This is a really important TED talk if you want to UNBLIND YOUR MIND, with regard to the food you and your family is eating.  This is a talk about sneaky wording in ingredient lists, and the persistent, sometimes severely damaging effects of MSG, also known as glutamate.  Formerly popularly known as monosodium glutamate, we found out that MSG was unhealthy when we were in high school, long before we ever heard of health foods.

Dr. Katherine Reid’s fifth child had serious and debilitating autistic behaviors as a toddler.  As a biochemist, she set out to find out the root cause.  I am sure you will want to see the powerful positive effects of removing all glutamates from her daughter’s diet, which given names MSG sometimes hides under like ‘natural flavoring’ was no easy task.

Find out if your favorite foods have MSG.  Sometimes you will have to call the company to UNBLIND YOUR MIND and find out what is in the food you are eating and why.

Read these synopses from the MAYO CLINIC.

Potential Health Effects

Common side effects that have been reported related to MSG consumption include severe headache, flushing, sweating, facial tightness, heart palpitations, chest pains, shortness of breath, nausea, muscle weakness; and numbness, tingling or burning in the mouth, around the face and in the limbs, according to MayoClinic.com. Some people report more severe reactions than others, but the existence of cause and effect, as well as that of potentially dangerous dosages, have not been well established.

Possible Explanation

MSG disrupts brain chemicals because it breaks down into glutamate, which is an important chemical messenger in your brain. Too much of any particular neurotransmitter can become an “excitotoxin” and over-excite cells to the point of damage, according to the book “General and Systematic Pathology.” Too much glutamate in the brain leads to various enzymatic cascades that result in neuron death. This may explain why many symptoms reported from MSG consumption are neurological in nature.

Sources of MSG

Many foods found at restaurants, especially buffets and fast-food chains, contain high levels of MSG. Due to negative perception of MSG, many Asian food buffets claim they do not use any MSG. MSG is also commonly added to commercially made stocks and soups, many canned foods, crunchy snack foods and condiments such as barbecue sauce, pasta sauce and salad dressings. Completely avoiding MSG is a challenge.

UNBLIND MY MIND has now become a non-profit organization dedicated to health and well-being.