So what exactly is xanthan gum?

http://whatallergy.com

It doesn’t take very much research to discover that “It is produced by the fermentation of glucose, sucrose, or lactose. After a fermentation period, the polysaccharide is precipitated from a growth medium with isopropyl alcohol, dried, and ground into a fine powder. Later, it is added to a liquid medium to form the gum.” (source: Wiki)

The word lactose should already be ringing alarm bells.

It appears that xanthan gum can be grown on sugar from dairy, soya, wheat or corn yet it rarely declares which medium was used to grow it.

It is also grown using a bacterian which causes cabbages to rot! Lovely! I hear you cry. Pass me some xanthan gum right now.

It’s used a lot because it’s considered to be relatively safe and is very cheap to produce. It is also very stable and works miracles with gluten free bread.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/20/kastel-organic-foods.aspx

Carragean No Safe - possibly cancer causing http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/20/kastel-organic-foods.aspx

Carragean is also grown on a medium of corn