For acne, and the processed food epidemic, many people might prefer to live in ignorance.
With no knowledge of evil vegetable oil or brain-frazzling MSG, you can happily run riot in the supermarket grabbing anything off the shelf. You can become a permanent resident of McDonald’s, lurking 24/7 in a windowless corner, or tour a chocolate factory and jump head first into the rivers of cocoa flowing around.
Then you discover the perils of additives. Suddenly, you have to be cautious, inspecting every single ingredients label. You might even become paranoid and hallucinate a giant bottle of high fructose corn syrup shuffling towards you in an alleyway. It’s not like you have a choice either, because the likes of soybean oil are acne nightmares; you simply have to avoid them. It’s do or die.
Therefore, there’s only one solution: become a master of all you survey. Become a walking encyclopedia of every additive. Recently, we discussed citric acid. It’s generally safe, but is also pumped out by aspergillus flavus mould, and therefore may contain inbuilt inflammatory substances. Today, we will cover guar gum, or E412.
The very word gum suggests something weird when swallowed; like it clogs up your stomach, like a vast network of thick cobwebs in a dark cave.
If you see guar gum on a yogurt or ice cream label, is that food permanently out of bounds for acne? The answer is no.
What is guar gum?
Guar gum is essentially a thickening agent, much like corn flour. After absorbing water, guar gum can swell in size 10-20 fold. Unlike xanthan gum, master of sauces and salad dressing, guar gum specialises in cold foods and fatty foods.
Guar gum is also a stabiliser, a humectant, a binder – it’s almost as versatile as citric acid (found everywhere). It’s a thickener in numerous cosmetics, including the toothpaste in your mouth and the shampoo on your head. However, 70% manufactured worldwide is used in the food industry.
In ice cream, for example, guar gum delays the formation of ice crystals, which spoil the smooth creamy texture that everyone knows and loves. Importantly, guar gum keeps this quality during freezing and thawing. It also adds viscosity to ice cream.
The plant itself is 1-2 meters tall and grows in the humid realms of the Indian subcontinent, called Cyamopsis tetragonoloba. Its beans look nearly identical to the green beans growing in your back garden, with six to nine seeds per pod, but the guar gum inside has been an Indian livestock feed for hundreds of years. In a raw state, guar gum is a yellow to pale white powder, but transforms into a gel when mixed with water. It’s odourless and tasteless, which is why food manufacturers love it, even though some natural health gurus claim to have a sixth sense and sniff it down like a dog.
Today, India manufactures 70% of all guar gum worldwide. The US took notice in the 1940s; it was imported in the 1910s as green mulch to fertilise fields, but then World War 2 caused a shortage of locust bean gum, Food Incorporated’s thickener of choice. It was grown in North Africa, but unfortunately, Hitler’s panzers were roaming the desert freely. After USDA scientists pronounced it the perfect replacement in 1943, guar gum exploded.
These days, the raw price is nearly 20 times higher than in 2010. Why? It’s all down to US hydrofracking boom, which is transforming the wilderness of Texas like the railway once transformed the Wild West. To blast gas out of cracks deep beneath the earth, fracking merchants funnel in sand using water, and thickening this water with guar gum massively increases the gas yield (and therefore the banknote yield).
Halfway across the world, once impoverished Indian farmers are now rolling in cash. Guar gum could easily vanish soon, to cut costs, but that hasn’t happened yet…
The problems guar gum doesn’t have
Firstly, guar gum doesn’t have the vicious reputation of a mercury or a BPA, and for good reason.
The enamel-strengthening sodium fluoride found in toothpaste is so unhealthy, it’s amazing it’s still legal; countless studies link fluoride to lowered IQ in children and antioxidant depletion. Guar gum, meanwhile, is a desert; the nightmare studies simply don’t exist. Guar gum doesn’t spike inflammation, it doesn’t drain your acne-clearing antioxidant supply, and it doesn’t unexpectedly spike stress hormones.
Guar gum is also entirely natural, unlike phtalates used in plastic, for example. Natural doesn’t instantly guarantee safety – the heavy metal arsenic comes from the earth’s crust below your feet – but the substance won’t be inherently intolerable to the body, and unleash an all-out immune system assault.
Then there’s the production techniques, which are strangely safe. As we mentioned earlier, citric acid is not lovingly squeezed from an orange by an 80 year old gardener with the famed “old man strength”. No, 99% is spewed out by aspergillus flavus moulds, as a byproduct of glucose fermentation. The moulds are even genetically modified to increase their citric acid output. Inflammatory reactions to this phantom citric acid are common (though not quite an epidemic), and scientists seriously believe that hidden, toxic mould proteins may lurk within its molecular structure.
Guar gum, luckily, has no such dirty secrets. As of 2020, it’s still extracted from the Cyamopsis tetragonoloba legume, grown in sunny Indian fields. It’s easily superior to its fellow thickener xanthan gum, which is closer to citric acid, produced by xanthomonas campestris bacteria during glucose fermentation, a species which causes black rot disease in broccoli.
The production process – reasonably safe
Essentially, guar gum is made from the endosperm of the guar seed. Therefore, step one is using high tech hammer mills to split the bean into two halves, called “guar splits”, to separate the germ and endosperm.
Next, the husk (like an almond’s thin skin) is separated using either wet milling, where soaking in water loosens it. Or dry processing, which involves a flame, that chars the seed until it easily separates when funnelled through a saw-toothed blade chamber. The waste germ and husk are ground down into a protein-rich cattle feed, called guar meal.
The next goal is powder, and the guar endsoperm is simply ground down in hammer mills and attrition mills. Meshes and filters capture the finest particles; the larger particles are either re-ground or diverted to cattle field. Guar gum is born, and it happens without two key acne villains.
Unlike soybean oil, guar beans aren’t blasted at fiery temperatures of 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and consequently, loaded with free radicals. The flame in dry processing only chars the outer husk, and isn’t particularly extreme, and some factories prefer wet-milling. Scorching temperatures wouldn’t be as harmful anyway, because guar gum is fairly stable. Soybean oil, for example, consists of delicate polyunsaturated fats, which are vulnerable to free radicals on a warm supermarket shelf, let alone a factory.
Secondly, no solvents are used, the extraction chemicals which separate the oil from ground soybean meal, for example. Hexane is a notoriously inflammatory solvent, but guar gum doesn’t require them. Essentially, making guar gum powder is far easier than squeezing traces of oil out of corn; it’s a physical process, not a chemical one. Plus, guar gum is insoluble in hexane anyway.
The only fear – digestive problems
Even horror stories on internet forums are few and far between. Vegetable oils have been bogged down by controversy for years, but few acne-clearing enthusiasts are reporting an explosion of pimples in the mirror, and then a sudden eureka moment as they notice guar gum like clockwork on every suspected ingredients label.
The only internet murmurings are from people with digestive problems, like IBS. Xanthan gum and locust bean gum are also mentioned, and importantly, gut inflammation is a classic hidden cause of acne.
Therefore, the threat is plausible, and the best illustration is the classic tale of Cal-Ban 3000.
Essentially, guar gum once had a double life as a weight loss supplement. It predated the “extreme diet pills” now littering the internet and your spam mailbox; Cal-Ban 3000 was their 1980s grandfather, available as a $19.95 cycle lasting for three weeks.
The theory was simple: guar gum swells in size 10-20 fold after absorbing water, forming a viscous gel. Therefore, it increases fullness, calms hunger cravings, and prevents your hand from uncontrollably grabbing a donut.
The adverts made all sorts of extraordinary claims, like “short-circuiting the body’s fat burning process” and losing 50 pounds without dieting. “I lost 80 pounds, fast!” said one testimonial. A 1987 advert screamed “eat all you want and still lose weight” and that “your weight loss is automatic!”. It was a dream come true; you would never give into temptation again, because there wouldn’t be any. NOTE: if you’re curious, check out this advert in an archived “newspaper” in google books.
Market ruler Anderson Pharmacals offered a $1000 reward for glowing testimonials, but the first legal problems arrived in 1986. The FDA charged them with cooking up 5 falsehoods, including that 1) taking Cal-Ban 6000 will cause significant weight loss in all users, and 2) that Cal-ban 6000 prevents foods from being converted into body fat.
The company was forced to tone down its propaganda, but the FDA twiddled their thumbs until March 1990, when two men from Indiana (aged 21 and 66) were admitted to hospital. The diagnosis: a clogging of the oesophagus, and later, one person even died from complications.
In July 1990, US Marshals confiscated 350,000 bottles of Cal-ban 3000 from a warehouse, and 14 guar gum-dealing companies were warned from 1989 to 1991. Florida’s health department issued a ban after hearing from 50 (former) Cal-Ban lovers who required medical treatment.
Finally, in July 1991, the FDA dropped the hammer of justice, banning 110 failed weight loss ingredients in one fell swoop, with guar gum topping the headlines. The snazzy “le patch” was also outlawed, which claimed to released an appetite suppressant into the bloodstream. The most ludicrous were Fat Magnet Pills, supposedly containing thousands of tiny magnets which gradually attracted fat particles and flushed them out the body. Guess what: you still didn’t have to eat less.
The guar gum blockages were tough and supposedly had the texture of putty. Could smaller levels trigger smaller scale gut problems behind acne?
Sure, the small quantities in ice cream won’t clog up your entire gut, but nausea and vomiting were also common in 1990. Maybe guar gum chokes out acne-friendly strains of gut bacteria like lactobacillus rhamnosus. Perhaps guar gum sticks to tight junction proteins like occludin and weakens them, unleashing toxins into the bloodstream (see below).
Guar gum could even be so tough that acne nutrients like zinc aren’t digested properly anymore. The fact that IBS patients report stomach upset cannot be ignored…
Why guar gum may subtly help acne
…so what do the studies say? Essentially, there’s nothing to fear.
Guar gum has one digestive danger, and it’s a whopper, clogging your stomach, but like with acne itself, the scariest thing about the other studies is their ability to turn invisible.
Guar gum isn’t even a high FODMAP ingredient. Essentially, guar gum consists of galactose and mannose molecules, which are complex carbohydrates, but don’t fall under the FODMAP banner. Guar gum’s digestive troubles are nothing to do with the polyols or fructans that make onions and apples hard to digest. Read this article to understand FODMAPS, the main reason why perfectly healthy fruits randomly cause acne.
If anything, it seems that guar gum can actually boost your gut health. There’s a threshold, at about 1%, where guar gum transforms from eternally swelling nightmare to subtly beneficial. Studies have tested…
Friendly gut bacteria – more than ever, the balance between good and bad bacteria closely mirrors the balance between pimples and clear skin. Some species manufacture serotonin, others digest antioxidants in fruits, while some pump out anti-inflammatory molecules.
The key is to give healthy strains fuel, and guar gum may do that: this 1993 study found that giving 9 humans partially hydrolised guar gum (PHGG), 3 times daily for 2 weeks, increased colonies of bifidobacterium and lactobaciili, the two largest healthy families. Two weeks later, gut bacteria returned to normal, clearly proving that guar gum was responsible, like an on off switch.
More recently, a 2018 study tested PHGG in a petri dish and noticed that streptococcus thermopihlus devoured it, the main species found in natural yogurt. S. thermophilus manufactures bacteriocins which kill toxic, inflammatory species like E.coli and even improves the digestion and absorption of nutrients, probably acne-clearing ones (study).
Leaky gut syndrome – an insidious condition looming over millions of acne patients today. We’ve discussed it on Supernatural Acne Treatment before, but if you’re new: a leaky gut is when tight junction proteins in your gut lining cannot control the nutrients they absorb into the bloodstream, including inflammatory molecules pumped out by malicious gut bacteria, or toxins from food. Gluten is a common cause, and the technical term is “increased intestinal permeability”.
Firstly, this study seriously worsened intestinal permeability using the inflammatory chemical interferon-Y, but partially hrydolised guar gum (PHGG) could reverse the damage. Specifically, it repaired a protein called occludin. The other key proteins in leaky gut syndrome are claudins, the buildings blocks of the gut’s semi-permeable membrane, with 24 different members. Occludins, meanwhile, are different; they strengthen and stabilise the membrane, like cement compared to bricks. More occludin is known to tighten the membrane’s structure and lock the door on toxins.
A second study was even better. Living, breathing rats (though not humans) were fed dextran sodium sulfate, a nasty chemical which weakens the intestinal barrier. For 12 days, they took DSS alone or DSS plus 10% guar gum and PHGG. The key proteins were tested: occludin and claudin 3, 4, and 7. DSS crippled them, but ultimately, with the guar gum, their expression was 10%, 60%, 120%, and 110% higher respectively.
The scientists reached a glorious conclusion: “these findings suggest that microbial metabolites of PHGG and GG… reduce intestinal barrier defects and inflammation“. Guar gum could join the quercetin antioxidant in spinach, also known to increase claudin proteins, and therefore a top vegetable I recommend (just buy it organically).
Translated to English, the traces of guar gum in ice cream may protect against leaky gut syndrome.
Gut inflammation – it is well known that pro-inflammatory immune system chemicals cause acne when running riot in the gut. Tomato allergies, irritable bowel syndrome, nausea – all are linked to pimples. This study gathered female mice with colitis, or inflammation of the colon lining. This time, partially hydrolised guar gum (PHGG) was fed for two weeks beforehand.
The result: a significant fall in neutrophils and TNF-a, two major players in the pro-inflammatory world. PHGG worked by feeding bacteria and increasing their production of three short chain fatty acids: acetic acid, propionic acid and butyric acid. Butyric acid is particularly promising for inflammation, and naturally occurs in some foods like butter. Its main side effect is suppressing appetite and being a promising weight loss supplement. Pistachios also increase butyrate formation.
A second study was nearly identical. Dextran sulphate was fed to mice to induce colitis. Compared to controls, the PHGG group enjoyed vastly reduced pro-inflammatory chemicals like TNF-a and neutrophils. They’re the same villains as before, so it’s great to have consistency. Two biomarkers of free radicals also fell, called myeloperoxidase and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances. Our final study was perhaps the greatest, simply because it tested humans rather than mice. After taking guar gum, autistic children enjoyed newfound freedom from TNF-a and IL-1β in their guts.
Gut inflammation is tightly linked to acne, and guar gum is tightly linked to a less inflamed gut.
Today is a strange day: we have a processed food additive which accidentally improves your health, rather than chips away at it. The manufacturers were completely unintentional; like with any additive, they just bumbled into it, choosing guar gum for its absorption and texture powers.
The mystery – guar gum vs PHGG
But here’s the killer; these benefits have only been noted for partially hydrolysed guar gum.
PHGG is the same but different. It’s extracted from the guar bean pod in India, it’s ground and crushed and filtered, and no additional chemicals are added. The only difference is that the mannose sugar chains are severed, through treatment with enzymes (β-endo-mannanase), which alters the molecular structure and makes it infinitely more digestible.
This is a godsend for certain food companies as it reduces guar gum’s viscosity, ensuring that ice cream addiction is an American tradition which will never die. PHGG lacks the famous swelling properties too; the wacky tale of Cal-Ban would have never happened.
Essentially then, our first question is whether normal guar gum has the same digestion-boosting powers.
Our second is how common PHGG is around the food industry. Manufacturers prefer PHGG in liquids, where its smaller molecular size particularly helps the texture. However, it’s impossible to find out what proportion of guar gum worldwide is PHGG. If all ice cream and yoghurt contained it, calming gut inflammation would be a nice bonus of eating them as an acne-friendly treat. It’s impossible to say for sure; maybe the global head of Guar Gum International knows the answer, in his isolated base on a snowy Indian mountaintop.
The verdict
Either way, guar gum is one of the safest acne additives out there.
Guar gum is acne-friendly unless you have severe digestive issues which make its mannose or galactose intolerable. You could react to an unknown compound, but that’s true everywhere, and horror stories are few and far between.
Overall, guar gum comes in peace. It’s a particularly important ingredient to know inside out, because guar gum often pops up in acne-friendly treat foods: cheese spreads, flavoured yoghurt, coconut milk, ice cream, sauces, soups, and fruit drinks. Those foods aren’t 100% acne-friendly, but they’re in the second tier: way above a greasy pizza, acceptable in small amounts. Sugar is the main problem, but wheat and vegetable oils are far away.
Other sources include breakfast cereals, salad dressing, baked goods, desserts, and syrups. Guar gum is everywhere, but its sphere of influence is slightly smaller than citric acid. Cosmetic sources include toothpaste, shampoo, body lotions, and conditioners.
Should you grab a tub of ice cream and see the words guar gum, there’s no need to worry.
Thanks for reading!