Hello World!    Hope everyone is staying warm today. Woke up to 22 degrees. That’s cold by anyone’s standards. It will go up to 40 today &  the sun is shining.  Tomorrow will be another cold one & then it warms up. It will be back in the 70’s in a few days. Southeast Texas has schizo weather. As I’ve said before, if you don’t like today, wait for tomorrow; especially in the winter.

I guess this winter many of my plants will die back. Last winter was warmer so nothing died back.  I can still see the flowers on my bougainvillea, but I know they are goners. Plumbago will also die back. The trimming never ends. Either they grow too much or they die back in winter. I like plants so I deal with it so I can enjoy them when they bloom.

 

Today I found some interesting info about MSG. It is of particular interest to me because I can’t eat it. I get sick if I do. No preservatives in my diet; at least, I keep them to a bare minimum. I always read labels when buying food. It’s amazing what they use to preserve food. I once found carbon monoxide on a label & that went back to the store immediately! Had no clue that was used to preserve food. Disgusting!

If you have stomach issues, try removing all preservatives from your diet & see what happens. I believe more of us than we realize are allergic to this junk that our bodies don’t need or want.  What I didn’t know was that MSG affects the brain! I was clueless as I’m sure many of you are as well.

Now here’s the info I found. Give me you feedback after reading.  I’d appreciate it…

How MSG Affects Your Brain

MSG by any other name would still be just as harmful. When most people hear the name monosodium glutamate, or MSG, they assume this chemical food additive is only found in Chinese food. While it is true that this chemical flavor tends to be used in many Chinese food restaurants, this brain & nervous system toxin masquerades under many different guises & is found in a huge number of common foods.

Monosodium glutamate has been linked to many serious health   conditions, including: hormonal imbalances, weight gain, brain damage, obesity, headaches & more, you may be shocked to learn how prevalent it is. MSG is almost always found in processed, prepared & packaged foods. Even when there is no sign of it on the label, it is still frequently hidden in many prepared foods. That’s because it goes by a wide variety of other names, including: hydrolyzed vegetable protein, hydrolyzed protein, hydrolyzed plant protein, plant protein extract, sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate, yeast extract, textured protein, autolyzed yeast & hydrolyzed oat flour.

What’s even more shocking than MSG’s seemingly ubiquitous nature is how the additive affects the brain. There is a protective mechanism in the brain known as the blood-brain barrier. The brain depends on careful control of chemicals to operate smoothly. Even small fluctuations in the concentrations of chemicals can cause drastic disruptions in brain function. When a category of chemicals known as excitotoxins enter the brain, they literally excite brain cells until they die. Monosodium glutamate is added to foods as a taste enhancer, but it is a well-established excitotoxin.

Additionally, some parts of the brain such as the hypothalamus & the  pineal are not protected by the blood-brain barrier, yet these parts of the brain control many hormones in the body as well as other bodily functions, including mood. When MSG enters the brain, not only does it kill brain cells, it wreaks havoc on brain functions.

Many people react within 48 hours of ingesting MSG, even in minute amounts, which can make it difficult to trace back to the food source that caused the reaction. The effects can include: headaches, hives, canker sores, runny nose, insomnia, seizures, mood swings, panic attacks, heart palpitations & other heart irregularities, nausea, numbness, asthma attacks & migraines. Many of my clients report experiencing restless leg syndrome after accidental ingestion of MSG.

Research by neurologist & author of the book Excitotoxins: the Taste that Kills, Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD, shows that MSG slowly enters the brain, bypasses the blood-brain barrier & reaches peak concentrations in the brain 3 hours after ingesting it. The high levels of MSG in the brain remain for 24 hours after the initial ingesting of the contaminated food.

According to Dr. Blaylock, MSG can be especially detrimental to people who have experienced some sort of brain injury, or a genetic predisposition to brain disease.

Avoid prepared & packaged foods as much as possible. Avoid eating at fast food restaurants since they are notorious culprits when it comes to MSG usage. If food products, such as those made in-house at the bakery & deli departments in grocery stores, don’t contain an ingredient list, you should assume it contains MSG. These types of food items frequently contain MSG. Avoiding as many of the MSG-containing culprits listed above can also help reduce your exposure.

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This is a good article. I never knew it affected the brain. I know that it affects my stomach. Recently, the super market where I would occasionally buy BBQ chickens, removed the old label where ingredients &

nutrients are listed so I stopped buying their cooked chickens. I asked why they removed this from the label, but they had no answer for me as it isn’t done in store. I bought these chickens there because they had a lower sodium content than other super markets chickens, but with the nutrient content no longer listed on the label, I don’t know if there are preservatives in it, or what the sodium content is, so I’d rather be safe than sorry.

I had to stop eating at salad bars as they all use preservatives to keep the food fresh. 

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