It’s time to get real about ingredients. Here at Mother Raw, we make our products with nothing but the best of what Mother Earth has to offer. We don’t use anything artificial and that’s a promise. As part of that promise we tell it like it is and fight back against fake food (food that poses as healthy when it is not), we’re exposing the truth about common ingredients we’ve seen in other products.
The Raw Truth: today, we’re giving you the 411 on gums and emulsifiers.
Emulsi-whats?
Emulsifiers and gums are food additives that are often used in processed foods as a texture modifier (US News). They’re used to thicken liquids or to soften dry foods such as baked goods. They also prevent foods from separating when they contain both water and fat. If you keep a keen eye on your food labels, you may have come across some of these additives like soy lecithin, xanthan gum, guar gum, polysorbate 60, and acetylated monoglycerides. Ever seen these grown in a garden?
These gums and emulsifiers, even in small amounts, have been linked to digestive symptoms such as gas, diarrhea, bloating, and cramps, and higher amounts could lead to more serious health problems (Healthline). At the very least, foods with these additives can make you feel kind of “blah”. We much prefer to stick to natural ingredients - staying as close to the plant as possible. Although some brands claim that their emulsifiers are derived from plant material, they often go through a lot of processing to get from plant to product making the end product vastly different from the plant it came from.
Separation occurs naturally!
Many salad dressings, sauces, and dairy products use emulsifiers to keep their products from separating. You’ll even find them in products that are labelled as “natural” or “organic”, so go the extra step - flip the bottle around and check out the ingredients list to make sure it still supports your clean eating journey.
Without these additives, liquid products separate. Like oil and water, separation is natural, baby! We challenge you to question products that don’t separate and look further into why that may be the case. Likely you’ll find some emulsifiers hidden in the ingredients list of some of your favorite products.
Shake what your Mother gave you!
When it comes to natural separation, there’s a simple little fix: shake it baby! Our Mother Raw dressings benefit from a vigorous shake and that’s something we celebrate. Mother Raw products are from Mother Earth so we wouldn't dare use anything created in a lab. We don’t use gums or emulsifiers and we’re proud of it. This means that our plant-based dressings naturally separate, and we think that’s pretty beautiful. So get your shaking dance moves ready!
Nature’s Fun Fact
Some of the natural ingredients we use here at Mother Raw have emulsification properties such as water-binding and oil-binding capabilities. Ingredients like chia and hemp seeds act as natural emulsifiers in our dressings to help thicken them and keep them from separating too much. We love them for what they do naturally, just as nature intended.
There you have it - the Raw Truth about emulsifiers. We’re telling it like it is, because you deserve to make choices based on what’s real. Stay tuned for more Raw Truths!
Written by: Victoria Ehgoetz