. These microbial changes can exacerbate the gut symptoms associated with IBS, such as visceral pain, low-grade inflammation and changes in bowel habits.

Some additives (polyols) are excluded in the diets of IBS patients with low fermentable oligo-, di- and monosaccharide and polyol (FODMAP). Although most studies have been performed on animals, many artificial sweeteners, emulsifiers and food colorants are a potential hidden driver of IBS. Patients with IBS should therefore avoid food additives in the diet as well as supplements (and for those who want to avoid getting IBS for preventive purposes, my addition).

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FACTS Cellulose rubber:

Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) or cellulose gum is synthesized by the alkali-catalyzed reaction of cellulose with chloroacetic acid (organic acid). The polar carboxyl groups make the cellulose soluble and chemically reactive. The initial reaction produces a mixture of about 60 percent CMC plus 40 percent salts (sodium chloride and sodium glycolate). This product is called ‘technical CMC’ and is used, for example, in detergents. The salts are removed in further purification processes for the pure CMC used for food, pharmaceuticals and dentifrice (toothpaste). An intermediate “semifurified” grade is also produced, typically used in paper applications such as restoring archival documents.

E460 – Emulsifier, stabilizer, thickener and gelling agent microcrystalline cellulose produced from cellulose or cotton (!) treated with acid. E 468 may only be used for food supplements and as a carrier for table sweeteners, but others may be used without quantity restrictions for most foods, but not more than needed (E-text from the Swedish Food Agency’s website).

Image below: Hypomellose (HPMC) found in the “vegetable” capsules for supplements etc. is chemically almost exactly the same as cellulose gum (carboxymethylcellulose). They are both harmful to our sensitive intestinal mucosa AND they are sticky and absorb some of the supplements in the capsule. And they are difficult to dissolve completely in water, try it yourself.

Cellulose gum can also be called

• E 460 Microcrystalline cellulose, cellulose powder
• E 461 Methyl cellulose
• E 462 Ethyl cellulose
• E 463 Hydroxypropyl cellulose
• E 464 Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose
• E 465 Methyl ethyl cellulose
• E 466 Carboxymethyl cellulose, cellulose gum, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose
• E 468 Cross-linked sodium carboxymethyl cellulose
• E 469 Enzymatically hydrolyzed carboxymethyl cellulose, enzymatically hydrolyzed cellulose gum

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This is not ok. The easiest way is not to buy products with these in them. But it is important to email the Swedish Food Agency – livsmedelsverket@slv.se – and producers and help to start public opinion against this misdeed to put a chemical product unnatural and harmful to human food in food and drink!

Dr. Sanna Ehdin

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Good choice! Feel free to share in comments for more crumb-free products etc. without cellulose gum please!

References

• Read more in Sannas Fastebok
• Martino, JV. The Role of Carrageenan and Carboxymethylcellulose in the Development of Intestinal Inflammation Front Pediatr. 2017; 5: 96.
• Chassaing, B., Koren, O., Goodrich, J. et al. Dietary emulsifiers impact the mouse gut microbiota promoting colitis and metabolic syndrome. Nature 519, 92-96 (2015). Nature.
• Rinninella E et al. Food Additives, Gut Microbiota, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Hidden Track. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Nov 27;17(23):8816.
• Naimi S et al. Direct impact of commonly used dietary emulsifiers on human gut microbiota. Microbiome. 2021 Mar 22;9(1):66.
• Wellens J, et al. The role of carboxymethylcellulose in health and disease: is the plot thickening? Gastroenterology. 2022 Jan 10:S0016-5085(22)00015-4. Online ahead of print.
• Holder MK et al, Dietary emulsifiers consumption alters anxiety-like and social-related behaviors in mice in a sex-dependent manner. Sci Rep 17;9(1):172 (2019).
• Chassaing B et al. Dietary emulsifiers directly alter human microbiota composition and gene expression ex vivo potentiating intestinal inflammation. Gut. 2017 66(8):1414-1427.
• Viennois E et al, Dietary Emulsifier-Induced Low-Grade Inflammation Promotes Colon Carcinogenesis. Cancer Res. 2017 Jan 1;77(1):27-40.
• Healy, Melissa (2015-02-25). “Is common food additive to blame for rising rates of bowel disease?”. Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2017-07-12.The Role of Carboxymethylcellulose in Health and Disease: Is the Plot Thickening?
  https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(22)00015-4/fulltext

  Re-evaluation of celluloses E 460(i), E 460(ii), E 461, E 462, E 463, E 464, E 465, E 466, E 468 and E 469 as food additives
  https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/5047