Thursday, July 31, 2008
Food Frustrations!!!
Aaaaaah! I am really frustrated with food right now - all food!! As some of you may know, I have an intolerance for MSG (monsodium glutamate). It does awful things to me, and has even landed me in the emergency room, twice! Some of the things that happen to me are: headaches, severe neck and upper back pain and stiffness, difficulty breathing, heart palpitations, weakness. It took me years to finally figure out what was causing it. So, I look for it on all products. Pretty much, anything that comes in a package or box is bad news - even canned and frozen food. I have seen an elmination of MSG in lots of products. Yet, I still get symptoms occassionally from these "MSG" free foods. So, I did more research and have found some pseudonyms for MSG. Pretty much, if a product has an ingredient in it I can't pronounce or don't know what it is, I don't eat it. I also don't eat at most restaurants either since I know it is in their food - including all fast food except In-N-Out. I've been happy that MSG is being elminated from foods, but now I am very distressed by this. Come to find out, they are just using different names or putting MSG in the other igredients in the product to hide the fact that MSG is in it. One of these is hydrolized vegetable protein. Yuck! But this is NOTHING compared to what else I've discovered. I am OUTRAGED that this is happening: Farmers are using a fertilizer with MSG in it!!!! It is inside and outside of our vegetables! Even organic produce can have it since there are no standards for its use in Organic farming. Now I know why I get an MSG reaction to supposedly healthy food sometimes. And now I know why some wines bother me while others don't (yes, they even spray it on grape vines used for making wine - ridiculous!). I have always wanted to grow my own produce and now I am ready to become Farmer Kim! I swear this is ridiculous. MSG can cause learning disabilities and whole host of other problems. It is not natural to eat modified food yet it is in everything everyone eats. I am going to look like a crazy hippy now - growing my own organic food, making bio-diesel, looking to start using alternative energy to power the house, reclaiming our water, etc. Just for everyone's reassurance, I am definitely a Republican - I just want healthy, natural food for my family's body. Is that too much to ask!!