With the weather getting hotter, many people are enjoying ice cream for a cold sweet treat. Ice cream, like many other foods, usually contains emulsifiers, so I wanted to explain more about emulsifiers and distinguish among them so that you can choose with more information.

Emulsifiers have a hydrophobic part and a hydrophilic part and are therefore used to create uniform mixing of fats and water-based ingredients in processed foods. To put it more simply: most of us know that oil and water don't mix, and emulsifiers allow oil and water to mix. These emulsifiers are added to foods to increase shelf life and improve texture. Emulsifiers are typically added to not only foods, but also cosmetics and cleaning agents.

Some common industrial emulsifiers are mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, polysorbates (polysorbate 80, found in ice creams, salad dressings, and baked goods), carboxymethylcellulose (CMC, found in thousands of packaged foods), and carrageenan (found in, for example, some plant milks). Some common natural emulsifiers are lecithin (from egg yolks and soy), mustard, and hydrocolloids (plant gums like pectin and xanthan gum). Guar gum is more of a thickener than an emulsifier but also acts like an emulsifier.

Most emulsifiers are not good for your health. For example, emulsifiers disrupt the mucus lining of the gut, and can cause leaky gut whereby food particles and bacteria exit the gut and lead to inflammation. The worst offenders of this are CMC, carrageenan, and polysorbate 80. Not all emulsifiers are as detrimental for your microbiome, as some natural additives (lecithin and gum arabic) can actually promote the growth of healthy bacteria.

If you look at the ingredients of Blue Bell (the most ingredients), and Haagen Dazs (the fewest ingredients), you can see that Haagen Dazs uses egg yolk as an emulsifier, as it contains lecithin. By contrast, Blue Bell uses 5 emulsifiers, including carrageenan. As you may recall, carrageenan is one of the worst offenders of disrupting the mucus barrier in the gut. Moreover, Blue Bell uses bioengineered food ingredients, which many people try to avoid.

So as you can see there are healthier options even for ice cream, if you take the time to read the ingredients list. But if you want to avoid type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, you may want to eat your ice cream in moderation.

I hope you found this post to be helpful.