Fwd: FYI - long and interesting :)

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In a message dated 09/06/2005 12:25:34 GMT Daylight Time, sharon@... writes:

Hi, Catriella!Are you familiar with www.onibasu.com <http://www.onibasu.com/> ? If yourun a search on Nourishing Traditions, "glutamic acid", you'll see a lot ofinformation about this issue. Our bodies produce glutamic acid in order todigest foods, so glutamic acid, in and of itself, isn't necessarily TheIssue. This is going to be one of those letters that you might need toprint and use a high-lighter and potentially diagram some of myanswers...mea culpa, when I talk about this, I can't for the life of me makeit a quick answer and beg your forgiveness but boy, I find it fascinatingand fun and hope you do, too. ;)Any foods that contain protein (meats, veggies - your basic 'live foods',dairy, etc.) contain glutamic acid. It's when it is "freed" or "unbound"through processing that it creates excitotoxin issue - that's when it isreferred to as Free Glutamic Acid (MSG). Then again, biogenic amines liketyramine, which is present in large amounts in almonds and bananas, is yetanother excitotoxin which also causes a histamine/inflammatory response.There's a big difference in the glutamic acid and whether it is left-turningor right-turning. Also, each person's response is different and that, imo,is due to the individual's chemical make-up - whether or not they areb-complex vitamin deficient (biotin goes a long way to protecting anddefending a body from biogenic amines and free glutamic acid) or if theirbody produces enough taurine and glutathione. As you can see, I don'thave a simple answer but I have reached the conclusion that it is thecondition of the body, and the level of certain key components that iscritical to how a body responds to any number of potential toxins, includingfree glutamic acid (MSG) and biogenic amines. I've come to the conclusion that there are enough beneficial enzymes andcritical nutrients in fermented veggies (we primarily eat cabbage, beets,garlic and carrots in this manner), and that they are crucial to the overalldigestive health of my son and husband (because the fermented foods arenaturally high in digestive enzymes), that my focus is on building up theirdigestive tract health. We consider the fermented veggies to be condimentsand would never consume them as a main course. Taurine is a strong ally forfighting off all forms of excitotoxins but taurine needs essential fattyacids in the diet in order to be released in the bile from the liver. SO!That's a big reason I also work on boosting my family's EFA's, using coconutoil, red palm oil, lab-tested cod-liver oil.. MSG (free glutamic acid)depletes the body's liver of taurine, but using coconut oil in the dietdefends the taurine. The body and its design are so amazing to me! BeforeI forget, zinc is also critical to the body's ability to handleexcitotoxins. Personally, because we eat no processed (canned, jarred,already-prepared foods), I no longer have to be on-my-toes constantlyhunting ingredient lists for processed MSG (free glutamic acid) in its manyforms. It's even in shampoos! It's even in injections! Therefore, I focuson the needed micronutrients because glutamic acid, which again, our bodymanufacturers, is going to be Out There - we cannot avoid it. What we canavoid are things like hydrolyzed yeast or any number of 20+ other names thatmanufactured/processed MSG is hidden in by food manufacturers.Also, back to taurine for a bit, reactions to MSG or any number of otherexcitotoxins may be caused by a taurine deficiency. "Taurine deficiencysymptoms are the exact same symptoms of MSG reaction" is how a good friendof mine puts it.. And because the body needs cysteine in order tomanufacture taurine, this encouraged us to get back into eating meats, butonly if they were grass-fed and no grain fed. The reason for that? Grainfed beef is high in Omega 6 which is the WRONG kind of essential fatty acid.More accurately, I should say that our body needs an Omega 6 to Omega 3ratio which is 2:1. When animals are fed a grain diet, they're ingestingcorn and soy. Corn and soy have an Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio of 60:1. Thisperverts the meat of the animal, creating an out of balance EFA ratio. Thesame is true, btw, for wild vs farm-raised fish of all kinds which is whywe'll only eat wild-caught fish. So...we eat meat for cysteine and itsEssential Fatty Acids, but not grain-fed because the EFA's are wacky.Whew..Again, it comes down to a micronutrient level of the body and not onecomponent like MSG being the "bad guy". In fact, like gluten, like casein,MSG is one of those Hot Topics that I think people find too easy to feellike they're doing something good if they avoid it. In reality, the bodymay very well appear to not be reacting once it is removed from the diet,but that does NOT mean the core issues are resolved - such as a taurinedeficiency, or a vitamin A deficiency, or an imbalance of EFA"s due to adiet high in processed vegetable oils (like soy, corn, etc.) instead of adiet that is high in medium chain fatty acids (EFA's). Are your eyes spinning yet? I'm so sorry I can't answer this simply but..I also had to keep in mind, btw, that wheat is high in natural glutamicacid, and once processed, can be "unbound" turning into free glutamic acid(MSG). That's why I've chosen to make my own sourdough bread, using a longslow-rise cold "fermenting" (rising) process and to handle the dough aslittle as possible. I have been seeing wonderful results in that with myson. No more red ears..no flying-off-the-wall rages... I also use thesourdough starter to make waffle batter..cakes..people with Celiac diseasetolerate long-rise sourdough breads whereas yeast-risen commercial breadscause reactions.Okay, I'd better stop. As you can tell, I'm really "into this". Come onover to Nourishing Traditions and we can talk more. There's a wonderfulgroup of people there who love looking at the Big Picture, helping eachother research..In the meantime, here is a particularly fascinating site which addressesfree glutamic acid and the body's ability to defend itself against it:<http://www.coldcure.com/html/dep.html>http://www.coldcure.com/html/dep.html"Like all nutrients, taurine enhances or decreases the action of othernutrients. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the sodium salt of the amino acidglutamic acid. If glutamic acid supplementation is given, as is sometimesdone with alcoholics, it tends to reduce taurine. MSG itself can also reducetaurine levels. The amino acids beta-alanine and beta-hypotaurine, as wellas the B-vitamin pantothenic acid, may also interfere with taurine'sfunctions. Zinc, on the other hand, enhances taurine's effects. Zincdeficiency and combined vitamin A and zinc deficiency are associated with anincreased excretion of taurine in the urine and with depleted taurine levelsin the tissues where it is normally found. Cysteine (found in meat) andvitamin B6 are the most critical nutrients to support the manufacture oftaurine in the body of human beings or those species that are able tosynthesize enough. The beneficial effect of zinc on taurine is probably whymy zinc lozenges when used at bed-time allow me to sleep without night-timecardiac arrhythmias. Also, ionic zinc has antifungal activity, consequently,there may be several means by which it is helpful.... "..A couple of MSG sites: www.msgtruth.org (Carol, the owner of this isactive on the Nourishing Traditions list on ) and<http://www.truthinlabeling.org> www.truthinlabeling.org (Jack sis the one quoted on some of the onibasu.com MSG discussion which took placeat another list and NOT on the Nourishing Traditions list). Jack has a great MSG summary here: The core of the MSG concept and all thatis basic to its function, etc., is located at this page.<http://www.truthinlabeling.org/manufac.html>http://www.truthinlabeling.org/manufac.htmlCarol and Jack disagree about some MSG issues including fermented foods,with Carol taking a more holistic approach like I am, while Jack limitshimself to very few foods and has an extremely restricted diet in order toavoid all forms of free glutamic acid (which would drive me crazy and makefor a tough life if I tried to do that - and I also don't think it ishealthy for the body to be that restricted but that's another book..).Sharon [ ] Re: Anybody not doing diet intervention?/sharon?

* sharon,

what you have written about this diet is so interesting. i actually just

started giving live

foods to my family, and they're really quite delicious! My only q is that i

recently read

somewhere on a message board that live foods, fermented, etc. have

high levels of

glutamate which can increase excitotoxin levels much like msg does-- which

asd kids (and

people in general) have problems with. do you know anything about this?

thanks,

catriella