Irish Moss vs Carrageenan

Posted on 24. Jan, 2015 by Abby Cahn Anton in Ingredients, Irish Moss, Raw Food, Recipes, Seaweed

I’ve noticed a lot of people shy away from using Irish moss because of the research which shows carrageenan may cause inflammation and may promote tumor growth. Here’s what I’ve learned about Irish moss and carrageenan:

My understanding is that carrageenan is a processed version of Irish moss. The health question is related to the way it’s processed. Carrageenan is processed with chemicals. Research showing possible negative health effects was done on the processed version, not on whole Irish moss.

Additionally, there are two grades of carrageenan (again, not to be confused with Irish moss) – food-grade, a.k.a. “undegraded,” and “degraded,” which is also called “poligeenan.”

Poligeenan is processed with much stronger chemicals (similar to battery-acid) than carrageenan, and it appears that the research (which was done on lab animals) likely used degraded carrageenan, or poligeenan.

In my opinion, starting with whole Irish moss, soaking and blending it yourself, leads to a much superior and most likely health-promoting end result as compared to carrageenan.