MSG – harmless or another on the long list of additives to avoid?

COULD IT BE MSG?

MSG – is yet one more food additive that causes controversy and another additive that seems to be increasingly hard to avoid, read more at msgmyth where complaints of  MSG sensitivity are documented from people like you and I.

These sensitivities cause such problems as:

• Numbness, paralysis, mouth lesions, sores, swelling of extremities, diarrhea, mitral valve prolapse, nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps and gas, ADD, behavioral problems, migraines, ADHD & autism symptoms, and fibromyalgia. 

• Just a few of the symptoms from the exhaustive list at MSG Myth. 

What is MSG?  To find out I went to the FDA website and searched on “MSG” and found  it is as follows: A substance “Made by a fermentation process using starch, beet sugar, cane sugar, or molasses, MSG is sold as a white crystal substance that resembles salt and sugar.” Sounds quite innocuous really doesn’t it? MSG is mostly used as a flavor enhancer in food products.

The only reason these chemicals, additives and dyes are in our food is because we allow them to be, we choose to eat these pre-packaged, frozen or off the shelf products to make our life easier, and we are paying the ultimate price for our laziness. When are we going to wake up wake up and realize that food that lasts for 6 months or longer, just isn’t good for us?  Until we stop buying it companies will not change their product. It’s quite obvious really when we think about it, the fresher the food the more nutrients, vitamins and minerals it provides us. The alternative health care industry might not be quite so profitable if we went back to eating a healthy and sensible diet. Americans spend $1.7 billion on vitamins every year!  We would rather spend billions of dollars and risk no effects or worse bad side effect’s from these vitamins, than we would eat a healthy diet.

Currently about 20 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, worse yet, this disease is no longer found just in adults, it is now affecting thousands of children too.  Obesity is a big factor in this disease, in addition to being a sedentary population we enjoy eating a diet high in fats and sugars, which obviously leads to the obesity. The fatter the population gets, and the less they do, the worse the problem gets!

Pre-packaged food helps feed not only our hunger but also our obsession for fast, easy food products, sadly these “foods”are also loaded with chemicals such as MSG, sodium and other nasty artery clogging ingredients that do a real number on our bodies.  American’s have bought into the fast food, pre-packaged craze whole heartedly, and we don’t even get out of our cars to walk off the calories we are eating.  Drive-through banking, eating and even dry-cleaning, are available in every town across America, are we just plain lazy as a nation or do we choose to blame this behaviour on being busy? We can come up with a million reasons why we don’t exercise, eat right, or take care of ourselves. 

Why do we really choose to buy pre-packaged and pre-made foods? My guess is that this saves us the bother of shopping and cooking every day.  It’s terrible to believe we are so busy working or attending extra-curricular-activities to take care of ourselves. Seriously if it means your child misses basket-ball practice, soccer, a dance, or a wealth of other after school activities because you choose to go home and make a decent nutrition dense meal – how can that be bad? If you choose to leave the office by 6pm to get home to make yourself a healthy meal of fresh cooked produce how is that bad?  Aren’t our priorities all wrong?  Shouldn’t we put family and health before sports and work?  Going to work or school at 7am only to return home to a fast food dinner or a high fat sodium soaked entree is ridiculous. We all know that work and school leave you stressed out, too tired to cook, it seems that there is no time left to take care of you during the week?  Why do we feel this is the ultimate way to live? Do we really prefer a new car over a healthy heart, a cheerleading medal over a healthy brain?  The goal for all of us should be to move toward a healthier lifestyle, exercise, good healthy organic fruits and vegetables, and more fresh produce.  Maybe this is the only way, and the best way that we will be able to remove all these chemicals from our food, we can choose to not purchase the pre-packaged product but instead buy the more nutritious and natural fare. 

So if you find you have a nagging headache after eating certain foods, or nausea, bloating even diarrhea you may be reacting to MSG or some other nasty additive. Learn to read labels carefully, specifically for MSG as it has many other names and is often hidden in your food. 

1. Look for Glutamate, glutamic acid, gelatin, monosodium glutamate, calcium caseinate, textured protein, monopotassium glutamate, sodium caseinate, yeast nutrient, yeast extract, yeast food, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed protein, hydrolyzed corn gluten, natrium glutamate.
2. Be suspicious of foods with carrogeenan, maltodextrin, malt extract, natural pork flavoring, citric acid, malt flavoring, bouillion and broth, natural chicken flavoring, soy protein isolate, stock, barley malt, soy sauce extract, why protein concentrate, pectin, soy protein, why protein, protease, soy protein concentrate, why protein isolate, protese enzymes, anything protein fortified, flavor(s) & flavoring(s) (including Natural), anything enzyme modified, anything fermented, enzymes anything, and seasoning. 

Reading personal stories of people’s reactions to MSG has been eye opening, and is one additive that I will certainly be more wary of in the future. We should remember when we find ourselves too busy, or stuck late at work with no time to relax and eat a real dinner: No one’s epitaph ever read “beloved employee of …” Take care of yourself, eat healthy, be fit!

For more information on removing additives from your life, and getting healthy and fit, speak to Dr. Paul or Dr. Susan.
Make an adjustment, stay healthy ~ be happy: Call 303.674.1500 or email office@fontanachiro.com

2 Responses to “MSG – harmless or another on the long list of additives to avoid?”

1. Autism Awareness Month comes to a close… | Fontana Family Chiropractic Says:
   April 28th, 2008 at 8:18 am

   [...] Feingold article suggets the following options: remove synthetic additives including corn syrup, MSG, and sodium benzoate and temporarily remove salicylates; remove suspect chemical non-food [...]

2. The caffeine and coffee debate. | Fontana Family Chiropractic Says:
   July 28th, 2008 at 8:32 am

   [...] chemical found naturally in many fruits [other “natural” chemicals include arsenic and MSG]. Caffeine is extracted in the same way as with methylene chloride processing, but ethyl acetate is [...]

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