MSG Almost Killed Me: & Now They Call It Different Names

I have a crazy monosodium glutamate personal story.

It was so startling, that it led me down the path to this career as a health and wellness author and journalist.

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My first mother-in-law cooked her large family the “standard American diet.” She had this ranch dip and dressing I called “crack.” Like it made me unable to stop eating vegetables and salad–if it was dipped in that stuff.

So I asked her for the recipe. For the dip, you add 7 seasonings to a tub of sour cream. And for the dressing, you added the same 7 seasonings to half buttermilk, half mayo.

Anyway, 6 of the ingredients are no big deal: salt, pepper, garlic and onion powders, chives and parsley.

But the 7th one was Accent, which turned out to be the “crack!” I asked my MIL, what is “Accent?”

She didn’t know. But she showed me the red canister of it, in her cupboard. And told me it was cheap and easy to find..

I immediately bought the 7 ingredients, and I brought the “Crack Dip” or dressing many times over the course of several years.

During those years, I began to have migraines.

I had many episodes of what I would eventually have diagnosed as TIA, or trans-ischemic attacks, which are mini-strokes. My right arm would go numb and I couldn’t see or speak, for hours.

I knew at the first symptom that I had about 10 minutes to get someone to watch my two little children. And take a prescription painkiller. The drug and symptoms would cause me to sleep the rest of the day.

In essence, I had neurological disease in my 20’s. Had I not interrupted these crazy symptoms in their tracks, I wonder if where I was headed was ALS, Parkinson’s, or MS–or death. For sure I’d be obese.

I can’t remember where I learned about “neurotoxins.” Specifically, the two worst and common ones in our food supply:

1. monosodium glutamate (MSG) and
2. Aspartame (Nutrasweet)

Of course, we wouldn’t be here today if at some point I hadn’t looked on the back of that red bottle of Accent. After I’d learned about neurotoxins.

After I’d noticed that after eating that dip or dressing, my joints hurt for sometimes a whole week. And the migraine and other scary stuff happened. So I looked at the back of that red canister to find that it was pure monosodium glutamate.

Last weekend, I googled, having not purchased that product in half of my life, nor even being on that aisle of the store often–

–only to find that indeed Accent is still being sold to the American consumer, as a flavor enhancer.

That’s how Doritos could accurately claim, “Betcha can’t eat just one!” You pretty much can’t. (Eat just one.) They’ve made sure of it.

The parent company (currently Doritos is owned by Frito Lay who is, in turn, owned by PepsiCo)--they ran focus groups to find out what the “sweet spot” was–

–how much monosodium glutamate to add to Doritos, to get people to eat the maximum amount.

Apparently, MSG can make wretched food products taste incredibly good. It’s a neurotoxin, but also called an “excitotoxin,” as it “excites” the nervous system (while also poisoning it). 

Aspartame, same thing (look up the ingredients of Diet Coke and Pepsi–how’d they make it taste good??).

When I looked Accent up online recently, I found that it has been certified kosher! I am sad to think that if there are Jewish people who believe if it’s kosher, it’s good for you–

–it’s not any better for a Jewish human than any other human, even if a rabbi blessed it and it wasn’t in contact with other foods in the kosher-approval certification protocol.

I vigilantly found sources of MSG in my diet, back then, and eliminated them. (Also eliminated aspartame.)

Now it’s harder, so get our wallet card, to have all the other names food companies call MSG now. Keep it in your wallet, to consult, when you’re shopping!

I had eaten a lot of Top Ramen in college, which is when the the first signs of neurological damage began.

Research shows MSG is linked to fibromyalgia, obesity, fatty liver, high insulin and blood sugar, high cholesterol, liver and metabolic issues, high blood pressure, gut-brain axis dysfunction, and damage to the brain and neurological system.

As MSG began to be used on a wide scale in the 60’s, it was called “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” by the New England Journal of Medicine.

My husband has eaten at Chinese restaurants twice in the last 10 years, and ended up in the fetal position for 24 hours, throwing up a lot. Both times. He claims he will never eat at a Chinese restaurant again.

(It seems to be imported ingredients with MSG added for American Chinese restaurants–it’s not anything to do with how Chinese people cook in China!)

Everyone needs to eliminate MSG and aspartame “excitotoxins” from their diet. Probably MSG was the major culprit of my mini-strokes, because I ate a lot more of it than aspartame.

To this day I avoid both neurotoxins like the plague they are, and:

I haven’t had a migraine, TIA, vertigo, or any of the other scary neurological symptoms I was having, since then. For almost 20 years.

I don’t even have the prescription anymore, of the opiate I’d take when a TIA was coming on. Having to avoid MSG and aspartame has an additional benefit of making most junk food off-limits to me.

It’s not even a temptation. No food is worth having a mini-stroke and having to take hardcore drugs and climb in bed for the day, and be unable to work or show up for my family. I just didn’t know better, till I did.

The FDA doesn’t require manufacturers to call an ingredient MSG unless it’s 99% pure MSG!

(What if it’s still super high in “free glutamate,” but not 99%? They just call it something else.)

Byproducts of most of the processed protein people eat in bags and bars are high in free glutamate. Which is pretty sad, because most people think processed protein out of a bag is a staple.

Food manufacturers have gotten clever, and they know many American consumers are on the lookout for MSG, to eliminate it from the diet.

So it “hides” on ingredient lists in dozens of different names.

Get our free Neurotoxin Wallet Card here. Print it to keep in your wallet, for shopping!

That way while you’re shopping, you can consult the other words MSG goes by, on ingredient lists.

Or, for a small charge, we’ll send my “Genius Guides,” printed and laminated to you, which includes the Neurotoxin card, but also 14 other very useful resources I’ve developed.

Including a wallet card you can consult for the store chains that are selling Apeel preservative-coated produce, and those who vow they won’t. And much more, to simplify and facilitate your healthy life!

Thank you for your support of this blog. We appreciate you showing up here, and hope that  what I teach makes a difference in your health and quality of life!