MSG fattens and new info suggests it harms too....
Today's Post: Friday, 8-6-2010
MSG is commonly added to some kinds of spicy foods and spice blends.
It acts as a flavor enhancer by sharpening the sensation other flavors make on your tongue.
It’s other use is as a meat tenderizer.
Unfortunately, it comes with several problems that other methods to achieve these two goals do NOT have.
1. It helps make you eat enough more it will make you fat, particularly when it’s added to packaged snacks made of fattening ingredients – which is extremely common according to food writer/analyst Michael Pollan. The providing companies of course make more money if you eat more of the product and find it more addicting.
We did a post when the research came out showing that in parts of China that use a lot of MSG, people are fatter than in the parts where virtually none is used. As I remember, it was also found that adding MSG to the food people eat increased how much they ate.
2. I recently discovered that it very likely worsens bipolar disorder and its severe depression. And, it occurs to me that it may cause the disorder or cause a less severe version of it even in people not otherwise susceptible to the disorder.
It was in the online health news recently that the drug Ketamine temporarily but strongly turned off bipolar disorder. This is important as it may help doctors prevent people with bad bipolar depression from committing suicide. But I also noticed WHY it is thought to work. It seems that "Brain autopsies showed that glutamates are associated with bipolar disorder, and other studies have shown that blocking the glutamate-receptor link often rapidly lifts major depression, within two hours.
In other words if you don’t eat MSG -- or the other glutamates snack makers add to their snacks according to Michael Pollan – you may be far less likely to become severely depressed to begin with!
3. Avoiding MSG and the related glutamates in foods and spices is extremely difficult. Here are some tips to do so.
An easy way to begin is to NOT eat packaged snacks, chips, and the like. This also helps keep you from being fat since the other ingredients are things like salt, refined grains, peeled and processed potatoes, oils high in omega 6, or worse oils high in omega 6 that have been hydrogenated. Except for salt all those other ingredients tend to make you fat or sick. And, the excess salt most people get from eating these snacks is almost as bad.
But it’s NOT as easy as that unfortunately to avoid MSG.
Even without knowing that MSG fattens or may cause sever depression in some people, many people who read label already refuse to buy products with MSG listed as an ingredient. No problem! List it as autolyzed yeast or natural flavors or “spices.” The MSG of course is still there and there is just as much as there would have been if the real label had been used. But the people who read the label will still buy the product.
For example, virtually all commercial mustards list “spices” as an ingredient. So do almost all catsups and ketchups.
Ouch!
4. What to do instead:
Whole Foods Market carries at least one MSG free mustard.
Annie’s Natural brand has several versions of mustard. Their regular, yellow mustard does NOT list any ingredients except the traditional ones nor does it list “spices.” Since I don’t buy their other varieties of mustard such as honey mustard, I’ve not looked at their labels. But I think they pass on using MSG also.
There may be MSG free catsups also. Annie’s Naturals Organic is said to be MSG free as well. And, although I’ve not seen their label, if your local Whole Foods hasn’t got it in stock, I just found out you can buy a package with six 24 ounce bottles on www.amazon.com .
And, there may be other brands as well that are MSG free.
Also you can use health OK spices yourself to substitute for MSG but without its bad side effects. Cayenne or red pepper lightly used works well. Medium to heavy use of chili powder can work well. I’ve also liked the Cajun blend of paprika, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and powdered garlic. I find that those spices plus a good tomato sauce and a bit of extra virgin olive oil have a lot of flavor.
Many curry blends also work.
So, you do NOT need to use MSG to spice up food.
Tenderizing meat can also be done without MSG. There are special tenderizing hammers you can use. But slow cooking at a lower temperature in a crock pot for several hours also works and is far less labor intensive. It also helps to cut the meat into half inch cubes or so rather than larger chunks if that fits the dish you are making.
Today's Post: Friday, 8-6-2010
MSG is commonly added to some kinds of spicy foods and spice blends.
It acts as a flavor enhancer by sharpening the sensation other flavors make on your tongue.
It’s other use is as a meat tenderizer.
Unfortunately, it comes with several problems that other methods to achieve these two goals do NOT have.
1. It helps make you eat enough more it will make you fat, particularly when it’s added to packaged snacks made of fattening ingredients – which is extremely common according to food writer/analyst Michael Pollan. The providing companies of course make more money if you eat more of the product and find it more addicting.
We did a post when the research came out showing that in parts of China that use a lot of MSG, people are fatter than in the parts where virtually none is used. As I remember, it was also found that adding MSG to the food people eat increased how much they ate.
2. I recently discovered that it very likely worsens bipolar disorder and its severe depression. And, it occurs to me that it may cause the disorder or cause a less severe version of it even in people not otherwise susceptible to the disorder.
It was in the online health news recently that the drug Ketamine temporarily but strongly turned off bipolar disorder. This is important as it may help doctors prevent people with bad bipolar depression from committing suicide. But I also noticed WHY it is thought to work. It seems that "Brain autopsies showed that glutamates are associated with bipolar disorder, and other studies have shown that blocking the glutamate-receptor link often rapidly lifts major depression, within two hours.
In other words if you don’t eat MSG -- or the other glutamates snack makers add to their snacks according to Michael Pollan – you may be far less likely to become severely depressed to begin with!
3. Avoiding MSG and the related glutamates in foods and spices is extremely difficult. Here are some tips to do so.
An easy way to begin is to NOT eat packaged snacks, chips, and the like. This also helps keep you from being fat since the other ingredients are things like salt, refined grains, peeled and processed potatoes, oils high in omega 6, or worse oils high in omega 6 that have been hydrogenated. Except for salt all those other ingredients tend to make you fat or sick. And, the excess salt most people get from eating these snacks is almost as bad.
But it’s NOT as easy as that unfortunately to avoid MSG.
Even without knowing that MSG fattens or may cause sever depression in some people, many people who read label already refuse to buy products with MSG listed as an ingredient. No problem! List it as autolyzed yeast or natural flavors or “spices.” The MSG of course is still there and there is just as much as there would have been if the real label had been used. But the people who read the label will still buy the product.
For example, virtually all commercial mustards list “spices” as an ingredient. So do almost all catsups and ketchups.
Ouch!
4. What to do instead:
Whole Foods Market carries at least one MSG free mustard.
Annie’s Natural brand has several versions of mustard. Their regular, yellow mustard does NOT list any ingredients except the traditional ones nor does it list “spices.” Since I don’t buy their other varieties of mustard such as honey mustard, I’ve not looked at their labels. But I think they pass on using MSG also.
There may be MSG free catsups also. Annie’s Naturals Organic is said to be MSG free as well. And, although I’ve not seen their label, if your local Whole Foods hasn’t got it in stock, I just found out you can buy a package with six 24 ounce bottles on www.amazon.com .
And, there may be other brands as well that are MSG free.
Also you can use health OK spices yourself to substitute for MSG but without its bad side effects. Cayenne or red pepper lightly used works well. Medium to heavy use of chili powder can work well. I’ve also liked the Cajun blend of paprika, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and powdered garlic. I find that those spices plus a good tomato sauce and a bit of extra virgin olive oil have a lot of flavor.
Many curry blends also work.
So, you do NOT need to use MSG to spice up food.
Tenderizing meat can also be done without MSG. There are special tenderizing hammers you can use. But slow cooking at a lower temperature in a crock pot for several hours also works and is far less labor intensive. It also helps to cut the meat into half inch cubes or so rather than larger chunks if that fits the dish you are making.
Labels: how to avoid MSG, ketamine relieves bipolar disease and severe depression, MSG connected with severe depression and with bipolar disorder, MSG fattens
posted by David at 2:50 PM
2 Comments:
More advice to avoid processed foods and MSG AND other ingredient names that really are MSG from an email from NewsMax by Dr Russel Blaylock.:
"MSG. It is critical that you eliminate foods from your diet that contain excitotoxins such as monosodium glutamate (MSG).
It hides under these names: hydrolyzed protein, soy protein, whey protein extract, natural flavoring, textured protein, and soy extract.
To do this you must avoid processed foods. If you can’t avoid processed foods, check labels for these disguised names. "
1. Another source says that MSG appears under these names on food labels also:
hydrolyzed vegetable protein, hydolyzed plant protein,
hydolyzed soy protein,
glutamate, glutamic acid, autolyzed yeast or autolyzed yeast extract,
sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate,
disodium guanylate, nosinate, monopotassium glutamate and gelatin. (Any ingredient listing with "glutamate" in it is MSG or a cousin compound.)
Ingredients used in flavoring broth sometimes also include MSG as well; but the law doesn’t require any disclosure at all.
So with commerical broth, unless it says NO MSG on the label, you may be better off making your own.
That article also says you can look at the website, www.truthinlabeling.org list to see other hidden sources of MSG.
2. I also found this though I'm sorry to say I forgot to list where.
It seems MSG plus common food colorings can cause nerve damage. NOT good if you want avoid mental decline and other forms of nerve damage!
"According to a recent study in the journal of Toxicological Sciences, the combination of aspartame, monosodium glutamate (MSG), and the artificial colorings quinoline yellow and brilliant blue causes nerve cell damage. This combination of food additives is what is typically found in your blood after a snack and a drink!"
Post a Comment
<< Home