Trial reportGastroenterology2022
Randomized Controlled-Feeding Study of Dietary Emulsifier Carboxymethylcellulose Reveals Detrimental Impacts on the Gut Microbiota and Metabolome.
Trial report in Gastroenterology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03440229 (Functional Research of Emulsifiers in Humans), which is not on this map. Cited by 171 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Functional Research of Emulsifiers in Humans
Who cites it
171 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 293 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2024Pooled it
- Roles of the gut microbiome in weight management.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2023Pooled it
- Ultra-Processed Food Consumption and Mental Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.Nutrients · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Food- vs. supplement-based very-low-energy diets and gut microbiome composition in women with high body mass index: A randomized controlled trial.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Trial
- Probiotic-mediated modulation of gut microbiome in students exposed to academic stress: a randomized controlled trial.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Trial
- Clinical Trial: The Effects of Emulsifiers in the Food Supply on Disease Activity in Crohn's Disease: An Exploratory Double-Blinded Randomised Feeding Trial.Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Effects of Carboxymethylcellulose Artificial Tears on Ocular Surface Microbiome Diversity and Composition, A Randomized Controlled Trial.Translational vision science & technology · 2023Trial
- Coffee, the Gut Microbiome, and Host Metabolism: Gastrointestinal Fate, Microbial Transformation, Mechanistic Insights, and Prospects for Precision Nutrition.Metabolites · 2026Review
- Drug-microbiome-host interactions: antimicrobial effects of non-antibiotic compounds.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2026Review
- Relationship between 39 dietary markers of ultra-processed food and incident depression: evidence from the prospective UK Biobank cohort study.European journal of nutrition · 2026Article
- Review
- The Gut-brain-adipose Axis in Ultra-processed Food and Obesity: A Mechanistic Synthesis and Its Implications for Food Classification.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- Review
- Review
- Dietary emulsifiers and host inflammation synergistically drive genomic evolution of Crohn's disease-associated Escherichia coli toward enhanced pathogenicity.Journal of Crohn's & colitis · 2026Article
- Ultraprocessed Foods and the Risk of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia in Older US Adults: 2013-2020 Health and Retirement Study.American journal of public health · 2026Article
- Effects of Common Food Additives Kappa-, Iota- and Lambda-Carrageenans on Intestinal Epithelial Cell Activation and Barrier Disruption.Clinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2026Article
- Distinct From the Adult Paradigm: Re-Evaluate the Pathophysiological and Therapeutic Framework in Children and Adolescent Hyperlipidaemia.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
111 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
21 authors at 7 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND &
aimsEpidemiologic and murine studies suggest that dietary emulsifiers promote development of diseases associated with microbiota dysbiosis. Although the detrimental impact of these compounds on the intestinal microbiota and intestinal health have been demonstrated in animal and in vitro models, impact of these food additives in healthy humans remains poorly characterized.
methodsTo examine this notion in humans, we performed a double-blind controlled-feeding study of the ubiquitous synthetic emulsifier carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) in which healthy adults consumed only emulsifier-free diets (n = 9) or an identical diet enriched with 15 g per day of CMC (n = 7) for 11 days.
resultsRelative to control subjects, CMC consumption modestly increased postprandial abdominal discomfort and perturbed gut microbiota composition in a way that reduced its diversity. Moreover, CMC-fed subjects exhibited changes in the fecal metabolome, particularly reductions in short-chain fatty acids and free amino acids. Furthermore, we identified 2 subjects consuming CMC who exhibited increased microbiota encroachment into the normally sterile inner mucus layer, a central feature of gut inflammation, as well as stark alterations in microbiota composition.
conclusionsThese results support the notion that the broad use of CMC in processed foods may be contributing to increased prevalence of an array of chronic inflammatory diseases by altering the gut microbiome and metabolome (ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT03440229).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.