Is processed cellulose irritating your gut and stopping weight loss?

Have you given up gluten, and seen better digestive health and lost weight? I have something to share with you. Although you THINK it may be the absence of gluten in wheat which is making you feel better, I would argue that for many people it’s the absence of a nasty processed substance called carboxymethylcellulose in many commercial foods, especially wheat ones, which is the reason you are feeling much better. Symptoms that may have reversed when you chucked out the bread include no more rushing to the loo, feeling bloated and suffering embarrassing wind (which may have been mislabelled as “IBS”), wheezing with asthma, troubled by itchy eczema, and weight that just won’t shift.

Let me explain…

There is an emulsifier called carboxymethylcellulose which is creeping into our food chain. It is used in many commercial breads, pastries, croissants, cakes and biscuits to give them a desirable texture, holds them together and gives longer shelf life.

Carboxymethylcellulose appears under many names on food labels:

• Carboxymethylcellulose

• CMC

• Methylcellulose

• Cellulose

The most distracting guise in my opinion is “cellulose” because when we see that, we think, “that sounds ok”. Cellulose is roughage right? The stringy bits found in plants that is “good” for the gut, feeds good bacteria in the gut, and helps keep everything moving at the right pace right? But don’t be fooled. If cellulose is picked out as a listed ingredient, it usually means it is carboxymethylcellulose, a white plasticky processed powder which has been added.

Ok, so let’s look at the research on this substance – a known laxative. Let’s note what happens to mice when they are fed it at levels that mimic processed foods in the average person’s diet.

1. Their gut microbiota (that’s the trillions of bacteria in their digestive systems) becomes altered into an unhealthy pattern which signals to the immune system to become pro-inflammatory.

2. The gut lining become leaky leading to more inflammation in other parts of the body. Think of inflammation as a fire in your body. Any condition with the word “itis” at the end, plus asthma, and eczema, and autoimmune disorders are the result of inflammation. Inflammation also plays a role in obesity, type 2 diabetes, and inflammatory bowel disease.

3. Mice, who are genetically prone to inflammatory bowel disease, develop IBD. Normal mice with normal immune systems, develop mild gut inflammation and metabolic syndrome (altered metabolism and put on weight, become pre-diabetic).

A good summing up of research so far, including in vitro can be seen here. Human studies are in motion on this subject which will help guide us further on this subject. In the meantime, if your goal is good digestive health and weight, it’s an easy win, to pick unprocessed foods that don’t contain it, rather than do.

An anecdote:
I recently rang a supplement company to ask about the casing of their digestive enzymes. Digestive enzyme supplements can sometimes be helpful for people who aren’t producing enough of their own enzymes to break their food down properly, so can get terrible bloating as undigested food reaches the colon. It is often the result of eating on-the-run and not chewing food properly. Chewing signals to the digestive system to produce enzymes and stomach acid to help break food down.

Anyway, a quick fix, till people learn to relax and chew properly and change a lifelong habit, would be to support them with digestive enzymes.

However I’m cautious with supplements for people with digestive issues and prefer to concentrate on diet and behaviour changes (eg improved chewing and less processed foods). I’ve seen many suffer urgent and embarrassing loose stool from supplements (ask people to stop taking them, and hey presto, loose stools sometimes vanish). I wish someone independent would fund a randomised controlled study to give us some strong guidance on this, rather than just clinical observation.

Anyway, back to the supplement company which told me there is nothing to worry about giving people with digestive issues their digestive enzymes supplement as the casing, made from “cellulose” is just “bamboo pulp” from bamboo trees, so is a “natural product”.

Let’s not be blinded by the word “natural product”. We aren’t panda bears and in my experience working with humans in a gut health clinical setting, we don’t digest bamboo easily. Look for its appearance on labels and avoid where possible for better health.

Takeaways:

• If you want to improve digestive issues and functioning of your immune system, try to avoid foods containing carboxymethylcellulose in all its guises: CMC, Methylcellulose, or Cellulose. Just switching to a daily bread that doesn’t contain it, could make some difference within a couple of weeks.

• Gluten free foods – these are also often rife with added cellulose as it helps bind the food (a problem when the natural elasticity of gluten isn’t there). This is why if you give up wheat, it is a good idea to avoid commercial gluten free foods. Use spiralised vegetables instead of gluten free pasta, ground almonds instead of flour in cakes, and cucumbers slices as the carrier for your cheese in place of emulsifier-laden gluten free crackers.

• Vegan fake meats are often full of cellulose to hold them together. Vegan junk foods are a growing sector, beware if you are prone to autoimmunity in your family or have a history of digestive issues.

• You may even have been diagnosed with full-blown inflammatory bowel disease (IBD: Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s). Processed foods may be playing a part in the development and chronic nature of the disease. I met a gastroenterologist recently who said he observes that the people who get themselves off a processed diet and onto a natural one do best and can even reverse symptoms. I would second that. My book The Gut Makeover Recipe Book is full of ideas for meals using colourful and diverse real foods. Follow my video postings on navigating supermarkets and takeaways for the least processed options on Instagram and Facebook.

References
Chassaing et al (2015). Dietary emulsifiers impact the mouse gut microbiota promoting colitis and metabolic syndrome. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature14232
Viennois and Chassaing (2018). First victim, later aggressor. How the intestinal microbiota drives the pro-inflammatory effects of dietary emulsifiers. Gut Microbes. doi: 10.1080/19490976.2017.1421885