Skip to main content

Emulsifier Free Grocery Haul

It can be hard finding prepared foods like dairy, sausage and sauces without emulsifiers (food thickeners). These additives can damage the mucus lining of your stomach, if only temporarily, and allow bad bacteria into your system. That's how Dr. Davis explained what he thought was happening when I talked about it at the last Inner Circle meetup. 

Thickeners like carrageenan, guar gum, gellan gum, locust bean gum, even palm oil (used as an emulsifier in almond butter) and others are in foods you wouldn't suspect. I've had to toss out cream, protein powder, cream cheese, coconut milk, deli chicken--I even had to return a package of raw chicken once. Raw chicken! Why does raw chicken need anything added to it but butter, lemon and heat? Are they trying to make people sick?

It must have been making me sick because I've felt so much better without emulsifiers and thickeners. I can do physical work without wearing myself out, my palpitations are gone, my puffy face is gone, I'm  not hot and cold anymore, and I'm sleeping better than I have in ages. 

So what great foods have I found without emulsifiers and thickeners?

Kalona cottage cheese, Primal Kitchen BBQ sauce, Cleveland Kitchen kimchi, Nieman Ranch brats, Simple Truth almond butter, Daisy sour cream, Applegate ham, 365 hot dogs, and Organic Valley ricotta cheese.   Not shown: Native Forest simple coconut milk, Enjoy Life chocolate chips, various foods from Local Folks and Horizon Organic.

I'm going to try making cheesecake with ricotta cheese and let you know how it turns out. I can't find cream cheese without locust or carob bean gum. 

That said, I'm left with another problem: there are probably some very nasty bugs in my digestive system that have survived bacteriocins from L. reuteri and L. gasseri. A few inner circle members have mentioned die-off reactions from Sugar Shift, a probiotic. In other words, Sugar Shift kills bacteria (or possibly fungus) in a major way. When the weather cools off enough for shipping probiotics, I'll order a bottle and if possible ferment some.

Comments

Ann said…
Thanks for the food recommendations!
I'm following your emulsifier free journey, since I have been thinking this is why I have been stuck on a weight loss plateau for almost a year.
Don't know what recipe you are using for the ricotta cheescake, but Dr Davis' 30 Min or Less Cookbook has a great recipe on page 74 (breakfast cheescake) its my favorite.
Lori Miller said…
Hi, Ann! I'm going to use the recipe from Dr. Davis's site for members: https://innercircle.drdavisinfinitehealth.com

I haven't lost any weight since chucking the emulsifiers (I don't need to); I don't know whether it's something that would help with weight loss or not. But gut bacteria can affect weight, so it's possible you're right.
Kathy in OK said…
You made me wonder just what's in Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Hmm, lots of stuff. So I googled homemade cream cheese and it's quite simple. All it takes is whole milk or cream, lemon juice and salt.
Lori Miller said…
Thanks, Kathy! After watching a video on making cream cheese, I'm going to try straining my ricotta cheese and mixing it in the Cuisinart.

Popular posts from this blog

Dana Carpender's Podcast; Dr. Davis on YouTube; Labor Day Sales

Dana Carpender, who's written several recipe books and other works on low-carb, has a podcast and is still writing articles at carbsmart.com. She's a terrific writer and amateur researcher (otherwise known as reading , as Jimmy Dore jokes ). I use her book 500 Low-Carb Recipes all the time and I'm looking forward to hearing more from her. I've embedded her podcast on my blog (click on the three lines at the top right if you don't see it, or go to Spotify or other podcast source if you're getting this by email). Carbsmart.com doesn't seem to have a blog feed, so if you want to see the latest posts there, you can sign up for notifications at their site. Dr. Davis has been putting a lot more videos on YouTube, so I've added his channel to the lineup. Click on the three lines on my blog if you don't see it, or go to his channel here .  * * * * * Primal Kitchen is having a Labor Day sale-- 20% off everything. They sell high quality collagen powder, con...

Fasting blood sugar & insulin have crept up!

It's pretty bad when even conventional medicine thinks your blood sugar is high. I had lab tests done last week, as I do every year, and saw things were going in the wrong direction. Photo from Pixabay . Uh-oh.  Ideal blood sugar is about 70-90. Your blood sugar can be high because you're stressed or ill, but I felt OK. I can't blame it on cortisol, which was smack in the middle of the normal range. And my A1c, which reflects blood sugar over the past few months, shows that whatever is going on has been happening for a while. My insulin is more than double what it should be. Oddly, my triglycerides, which typically indicate carb consumption, were good.  I don't have an explanation for the triglycerides. I should have suspected something was wrong, though. I've felt very tired and a little sad for the past few months. Unlike many people with higher than ideal blood sugar and insulin, I had only gained about three pounds.  Regardless of my good weight and triglyceride...

Interview: The Microbiome's Effect on Almost Everything

Mark L. Cannon, DDS, MS joins Bret Weinstein of the Darkhorse Podcast for a discussion about the oral microbiome and its downstream effects on everything from acne to Alzheimer’s. Dr. Cannon is a pediatric dentist and professor of otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat medicine). It's an hour and 44 minutes, but well worth your time. Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjkOgCXiMeE

YouTube invites creators back; says Biden pushed censorship on COVID and politics

Google, which owns YouTube, is inviting back creators it kicked off the platform for content about politics, elections, and COVID. Google says the Biden administration pressured them to censor this content, and now Europe is trying to force them to censor lawful content. Jim Jordan, Representative from Ohio, explains on X. Thread here .  Created with AI on ImageFX.  YouTube creators banned or suspended for COVID content (source: Grok). Click to enlarge. Rep. Jim Jordan @Jim_Jordan 2h • 15 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X 🚨BREAKING: Due to our oversight efforts, GOOGLE commits to offer ALL creators previously kicked off YouTube due to political speech violations to return to the platform. BUT THAT’S NOT ALL. Thread: YouTube also: -Admits the Biden Admin censorship pressure was “unacceptable and wrong” -Confirms that the Biden Admin wanted Americans censored for speech that did not violate YouTube’s policies -Details when YouTube began rolling back its censorship policies on p...

Infrared Light: How much is too much?

It's the sort of thing that sounds like quackery: a pad with tiny red LED lights and a few buttons that's supposed to help you heal, just $30 on ebay. I never would have bought it, but Dr. Davis gave a presentation on infrared light late in 2024. Since I was still suffering from achilles tendonitis after being floxxed , I decided to try it.  I wrapped it around my ankle and turned it on the lowest setting for five minutes. Nothing seemed to happen, but the next day, I wrote,  My tendonitis is GONE after one 5-minute treatment! I didn’t feel it doing anything, I didn’t think it was going to do anything (at least not that quickly), but for the first time in several months, I’ve gotten out of bed and started walking normally and didn’t have any pain reaching with my left arm. I'd been shuffling around like an 80-year-old woman after getting out of bed in the morning. The tendonitis returned, but it was improved. I eventually had physical therapy for it, and now, apart from a l...