Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff Lauren vog obamb here. It's possible that you've never heard of zanthing gum, but it's extremely probable that you've eaten it before, maybe in a salad dressing, ice cream, or a smoothie xanthing gum is a compound that stabilizes and thickens foods so that they have the flavor and
mouth feel that you'd expect. Since it's discovery in the nineteen sixties, zanthing gum has been an ingredient in a variety of foods and beverages, including sauces, dairy products, baked goods, confections, and low fat spreads. It helps suspend spices and salad dressings, and even gives toothpaste to that smooth and consistent texture. It's actually used in a number of industries, like to help thicken drilling fluid in geotechnical engineering, and to bind
ingredients together in cosmetics. It's also a key ingredient in gluten free foods of people with Celiac disease and gluten sensitivities can experience painful stomach cramps and diarrhea if they eat baked goods or other foods that contain flour. The foods made without gluten rely on xanthing gum and other ingredients to thicken them up and bind moisture inside, so that gluten free breads and pastries can have the same
texture and flexibility of foods that contain gluten. We spoke with Shaan Matievich, chef instructor at the Culinary Institute of Virginia and Norfolk. He explained that it's just as useful in household kitchens as commercial ones because it's colorless and flavorless. Unlike other thickening agents like cornstarch or flour, xanthingum doesn't block the flavor of the food it's mixed with, he said. I talk about it with my students. It's something I've
been using for a long time. It's a really cool way to manipulate texture, especially with sauces and baked goods. For example, if you're puring juicy vegetables to make a sauce, say bell peppers, zanthing gum smooths it out and helps it cohere. It comes in a powder form that you can find in the grocery store or online, and you need very little of it to create the thickening effect. Matievich said, So when we're using cornstarch, we're using it
in concentrations of like one. With zanthing gum, we're using it in like a quarter of a percent or even less than that. But if you use too much zanthing gum, it can get rubbery. Matievich said, I described the texture sort of like mucus. It's very distinct and not pleasant at all. The company Bob's Red Mill, which sells Anthing gum, among other things, recommends just a quarter teaspoon of x anthing gum per cup of non wheat flour for gluten free cookies, and just one to one and a half
teaspoons per cup of flour for gluten free breads. You can also add about a gram that's an eighth of a teaspoon per liter of drip coffee once about four and a half cups and process it an blender for a few seconds for a dairy free latte. So where does this substance come from? Xanthon gum comes from the bacteria xanthonymous campis trees, which are found in nature on the leaves of green vegetables such as broccoli, brussels, sprouts
and turnips. When these bacteria are grown in a particularly formulated liquid and fed an excess of glucose, usually derived from corn, soy, or wheat, they eat that sugar and secrete xanthin into the environment around them. You can then separate the xanthin out, dry it, and grind it into a powder to create xanthon gum, all of which might sound kind of gross, but it means it's a natural product.
Using colonies of friendly microorganisms as miniature farms, can give us all kinds of awesome things, from beer to biofuel. While zanthon gum has been around for decades, it's only made its way into grocery store shelves within the past decade or so, due in large part to the wrap but rise in Celiac disease diagnoses, but also due to home cook's interest in molecular gastronomy and other less conventional schools of food preparation seen in posh restaurants and on
cooking shows. If you're looking for xanthing gum, check the baking aisle or maybe the baking shelves in the natural food section. Xanthing gum was approved as a food additive by the US Food and Drug Administration or f d A in nineteen sixty nine based on a safety assessment by that federal agency and the World Health Organization and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization also deem it
safe for consumption. Aside from its thickening and emulsion qualities, xanthing gum may also offer some health benefits to studies. One published in ten in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism and a second published in twenty sixteen in Food Science and Technology Research found that xanthing gum may
have a positive impact on blood glucose levels. The twenty sixteen studies show that it actually lowered the glycemic index of rice and the blood sugar levels in those participants who consumed it. There's also evidence that xanth and gum binds moisture in the digestive tract and as such can act as a laxative, which can be a blessing for people who experience constipation, but a pain in the gut
for people with the opposite line of issues. And since xanthem gum is made from bacteria that lives on cruciferous plants, people with severe allergies to vegetables like broccoli and cabbage may experience adverse reactions to products made with xanthon gum. For those who don't have issues with it, though, Matteevich suggests making it a staple. He said, I've had it in my house for a while. It stores well like a spice in a spice cabinet. It's such a useful product.
Today's episode was written by Jennifer Walker Journey and produced by Tyler Clang. From more in this and lots of other adhesive topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio or more podcasts In my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,