• The production and consumption of high fructose corn syrup has sky rocketed because it’s a cheap sweetener
• That unlike sucrose, it’s metabolized totally in the liver where it turns to fat
• That it does not turn off your appetite, so you keep eating and get fat

High Fructose Corn Syrup can damage the liver:

Not only does it turn to fat, but it turns to fat much more rapidly than any other sugar. On top of that much more of it gets stored as fat. If you eat 90 calories of fructose, 30 calories get stored as fat whereas only about 1 calorie of glucose gets stored as fat. Your cells burn the glucose as a fuel out in the tissues, but they don’t directly burn fructose, so fructose fat builds up.

Besides building up in obvious places on the body, fructose fat also silently builds up in the liver.

The body handles fructose metabolism a lot like it handles alcohol, producing similar toxic by-products and similar damage to the liver. What starts out as fatty liver (most doctors don’t even recognize the cause of it) can lead to scarring of the liver and cirrhosis similar to alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver with the same deadly consequences.

Even children as young as 3 have been diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Diagnosis is only by biopsy of the liver, but elevation of the liver enzyme ALT may be seen in the blood as an indicator to test further. Children (and adults) with NALFD have a much higher incidence of the disease progressing to scarring and even death.

What’s the remedy? Stop consuming high fructose corn syrup and other sources of fructose including fruit juices. Keep whole fruit consumption minimal. Lose weight and exercise.

We must stop this obesity epidemic that’s killing the children and the adults by inducing degenerative diseases at a very early age.

For more details see Dr. Mercola’s eye opening article:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2099/12/31/why-do-millions-of-kids-in-the-us-have-liver-disease.aspx?e_cid=20110809_DNL_artTest_A2

Dr. Mercola strongly recommends limiting fructose consumption to no more than 25 grams per day. Look at the chart at the bottom of his article that gives the amount of fructose in common foods.

Pancreatic Cancer

Dr. Anthony Heaney, Associate Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, recently published an article in Cancer Research, linking high fructose consumption to the development of pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Heaney discovered pancreatic cancer cells metabolize fructose and glucose differently by using fructose to generate nucleic acids needed to build RNA and DNA. With plenty of RNA and DNA cancer cells divide and flourish.

Dr. Heaney concludes that his findings “have major significance for cancer patients, given dietary refined fructose consumption.”

Dr. Heaney’s research adds to the already known findings that cancer cells thrive on sugars.

We don’t have to be victims of cancer. We can make choices that help prevent it. Keep sugar intake low and avoid high fructose corn syrup and eat your veggies!

Kidney stones

High fructose corn syrup may induce elevated blood uric acid levels. If the uric acid crystals precipitate in the kidneys, painful stones can develop. If they precipitate in the joints the very painful condition of gout develops.

If you drink your HFCS in sodas you may get a double whammy of stones forming in your body. The high acidity of sodas upsets the calcium balance in your body, leaving “free” calcium that can collect as stones anywhere in the body (like kidney stones, gall bladder stones) or calcify your blood vessels or other tissues.

We could go on and on about the adverse and even pathologic effects of high fructose corn syrup on the body. Hopefully we’ve given you enough knowledge to make wise choices. Wisdom is knowledge applied with good judgment and I know you have good judgment and want to make wise choices for yourself and your children. So…

SOS – SOC

(Translation Save Our Selves – Save Our Children)

Many blessings to you and yours,

Dr. Jo

If you missed the preceding articles on High Fructose Corn Syrup, you can find them at:

HFCS part 1

HFCS part 2

HFCS part 3

From a chemical standpoint high fructose corn syrup and sucrose are remarkably the same, each containing approximately 50% glucose and 50% fructose.

However there is a difference. To metabolize sucrose our bodies have to secrete an enzyme called sucrase that breaks the bond between the glucose and fructose before these individual molecules can be metabolized.

In high fructose corn syrup the glucose and fructose are already separated, thus they may enter the bloodstream more quickly than the monosaccharides from sucrose.

After that the digestion, absorption and metabolism of fructose differs significantly from that of glucose. Absorption of fructose occurs farther down in the small intestine while glucose absorption occurs higher in the small intestine.

They both then enter the large vein that carries them to the liver or they pass into the general circulation. In the liver fructose can be converted into glucose.

Glucose stimulates insulin release from the pancreas but fructose does not stimulate insulin release. That’s why fructose may look like a good substitute sugar for diabetics because it causes a lesser rise in blood glucose levels and less stimulation of insulin release.

However there is a caveat. After drinking a high fructose corn syrup sweetened soft drink, fructose floods into the liver. The liver converts that fructose into fat that not only gets stored on the body as extra weight but also can be stored in the liver. We’ll cover the disastrous effects that may occur as more and more fat accumulates in the liver in the next article.

And another problem with fructose as opposed to glucose ingestion:

Glucose stimulates insulin release which in turn triggers the release of a hormone called leptin. Now that’s your friendly hormone that acts in a feedback mechanism to suppress appetite.

So what happens with eating food that has high levels of fructose in it? By deduction fructose induces less insulin which in turn induces less leptin. Therefore you stay hungry when you have had plenty of calories. So you pile on the fat. See how fructose is tricking you?

Also, insulin transports glucose into the brain cells. The brain cells then realize that they’ve been well fed which acts to tell you that you’ve had enough to eat. Once again you feel satisfied.

Fructose cannot enter the brain cells because insulin will not carry it across. That leaves the brain cells feeling starved. Brain cells cannot survive very long without their fuel source, glucose. Therefore the brain sends strong signals “eat more”.

So you grab something else sweet and if it’s another high fructose corn syrup sweetened food you enter right back into the vicious cycle. You eat, but you’re not satisfied, so you eat more. No wonder the weight piles on and your liver starts to suffer.

In summary:

1. Fructose easily turns to fat.

2. Fructose sets up a vicious cycle that keeps you eating and drinking calories that you don’t need because fructose does not satisfy your appetite.

Americans consume the greatest percentage of high fructose corn syrup in the form of soft drinks and fruit type drinks or juices. Simply eliminating that source of high fructose corn syrup in the diet would go a long ways to decreasing obesity and other health problems.

If you like reading the scientific research on fructose here’s the link:

http://www.ajcn.org/content/79/4/537.full

Watch for the next article discussing the research that implicates fructose as a cause of some major debilitating and death inducing disease processes.

Blessings,

Dr. Jo

If you missed the preceding articles on High Fructose Corn Syrup, you can find them at:

HFCS Part 1

HFCS Part 2

And for the next article:

HFCS Part 4

Manufacturers developed the process for making corn syrup back in the 1960s. Basically soaking the corn kernels in warm water with sulfur dioxide softens them facilitating the process of separating the starch, hull, protein and oil. After removing the oil the resultant cornstarch is washed.

Cornstarch contains amylose which is simply a long chain of glucose molecules. By adding an enzyme called amylase these long chains are broken into glucose molecules. This process results in regular corn syrup which contains only glucose molecules.

But regular corn syrup is not as sweet as sucrose commonly known as table sugar. So invertase, another enzyme is added to the mixture to convert about half of the glucose into fructose. This step results in high fructose corn syrup which is sweeter than sucrose (table sugar). This syrup then undergoes evaporation to create the consistency that makes it easier to ship.

Manufacturers developed HFCS-42 which contains 42% fructose in 1967 and HFCS-55 containing 55% fructose in 1977. The food companies jumped on the bandwagon with this new substance sweeter than table sugar. It became the sweetener of choice.

Of all the caloric sweeteners available in 1970 HFCS represented only 1% of the market. But in the 1980s HFCS rapidly replaced other caloric sweeteners. By the year 2000 it claimed 42% of the caloric sweetener market.

So you will find HFCS everywhere in processed foods. Read the labels of all the processed food that you buy. You will find HFCS in carbonated beverages, fruit drinks, baked goods, many cereals, canned fruits, jams and jellies, yogurt and dairy desserts.

About two thirds of the HFCS produced in the United States goes into the production of sweet drinks such as carbonated soft drinks and fruit drinks.

Now to return to our question from part one of this high fructose corn syrup series of articles:

Remember that the corn industry got a lot of flak for calling high fructose corn syrup “natural”. Therefore, the industry wanted to change the name of high fructose corn syrup to “corn sugar”.

Why? According to the CRA’s Audrain Erickson, “Consumers need to know what is in their foods and where their foods come from and we want to be clear with them.”

After reviewing the process of converting corn to high fructose corn syrup, what do you think now? Is “corn sugar” a legitimate description of high fructose corn syrup?

From a chemical standpoint high fructose corn syrup and sucrose are remarkably the same, each containing approximately 50% glucose and 50% fructose.

So from that standpoint “corn sugar” could be a legitimate description of high fructose corn syrup.

In part three of high fructose corn syrup we will take a look at the differences between HF CS and sucrose (table sugar) and how they are metabolized differently in the body.

Blessings,

Dr. Jo

If you missed the first article on HFCS, you can find it here:

HFCS Part 1

And find the following articles about HFCS here:

HFCS Part 3

HFCS Part 4

Either way it’s wise to know what’s going on with this form of sweetener in our food supply because eating it can have disastrous, irreversible results in the long run.

On average an American ingests 41.5 pounds or more of HFCS per year without even realizing it.

How did High Fructose Corn Syrup become so common in our food?

Way back in 1977 the USDA initiated a different system of sugar tariffs and quotas that increased the price of table sugar (sucrose). At the same time the government kept the price of corn low with subsidy programs.

Obviously manufacturers scrambled to switch the sweetener in their products to the cheaper corn sugars, saving them billions of dollars.

Suddenly HFCS flooded the market place increasing its consumption 1,000% from the 1970’s to 1990.

Unknowingly another processed food entered the food chain that silently but relentlessly adds to health problems like obesity, fatty liver that may proceed to deadly liver failure, and even contribute to the development of pancreatic cancer. We will get back to more about those problems later in this series.

Big Corn calls High Fructose Corn Syrup “natural”

Audrain Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) says, “HFCS, like table sugar and honey, is natural. It is made from corn, a natural grain product.”

But hold on one minute here – is something “natural” after a synthetic mixing agent has been added to it?

The FDA says it’s still natural if that synthetic mixing agent does not touch the corn starch and so it let the CRA manufacturers call products HFCS “natural”.

Kind of boggles your mind doesn’t it? To me anything that’s been extracted from a whole food has lost the definition of “natural”.

When Big Corn received that favorable decision from the FDA, other companies jumped on that band wagon. Cadbury Schweppes called 7Up “all natural”. Give me a break – that’s basically diluted killer syrup. Kraft joined this deception calling their Capri Sun products “all natural”.

That deceptive labeling was aborted quickly because of the law suits filed against these companies. To avoid the hassles of dealing with the law suits they changed their labels right away.

Also, the FDA’s decision was called to task by the press, the deception was unraveling.

So Big Corn had to do something to save their image. They applied to change the name of HFCS to “corn sugar” in September of 2010.

Why? According to the CRA’s Audrain Erickson, “Consumers need to know what is in their foods and where their foods come from and we want to be clear with them.”

H-mm, do you buy into that explanation?

In the next HFCS article, part 2, let’s review the process of converting corn to HFCS and then decide.

Blessings to you,

Dr. Jo

Find more of the High Fructose Corn Syrup articles here:

HFCS Part 2
HFCS Part 3

HFCS Part 4

Sugar alcohols are neither sugar nor alcohol

So how did they get that misnomer? Basically their chemical structures look similar to alcohol and sugar, so someone coined the name sugar alcohol. As another type of carbohydrate they contain calories, but only about half of the calories of table sugar which contains 4 kcal/gram.

And now on to another misnomer – any food containing sugar alcohols can be labeled sugar-free since they replace full-calorie sugar sweeteners. Are you beginning to get confused? Me too. Somehow sweeteners need some clear definitions. So, sugar-free food is not really free of sweeteners or calories derived from sweeteners. And manufacturers rely on that confusion to sell their products.

But the sugar alcohols do come with some benefits over full calorie sugar sweeteners since they lower caloric intake, decrease the glycemic response (how rapidly a food increases the blood glucose level) and decrease dental cavities.

Some dentists and dental hygienists recommend chewing gum containing sugar alcohols after meals, especially if you cannot brush your teeth right after a meal. Or suck on a sugar-alcohol containing mint. The decay-inducing bacteria ingest the sugar alcohol but cannot digest it. The sugar alcohol attracts water causing the bacteria to swell up and die.

But will the sugar alcohols have the same effect on the good bacteria in your gut? I have not seen any research that answers that question. So, currently I recommend using sugar alcohols sparingly.

Fruits and vegetables naturally contain sugar alcohols, but they are probably ingested the most in “sugar-free” and reduced-sugar foods.

Some sugar alcohols are only 25% as sweet as table sugar (sucrose) but can be up to 100% as sweet. Xylitol is the one most commonly used in gums and mints. Others are used in other processed food.

Here’s a table from Medicinenet.com detailing the sugar alcohols:

http://www.medicinenet.com/artificial_sweeteners/page3.htm#sugar

Side Effects of sugar alcohols:

Because people cannot fully digest and absorb these sweeteners folks may experience abdominal  gas and diarrhea if they ingest too much. And they do still have calories. So if you eat any sugar alcohols keep them to a minimal amount.

Another big precaution about sugar alcohols:

Your liver rapidly converts sorbitol (in those “sugar-free” candies and confections) to fructose. And now we have another problem. Overwhelming the liver with fructose can silently lead to non-alcoholic liver disease that causes cirrhosis (scarring) of the liver until it’s too late to salvage the liver.

That’s the next sweetener problem that we will explore.

So, let’s remember:

• “Sugar Free” does not necessarily mean sweetener-free nor calorie-free.
• Get knowledge and get wise so you won’t be duped.
• We need to change our way of thinking about sweets. There are no substitutes that are totally healthy.

Let’s get over our sweet addictions and enjoy healthy food and enjoy vibrant living.

Blessings,

Dr. Jo

Catch the beginning of this story here:

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/excitotoxins-part-1/

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/excitotoxins-part-2/

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/excitotoxins-part-3/

And hidden sources of MSG here:

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/hidden-sources-of-msg/

Is it worth it to ingest these excitotoxins?

Hardly!

Now that you know, will you keep feeding processed food and diet drinks to your children?

Will you keep eating it yourself?

Remember if you eat any kind of packaged, processed food or eat out at restaurants, you will be eating MSG. That’s another reason that I advocate eating whole foods, meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds and whole grains. Especially if you prepare it yourself, you will avoid eating toxins, brain killers.

Even if you ask the restaurant personnel if there is MSG in their food and they say no, you probably will still be eating it. They are not lying to you, they just do not know about all of the hidden sources of MSG in food. See this list for other names or sources of MSG in food.

Diet drinks contain aspartate. In the liquid form this excitotoxin enters the blood stream more rapidly. “Sugar-free” mints usually contain aspartate. Try substituting mints made with xylitol which helps prevent tooth decay.

Try substituting stevia, an herb, as a sweetener in tea or other drink. Mix fruit juice and sparkling water for a drink refreshment occasionally, maybe for special holidays or celebrations. Fruit juice is still a concentrated sweet that is hard on the body’s metabolism and sparkling water like any carbonated beverage upsets mineral balance in the body. Mostly drink pure water.

Congratulations on taking charge of your health. Continue to look for hidden toxins in your food. Take charge and keep your family healthy for all of your lives.

If you want to know a whole lot more about excitotoxins, read Dr. Blaylock’s book, Excitotoxins, the Taste that Kills, copyright 1997 with an update at the end. Although fairly technical writing in parts of the book, the information on the normal functioning and development of the nervous system is fascinating. And the research and information about excitotoxins is eye opening.

Published by:

Health Press

PO Box Drawer 1388

Santa Fe, NM 87504

… and that’s the end of the Excitotoxin story for now.

Blessings,

Dr. Jo

Review the previous articles here:

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/excitotoxins-part-1/

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/excitotoxins-part-2/

And hidden sources of MSG here:

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/hidden-sources-of-msg/

How much processed food and diet drinks or candies or mints are you eating on a daily basis?

If that’s your main diet, you are ingesting a heavy load of excitotoxins. You will have trouble finding prepared foods without MSG. It may not say MSG on the package label because there are a lot of other tricky names for MSG or substances containing MSG. So beware, check out this page for the other names for MSG.

Those diet drinks contain aspartame – known as NutraSweet or Equal. Those liquid forms zap that excitotoxin to your brain. How many brain cells have you killed today?

Also, some of us are more sensitive to the effects of ingested toxins than others. I call us the “canaries”, since we exhibit the adverse effects of these toxins more quickly than others do. So we can warn the rest of society to avoid these poisons. Miners took canaries into the mines to warn them of toxic fumes because canaries succumbed to the toxins before the miners could detect them. But if the miners stayed too long they would also die from the fumes. Take your lessons from the miners. Avoid excitotoxins like the plague even if you do not feel the adverse effects immediately after ingestion.

Dr. Blaylock presents evidence that some individuals may be more susceptible to the brain cell damaging effects of excitotoxins than others. Some may not have as much capacity to pump the excess glutamate out of the brain cell. Others may have some defect in part of the blood brain barrier. The damage to neurons progresses over many years before people start to show the signs of Alzheimer’s Disease, ALS, Parkinson’s, etc. The problem lies in how to know if you are susceptible to brain damage from excitotoxins. At this point there is no way to know, so why expose yourself to unnecessary substances that could cause such devastating consequences?

In summary,

Excitotoxins over stimulate the brain cell neurons, causing them to die. (They are stimulated to death.)

The most common excitotoxins in our diet are MSG (mono sodium glutamate) and aspartate (aspartame, Brand name NutraSweet or Equal)

Almost all processed (canned, packaged) food contains some form of MSG even if MSG is not mentioned in the list of ingredients. MSG goes by many other names.

MSG adds flavor to dead, lifeless packaged food.

Even food in health food stores contains MSG or its equivalent. I have yet to find a bouillon cube that does not contain it. Read labels carefully and beware of other names for MSG.

Aspartate mixed with another amino acid, phenylalanine gives a sweet taste to food or drink without adding calories. Thus it’s found in almost all “diet” drinks and “diet” food.

Our precious babies’ and toddlers’ (future leaders, scientists, creators, artists, inventors, etc.) brains are much more susceptible to the toxic effects of excitotoxins than are adults.

Excitotoxin damage to a child’s brain may not show up until years later when they begin to talk or read exhibiting difficulty with speech or dyslexia or even behavior disorders. In late adulthood degenerative disease like ALS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease or other degenerative neurological disease may manifest from excitotoxin damage done to neurons over a life time, beginning in childhood.

Pregnant women – Dr. Blaylock (and I agree) recommend totally avoiding aspartate, aspartame, NutraSweet, Equal during pregnancy. It’s a good idea to avoid all forms of MSG too.

And next in this series:

Is it worth it to keep eating these toxins?

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/excitotoxins-part-4/

Blessings,

Dr. Jo

You will find part 1 here:

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/excitotoxins-part-1/

And hidden sources of MSG here:

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/hidden-sources-of-msg/

Turns out the original assumption that glutamate supplied energy to the brain was almost right. But rather than supplying energy to the brain glutamate, aspartate and several other amino acids carry nerve messages from one nerve to another and are thus known as neurotransmitters. With proper regulation and in the right concentration and balance these amino acids function as vital transmitters of information that regulates bodily functions.

Some of Us Are More Susceptible to the Adverse Effects of Excitotoxins

To protect the brain from toxins or toxic levels of nutrients the blood brain barrier keeps some substances from entering the brain and allows others to pass through. However, the blood brain barrier may malfunction in persons with a stroke, brain tumor, head injury, infection or degenerative disease. Some areas of the brain never develop a barrier system including the hypothalamus, pineal and a few other areas. Thus they are more vulnerable to the effects of excitotoxins. Damage to the hypothalamus causes malfunctioning in the hormonal system.

Since the developing brain of an infant or child gradually develops an effective blood brain barrier, their brains are more vulnerable to damage caused by ingested toxins.

Throughout our lives, but especially in the developmental years our amazing brains are always changing and repairing themselves, wiring and rewiring through trillions of nerve fiber pathways. This process, called plasticity, makes the brain infinitely more complex than a computer. What an amazing organ.

Of all the neurotransmitters glutamate plays the most important part in the brain development of the fetus and the plasticity in the adult. In experiments on animals too much glutamate can cause the brain to be miswired. If MSG and aspartate (NutraSweet) pass from what mama has eaten into the fetus in the womb, baby’s brain may be miswired.

Because the brain at birth is still going through an extensive rewiring process, newborns and toddlers who are fed these excitotoxins are at very high risk for abnormal brain wiring.

Also, the brain develops in a certain sequence of events with critical timing of each sequence. Over stimulation with excitotoxins “may severely interfere with this delicate process and possibly lead to learning disorders, emotional illness, or even major psychological disease later in life.”

The critical period of brain development occurs from the first week of conception to six or seven years old. Dr. Blaylock suggests that the effects of excitotoxin damage during this critical period may be subtle, manifesting as a slight dyslexia, or more obvious as outbursts of uncontrollable anger. More severe cases may result in autism, schizophrenia, seizures, and cerebral palsy or episodes of violence and criminal behavior in later years. There’s no proof that excitotoxins cause these conditions in humans, but these behavioral changes have been observed in animals exposed to excitotoxins.

In animal experiments the dose of MSG needed to damage the developing nervous system in baby animals is only one-fourth of the dose needed to damage the adult animal nervous system.

Pregnant women frequently eat large doses of MSG and other excitotoxins in their food. According to one study restaurants add as much as 9.9 grams of MSG to a single dish, enough to cause brain damage in experimental animals. In soups or other liquids, MSG is absorbed much faster and more completely, causing higher blood levels of MSG and greater toxicity to the brain. Maybe that’s why I stopped eating restaurant or canned soup. I just do not feel good after eating it.

And there’s more to this story:

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/excitotoxins-part-3/

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/excitotoxins-part-4/

Chat with you later,

Dr. Jo

If you found out that your daily meals contain a chemical additive that could cause brain damage in your children?

If evidence indicates that this chemical could affect how your child’s brain forms and develops.

If the damage caused by this chemical might not show itself until your child was older, manifesting as learning or emotional difficulties.

If this chemical damaged the part of the brain that controls hormones, resulting in hormonal imbalances later in life.

If this chemical might aggravate or even precipitate degenerative diseases of the nervous system and brain such as Parkinson’s Disease, Huntington’s disease, ALS, and Alzheimer’s disease.

So begins the book Excitotoxins, the Taste That Kills, by Dr. Russell L. Blaylock, MD a practicing board-certified neurosurgeon with a profound understanding of the structure and function of the brain and nervous system.

What Dr. Blaylock discovered is too important to your health and the health of future generations for it to lie hidden. That’s why I feel you must know about it.

This article emphasizes the Excitotoxin MSG. But keep in mind that the very popular artificial sweetener aspartame (also known as Nutrasweet, Equal, and the new form Neotame) also acts in a similar manner to over-stimulate brain cells to death.

Why do food manufacturers add MSG to our processed food?

For the taste of it!,

You see, Japanese cooks discovered a sea weed, “sea tangle” or kombu that made their dishes of food taste delectable. Eventually the Japanese isolated this flavor enhancing ingredient as MSG – Mono Sodium Glutamate – and turned it into a worldwide multimillion dollar empire.

After World War II American food manufacturers discovered MSG and started adding it to processed food (which is often rather bland tasting without additives). Now it’s a huge lucrative industry in the United States. In 1972 262,000 metric tons of MSG was produced in America.

Until the 1960′s few people suspected that MSG could be harmful to our health. Most scientists assumed that glutamate supplied energy to the brain.

So MSG continued to be added to food in huge amounts and also to baby food. Then Dr. Olney, MD a neuroscientist at The Department of Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis in 1967 discovered that specialized cells in a very critical area of the brain, the hypothalamus, were destroyed after a single dose of MSG. Despite a long fight with the FDA and food manufacturers Dr. Olney and others finally succeeded in banning MSG from infant food.

However, other food additives can have similar effects as MSG and still be found in infant and toddler’s food. These foods have been called excitotoxins by neuroscientists. Neurons (nerve cells) in the brain exposed to these substances initially become very excited, firing rapidly until they become completely exhausted. “Several hours later these neurons suddenly die, as if the cells were excited to death.” The name excitotoxins seems appropriate.

What is the basic composition of excitotoxins?

Excitotoxins found in nature are all amino acids including glutamate, aspartate and cysteine. Add a sodium molecule to the glutamate and you have mono sodium glutamate. But the toxic part is the glutamate, not the sodium.

You also ingest these amino acids when you eat a natural whole food protein source. However, in natural whole food these amino acids come in balanced proportions, so that none of them induce high blood levels of any individual amino acid. When MSG is added to processed food, glutamate is concentrated and induces high blood levels which can allow higher levels of glutamate to enter the brain.

Be wise – become familiar with the other names for MSG:

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/hidden-sources-of-msg/

For more of this cover-up info read on:

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/excitotoxins-part-2/

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/excitotoxins-part-3/

http://dr-jo-md.com/bewise/excitotoxins-part-4/

Blessings,

Dr. Jo

“As discussed previously, the glutamate manufacturers and the processed food industries are always on a quest to disguise MSG added to food. Below is a partial list of the most common names for disguised MSG. Remember also that the powerful excitotoxins aspartate and L-cysteine are frequently added to foods and according to FDA rules require no labeling at all.

Additives that always contain MSG: (from reference 492 in Excitotoxins, the Taste that Kills)

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

Additives that frequently contain MSG:

Malt extract

Malt Flavoring

Bouillon

Broth

Stock

Flavoring

Natural Flavoring

Natural Beef or Chicken Flavoring

Seasoning

Spices

Additives that may contain MSG or excitotoxins:

Carrageenaan

Enzymes

Soy Protein Concentrate

Soy Protein Isolate

Whey Protein Concentrate

Protease enzymes of various sources can release excitotoxin amino acids from food proteins. (Reference 493 in Excitotoxins)”

Reading through that list frustrates me. How can we ever really know what’s in that processed food. As for me, I choose to avoid all processed food, especially if it has any of those ingredients in the label. I have often wondered why an ingredient list specifically delineates certain spices (like garlic, oregano, etc.) and then generically lists “spices”. Now we know that may be a way to hide MSG in the food.

I thought you might like to know how hydrolyzed vegetable protein is made.

From Excitotoxins: Hydrolyzed vegetable protein – made from vegetables high in glutamate. “Extraction (Hydrolysis) involves boiling them in a vat of acid, neutralizing with caustic soda and then collecting the brown sludge which is dried. This processes produces a brown powder high in three know excitotoxins – glutamate, aspartate and cysteic acid which the body converts to cysteine. Additional MSG may be added to this brown powder. Also adding particular amino acids will give it a beefy taste useful in barbeque sauces and fast foods. Other amino acids give it a creamy taste that enhances the flavor of soups, salad dressings and sauces. Besides containing excitotoxins this hydrolyzed vegetable protein contains several known carcinogens (cancer causing substances), unregulated by the FDA.” Doesn’t that make you want a big glop of it in your food?

For more in depth information about Excitotoxins, read Dr. Blaylock’s book, Excitotoxins, the Taste that Kills, copyright 1997 with an update at the end. Although fairly technical writing in parts of the book, the information on the normal functioning and development of the nervous system is fascinating. And the research and information about excitotoxins is eye opening.