Why do some companies now put ‘no gums’ on their prepared food labels?
What is so offensive about gums? Paleo. It’s the paleo people who want nothing processed. But I have yet to see an allergy label attached.
All plants consist of some form of gum or milky substance. The name we give it really doesn’t matter.
So if we use that substance, processed into a powder form to thicken our food to ease it into the gut, then what’s the big negative?
It still acts like a gum when reconstituted. Stir it into the water, and it thickens the water almost like it does the original product. Sure it takes a lot of plants to make it, but it takes a lot of olives to make a little olive oil and a lot of corn kernels to make a little corn oil.
What are we to do now? Preserve the life of the plant? You eat plants don’t you? You eat seeds, nuts, fruit, leaves, stalks? So why not isolate the gummy substance from the stalks and use it for something we need to replace eggs?
The Paleo will say no, eat the eggs as long as the chickens eat a pure diet of whole foods and ingest no supplements, medications or hormones.
Paleos are big on animal meat as long as the animals are grass fed. That though sets up a situation whereby the animals becomes food processors for grains, even though Paleos don’t consume grains. Go figure.
Any food can cause an allergic reaction in some people. Any food, especially raw fruits and vegetables can cause bloat.
Eating a diet like the cave dwellers ate doesn’t make much sense, when everything in the universe evolves. Why wouldn’t our diet also evolve? Of course it would.
Personally I think the slaughter industries support the Paleo diet as a means of keeping the slaughter industries profitable.
Although gums are generally recognized as safe, some say gums may act like latex, to which some people have a sensitivity or are allergic.
These days gums seem to be the thickener of choice used in nearly everything that benefits from a thickening agent. So one might think that all that exposure might desensitize ourselves to them.
Right now I utilize guar gum, xanthan gum and agar as thickeners, so far without detriment. Until such time I hear of real dangers, I’ll keep using them.
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