Thought for Food: Food for Thought

Monosodium Glutamate – MSG

China has used certain seaweeds to enhance the flavour of food for 2000 years. In 1908 the flavour enhancing agent within seaweed was identified as glutamic acid. Shortly after identifying, methods for extraction were developed. The Ajinomoto Company, established in Japan, originally produced glutamic acid through extraction processes and marketed it commercially as monosodium glutamate (MSG). Today the method of glutamic acid production is quite different. Molasses from sugar cane or sugar beet as well as starch hydrolysates from corn, tapioca and etc. are used rather than seaweed. Now a method called microbial fermentation is used. Bacteria is grown and excretes glutamic acid out of their cell membrane. The acid is then separated from the liquid medium the bacteria grew in by filtration, concentration, acidification and crystallisation. Sold in the U.S. in the 1940’s it has grown into a huge industry worldwide and is found in most of our processed foods today. Take a look at the labels on the processed foods in your cupboard and fridge and you will see just how common this ingredient is. It comes up as 620-622 on the ingredient lists. Check out Wikipedia for some interesting reading on the different preservatives in our food. It is listed as list of food additives, Codex Alimentarius. Food Additives 620-650 are labelled as flavour enhancers.

The FDA describes processed free glutamic acid (MSG) as naturally occurring because the basic ingredient is found in nature. That doesn’t mean it is being fed to us in its natural state though. Through the processing of MSG it becomes like sugar, a fine white crystalline powder with absolutely no nutrient value and in fact, a very dangerous substance that the body does not recognise as food. Many governing bodies have approved the use of MSG because it is natural...but does this mean it is safe?

Chinese Restaurant Syndrome is a term used to describe symptoms people suffer after eating MSG laced food used in many Chinese restaurants back in the late sixties and is still being used today in many other types of restaurants, especially those who use pre-packaged ingredients in their food preparation. I remember a large plastic tub of white powder that we would grab by the handful to sprinkle over all the fresh lettuce that we chopped in the restaurant I worked at as a prep cook when I was 16 years old. That was almost 35 years ago. Back then I was told that it would keep the lettuce fresher longer.

The first published report of MSG reaction was from a Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok, M.D., back in 1968. Dr. Kwok emigrated from China to the states and noticed that when dining in a Chinese Restaurant he would suffer numbness, tingling and a tightness in his chest that would last for a couple of hours after his meal. This had never occurred in restaurants in his native home.

Historically we have been made aware of the many serious side effects with the use of MSG on laboratory rats such as brain lesions, retinal degeneration, neuro endocrine disorders, learning disabilities, asthma trigger and damaged hypothalamus.

So startling were the effects on infant lab animals that in the early 1970’s manufacturers of baby food voluntarily removed all obvious MSG containing ingredients from baby food. The elderly have a weakened blood/brain barrier and are at a greater risk as well as very young children whose barriers have not been fully developed. Food manufacturers encourage marketing to the elderly rationalising that the addictive properties of MSG actually is beneficial to keeping a healthy weight.

Glutamic acid is a neurotransmitter that causes nerves to fire...a naturally occurring process within your body. When glutamic acid is present in excess quantities it overstimulates the nerves causing them to continuously fire until they die. Kill off enough of them and you can see why this could lead to difficulties in many areas of the body.

Peas, tomatoes and potatoes, as other vegetables, have high levels of naturally occurring free glutamate than other foods as the Manufactured Food Industry is quick to point out. But the free glutamate that these companies add to processed foods are in highly concentrated levels without any of the other components that a natural food has to help balance out the way it is distributed and used in our system.

A 2002 study showed that no retinal damage was observed within one month of continual MSG ingestion but over 3-6 months there was observable damage. There was a great article written in The New Scientist on the 26 of October 2002 which explains the study.

MSG is cumulative. Small doses here or there may not seem to affect you but over time degeneration occurs until such a time as damage can be pin pointed.

Scientists are linking MSG use to ALS, Alzheimer’s, seizures and strokes.

The average U.K. intake is 590mg-2330mg per day. Some restaurants have upwards of 5000mg per meal. I know vegemite is highly regarded here but a tasty alternative would be organic dark miso paste which my friends and clients are now enjoying.

There are many studies done on the effect of MSG on asthma and CRS (Chinese Restaurant Syndrome). These can easily be found on internet sites like the FSANZ website. There wasn’t until recently much mentioned on MSG triggering obesity, even though there is a great deal of work out there that discusses MSG induced obesity in rats. The human obesity connection seems to not have been as closely followed. Check out the website pubmed.com (The National Library of Medicine) and type in MSG obesity and you will count over 100 studies done on this subject. Most food manufacturers are quite open about the addictive properties of MSG, thus the reason to use it in their products.

Just recently, researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and in China published a study that was done on 750 men and women aged 40-59 years of age and living in 3 rural villages in North and South China. The majority of participants made meals at home without commercially processed foods. 82% used MSG, and these participants were divided into 3 groups. It was found that the group using the most were nearly 3X more likely to be overweight than the others.

Humans lack a blood/brain barrier in the hypothalamus which allows excitotoxins to enter the brain and cause damage. In past animal studies, MSG creates a lesion in the hypothalamus that correlates with abnormal behaviour such as obesity, short stature and sexual reproduction problems.

Additives that always contain MSG:

• Monosodium Glutamate

• Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein

• Hydrolyzed Protein

• Hydrolyzed Plant Protein

• Plant Protein Extract

• Sodium Caseinate

• Calcium Caseinate

• Yeast Extract

• Textured Protein

• Autolyzed Yeast

• Hydrolyzed Oat Flour

Additives that frequently contain MSG:

• Malt Extract

• Malt Flavouring

• Bouillon Broth

• Stock Flavouring

• Natural Flavouring

• Natural Beef or Chicken Flavouring

• Seasoning Spices

Additives that may contain MSG and/or other excitotoxins:

• Carrageenan Enzymes (Protease enzymes from various sources can release excitotoxin amino acids from food proteins.)

• Soy Protein Concentrate

• Soy Protein Isolate

• Whey Protein Concentrate

Do you think food is the only place you will find MSG? Nope. It is used for many things from all purpose crop spray (as a growth enhancer), to vaccinations ( Monosodium glutamate (MSG) and 2-phenoxy-ethanol are used as stabilizers in certain vaccines to help the vaccine remain unchanged even in the presence of forces such as heat, light, acidity, humidity etc.).

We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love... and then we return home.

-- Australian Aboriginal Proverb

Vaccinations

Thought For Food - Food For Thought was a title I played with for years. It came from a Teachers Conference I was asked to speak at several years ago. My subject was on the relationship of food to learning and learning disabilities. I presented information that linked certain behaviours to the preservatives, colourings and other chemicals used in processed food as well as the deficiency of nutrients from these foods.

After my presentation, one of the Teachers, who was a parent of an autistic child, asked if there was a connection to diet and if these symptoms could be reduced or eradicated? I replied with a most emphatic yes. When a person can look at the other health ailments associated with an autistic child such as, leaky gut, candida, irritable bowel and etc., it is obvious that there is nutritional support that could ease these symptoms.

In fact, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, a neurosurgeon from the U.K. whose first born son was diagnosed with autism created a nutritional program (GAPS Nutritional program) that is a natural treatment for autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, schizophrenia, depression and ADHD. She has stated,

What happens in these children [is that] they do not develop normal gut flora from birth… she says. "Gut flora is a hugely important part of our human physiology. Recently research in Scandinavia has demonstrated that 90 percent of all cells and all genetic material in a human body is our own gut flora. We are just a shell… a habitat for this mass of microbes inside us. We ignore them at our own peril.

…As a result, their digestive system—instead of being a source of nourishment for these children—becomes a major source of toxicity. These pathogenic microbes inside their digestive tract damage the integrity of the gut wall. So all sort of toxins and microbes flood into the bloodstream of the child, and get into the brain of the child. That usually happens in the second year of life in children who were breast fed because breastfeeding provides a protection against this abnormal gut flora. In children who were not breastfed, I see the symptoms of autism developing in the first year of life.

One of the arguments about vaccines is in the frequency (apx 36) in which they are given to a child in the first few years of their life. If they are compromised in health for any reason, vaccines may have a detrimental affect.

A proper gut flora is critical to our health. I know just from my own health issues. As a child with a genetic kidney condition I was in and out of hospitals my whole young life. Now in my adult years I have been paying a heavy price from all of the antibiotics and other drugs used to keep me healthy. If my parents were only told about the importance of good nutrition I might have had an easier time of it.

A child’s gut health actually begins with their parents. If the mother doesn’t have a thriving flora to pass on to her baby (as they pass through the birth canal) and the father (whose flora is shared with the mother via intimacy) also has an unhealthy balance then the only protection the child has is through breast feeding. And this may not be enough. Within the last few generations, with improper food choices, antibiotics, and other chemicals, we see adults with abnormal gut microbes.

Getting parents to understand the importance of the food choices they make for their children can sometimes feel so monumentally difficult due to our disassociation with our own bodies needs. It is my belief that without a whole food diet as a solid base to grow from, a child has a slim chance to lead a fully healthy and vibrant life.

When my presentation was finished one of the attendees stood up and said, Thank you for giving us such Food for Thought. After a moments pause she smiled and continued, ...and Thought for Food. That statement stayed with me over the years and formed the idea for this book.

Not only do we have to think about what we feed our children and ourselves, but also where other toxins are coming from and how they affect us both cumulatively and reactively to each other. So, how does the mercury, aluminium, formaldehyde, aspartame and MSG in vaccines react with other chemicals found in our food which also has to react to the pollutants in our water which will also react to what is floating around in the air we breathe?

There are margins of safety in reference to additives in our food, water and other products that large governing bodies set to protect the average individual. This means that those that are out of the range will be affected on a greater scale, such as the elderly, the young and the immune compromised. Case in point is thimerosal, a mercury compound used as a preservative in certain vaccines, which exceeds the EPA safety limits for adults, yet is used on infants. This is happening today even with substantial evidence on how dangerous it is.

Scary enough? How about the fact that mercury is a fat soluble metal and since our brain is 60% fat...guess where mercury likes to hang out? Aluminium and mercury share common characteristics like poisoning DNA repair enzymes and interfering with neuronal membrane function.

HepB vaccine is linked to immunological and neurological disorders and is hugely controversial.

In October of 2009, CBS News aired a story about a newly published study that HepB vaccinated monkeys showed significant delays in the acquisition of critical survival reflexes.

It is ridiculous to assume that all of our children are going to grow up as promiscuous junkies, which is the scare tactic the medical field is trying to give us. If a mother has any doubt as to whether she is infected she can be tested before the baby is born.

The drug companies have spent a great deal of time and monies convincing the powers that be that it is a prudent step to make HepB a required vaccine in the hopes that those of us who do grow up to be promiscuous junkies will not infect others. My question is, if today’s junkies are reluctant to come forward for the vaccine what would make tomorrow’s junkies come forward for the booster vaccine needed to protect them and others? The vaccine wears off before the age most of them begin experimenting with sex and drugs. Once they are experimenting the last thing they will want to do is come forward and say, Hey, that sounds like a great idea, I want that vaccine!

Gardasil and Cervarix are the two HPV vaccines available for cervical cancer prevention, even though it has never been tested or proven for this. Approved in 2006 sales for Gardasil had plummeted due to what Merck considers a lack of the women and girls remembering to come back for their second and third doses. Yeah right. It probably had nothing to do with the fact that after the first dose an extremely high rate of reactions were reported including seizures, fevers, involuntary flailing limbs, vomiting, partial paralysis and a long list of other symptoms. Oh, and according to the CDC as of September 30, 2010 there have been 56 deaths linked to the vaccine. This shouldn’t concern us too greatly though as the FDA is known for its view that death is an acceptable side affect.

So how does Merck deal with these accusations? By getting the FDA to approve the extended vaccine in 2010...for boys. Merck claims that the vaccine could help prevent males from contracting HPV, thus spreading it to females through sexual contact.

Many experts are fearful of what the long term damage might be...unfortunately only time will tell.

Have you ever read the ingredient list on the chicken pox vaccine? It looks like this, gelatine, MSG Human diploid cells, MRC5 proteins, neomycin, sucrose, sodium chloride, sodium phosphate-monobasic, sodium phosphate-dibasic dodecahydrate, bovine serum, potassium phosphate, human diploid cells (WI-38) Ethylenediamilnetetraacetic acid (EDTA), potassium chloride, glutamate.

Other ingredients in vaccines could include, chick embryos, monkey kidney cells, mouse serum proteins, vesicle fluid from calf skin,and rhesus monkey fetal lung cells.

Dr. Maurice Hilleman had a lot to say about vaccinations and the fear of cancer causing ingredients and other diseases associated with the varied ingredients used. And he should know as he was the leader in vaccine development.

Genetic modification scares many of us, introducing foreign viruses, proteins and etc. into food and people without any long term study on how it could affect us does not seem wise yet it happens all the time. In the case of vaccines I feel my body is being compromised by these. I’d rather take my chances without them. And yes, with five kids at home I have run through measles, chickenpox and whooping cough. I had whooping cough (yes, I was vaccinated at a younger age) right along with the kids, aged 1-11 at the time. They did not get vaccinated though our friends who also had five kids and were vaccinated coughed and wheezed right alongside us. Typical of the stories heard in our area of northern New South Wales. Being healthy