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?
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| 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
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.
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.