MSG? (what in the H. does this stand for?)

Who LOVES chinese food? Egg roles? Lo mein? Crab rangoons? I know I USED to. Do you ever see the sign at chinese restaurants that say; "No MSG"? Well MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) is a flavor enhancer added to chinese food, canned vegetables, soups, and processed meats. This substance has been named 'safe' however, it is still extremely controversial. 

A study on MSG sponsored by the FDA in 1995 reaffirmed the safety of MSG and acknowledged that MSG may cause short term ailments of; 

-Headaches

-Flushing

-Sweating

-Sense of facial pressure or tightness

-Numbness, tingling or burning in or around the mouth

-Rapid, fluttering heartbeats (heart palpitations)

-Chest pain

-Shortness of breath

-Nausea

-Weakness 

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/monosodium-glutamate/AN01251

Is MSG in EVERYTHING?

Well it can be found in Campbell's soups, Hostess Doritos, Lays flavored potato chips, Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen prepared meals, Kraft Salad dressings (even the 'healthy' ones) 

How to find MSG

-Look for these on your ingredients lists at the grocery store.

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

Corn Oil

Frequent foods that contain MSG

Malt Extract

Malt Flavoring

Bouillon

Broth

Stock

Flavoring

Natural Flavors/Flavoring

Natural Beef or Chicken Flavoring

Seasoning

Spices

Here is additional information regarding MSG

http://www.rense.com/general52/msg.htm

Thanks for Reading!

<3Casey>

Oh Sugar, Sugar

So just a quick follow up post.  Harper mentioned that for diabetics, it is sometimes necessary to use "fake sugar" or a sugar substitute in place of real sugar.  Usually that means Aspartame, but that's basically poison.  Is there no healthy, non-disastrous alternative? There is!  

Agave Nectar

Brown Rice Syrup

Sucanat

Beet Sugar

Date Sugar

Maple Syrup (organic)

Molasses

All of these are sweet sugar substitutes that are found naturally.  They also have a lower Glycemic Index which is the speed that food increases your blood sugar/energy.  So if you have some of these fake sugars instead of Aspartame or refined sugar, your blood sugars won't spike and then fall, which is seriously bad for diabetics.  See happy solution for everyone!

x Zoe

Get the Skinny

In response to all the shit that we've discovered is in the everyday foods we eat, I decided about 4 months ago to take a test run as a vegan.  The idea was inspired, I hate to admit it, by the book "Skinny Bitch" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin.  While it looks like a diet book, really it's a down-to-earth, blunt explanation of what actually is in the food we eat and how it affects our bodies.  I definitely suggest it to anyone who wants to know more about food and our bodies without all that scientific, medical jargon.  My vegan suggestion of the day!

On to gross shit that's in your food.  Today= Aspartame:

*If you drink and eat diet sodas, juice, energy drinks, bread, "diet" anything, you are ingesting some delicious Aspartame.  Aspartame is a sugar substitute that was rejected by the FDA (food and drug association) no less than 8 times! It was only passed when the lawyer who was working against Aspartame was bought out by the pro-Aspartame group.  Feeling outraged yet?  Well if not, then should be aware that when you consume Aspartame, it turns into Formaldehyde in your stomach.  EWW!  In case you didn't know, Formaldehyde is a chemical that is used to preserve nice things like dead animals and organs. Yum.

Some commonly used products that contain this delicious poison:

-Any Kind of Diet Soda

- Sugarless Red Bull

- Splenda

- Any sugar substitute or non-natural sweetener

- Dimetap Cold and Allergy chewable tablets

- Children's Tylenol 

- Junior Strength Tylenol

- Pediacare Cold-Allergy Tablets

- Pediacare Cough- Cold Tablets

- Pediacare Children's Cold Relief Tablets 

- Children's Chewable Co-Tylenol

Isn't it sick how many products aimed at kids have aspartame?

Just to stir things up a little more, www.aspartame.org describes how the human body reacts to Aspartame as this:

"Upon digestion, aspartame breaks down into three components (aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol), which are then absorbed into the blood and used in normal body processes. Neither aspartame nor its components accumulate in the body. These components are used in the body in the same ways as when they are derived from common foods.

Further, the amounts of these components from aspartame are small compared to the amounts from other food sources. For example, a serving of nonfat milk provides about 6 times more phenylalanine and 13 times more aspartic acid compared to an equivalent amount of diet beverage sweetened 100% with aspartame. Likewise, a serving of tomato juice provides about 6 times more methanol compared to an equivalent amount of diet beverage with aspartame."

The thing is, our body gets phenylalaline from mother's milk and certain kinds of protein, aspartic acid (aka an kind of amino acid that is not essential for mammals) from avocados, oats, and greens, and methanol (a simple form of alcohol) we shouldn't be ingesting.  The evil people working for Aspartame don't want you to know this.  Look it up. Become informed.  Know the difference between shit in food and delicious, beautiful food.

x Zoe, The Shit You Eat

The Evils of Corn Syrup

If you are even marginally aware of the controversies that circle around the issue of differing kinds of sweeteners in the food industry, you have heard of the compound commonly referred to as high fructose corn syrup.

What you may not know about HFCS (as it is called in the industry) is how it is made, where it comes from, and what ingredients are used to manufacture it.

Recently, the Corn Refiner's Association (more info here) has been trying to gain back their massive profits from the sales of HFCS by labeling it as a "natural sweetener." The CRA states on their HFCS website (http://sweetsurprise.com) that:

High fructose corn syrup is made from corn, a natural grain product. High fructose corn syrup contains no artificial or synthetic ingredients or color additives and meets the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) requirements for use of the term “natural.”

Most everyday folk, when seeing the word "natural" stamped on their juice boxes as they run through the grocery store, don't take the time to stop and find out what exactly is meant by "natural." I certainly didn't. I mean, high fructose corn syrup is made from corn, after all. It's right there in the name. That must mean it's true, right?

WRONG.

The production of HFCS is an extremely long and complicated process that involves not only corn, but other compounds such as sulfur dioxide, sulfurous acid, and hydrochloric acid. Yeah, that's right, hydrochloric acid. That's the stuff that eats away at your skin if you touch it and is usually found in big barrels marked with symbols like these:


How exactly does one consider that "natural"? At the very least it doesn't exactly sound appetizing, if you ask me. The CRA's website on HFCS provides the following description of the HFCS making process:

The corn wet milling industry makes high fructose corn syrup from corn starch using a series of unit processes that include steeping corn to soften the hard kernel; physical separation of the kernel into its separate components—starch, corn hull, protein and oil; breakdown of the starch to glucose; use of enzymes to invert glucose to fructose; removal of impurities; and blending of glucose and fructose to make HFCS-42 and HFCS-55.

Notice they make no mention of specific ingredients. HOW INFORMATIVE. This pithy and vague description is upstaged by the pages-long details on the high fructose corn syrup making process that can be found on websites like answers.com and wikipedia. One would think that the information found on a simple search engine would pale in comparison to the data provided on a website dedicated to the product, but apparently this is not the case. To me, this makes it seem like CRA and the producers of HFCS have something to hide.

There are tons of other things I could get into regarding the Evils of Corn Syrup (how its used to sweeten things that never needed sweetening before, how the corn industry has been rigged by the CRA and the government so that subsidized farmers are practically forced to sell their corn to the syrup factories or go completely broke, how the testing done on HFCS by the FDA has not been sufficient to prove that it is not a factor in the rising rates of obesity and diabetes in our country) but I'll leave you with what I've already told you and the following mission:

Next time you go food shopping at your local grocery store, take a look at the labels on all of the products you're buying. How many of them contain corn syrup? How many of it list corn syrup within the first two or three ingredients on the list, meaning that they are one of the main ingredients in the product? I bet you that, unless you're shopping at an organic or local grocer, more than 75% of your purchases will contain corn syrup. It's in everything. What does that mean about your health? What does that mean about the food industry in our country? What does that mean about the world as a whole?

-Harper, The Shit You Eat


If you're interested in learning more about high fructose corn syrup, rent the movie "King Corn" or check out the following links:
http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html
http://almostfit.com/2008/09/10/on-high-fructose-corn-syrup-and-weapons-of-mass-destruction/
http://almostfit.com/2008/09/14/five-reasons-why-i-avoid-high-fructose-corn-syrup/
http://almostfit.com/2008/09/23/high-fructose-corn-syrup-the-antidote-to-common-sense/