MSG and Your Brain

I just got this article in an e-mail from a Shaklee dealer. Thank you Joni. Shaklee makes some great supplements and wonderful all natural household cleaners. If you want more information, call me, meanwhile please read this.

I know it's a challenge to avoid MSG, you really have to eat without using any packaged foods (for example- almost all salad dressings contain MSG- most people do not enjoy salad without the dressings. Buy Marie's or a brand from the health food store to avoid MSG).
Yes, it's a challenge, to change the way you eat, but lots of us do it and when you realize what MSG does to your brain, I think it will help you find the courage to change the way you eat.

Common Foods Are Attacking Your Brain with Toxins
Chronic illnesses of all kinds are now appearing in astronomical rates. A recent comprehensive review found that neurological disorders have been grossly underestimated and that neurodegenerative diseases are reaching frightening proportions among both our youth and older populations.

Autoimmune diseases (lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.), certain cancers (leukemia, multiple myeloma, and lymphoma) and a number of endocrine-related disorders have all exploded in recent years. So, what gives? The majority of “authorities” have concluded that most of these problems have an environmental cause, which means we are doing this to ourselves.

The big question is, What environmental toxins are responsible? The evidence indicates that a wide assortment of toxins acting together in an additive or synergistic way cause these quasi-epidemics.

There is general agreement that a drastic change in our diets over the decades, with heavy doses of junk foods and other foods with poor nutritional content, also contributes heavily to our problems. One of the major changes has been a huge increase in MSG, which is toxic to the brain, in our diets. MSG raises the amount of the amino acid glutamate in the brain, which in high levels, can cause the death of nerve cells.

Since many people try to avoid MSG (monosodium glutamate), food manufacturers have disguised its presence. We frequently see MSG hiding behind such innocent-sounding names as hydrolyzed protein, vegetable protein, soy protein isolate, soy protein concentrate, whey protein, and natural flavoring, spices, enzymes, autolyzed yeast extract, stock, broth and carrageenan.

It is important to realize that when humans eat a meal containing MSG, their blood levels of potentially toxic glutamate rise 19 times to as much as 50 times higher than normal. This is sufficient to cause brain injury.

Combined with the excessive use of vaccines, which also triggers excitotoxicity within the brain, dietary excitotoxins can have devastating effects on brain function. This is especially true if the vaccine contains mercury, such as the flu vaccine.

Americans eat a tremendous amount of sugar, especially in sweetened drinks and colas, which is also toxic to the brain. A 12-ounce cola contains 9 tablespoons of sugar. Since 1974 cola consumption has doubled, even among the elderly. Diet colas are not a solution either — the aspartame found in many diet drinks is a powerful brain toxin and accumulates in the brain (as formaldehyde).