Author Topic: emails to us at Say No To MSG with answer  (Read 8370 times)

Offline misfitguy

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emails to us at Say No To MSG with answer
« on: March 03, 2013, 03:27:40 PM »
We received this email from a new member.  We think it has a lot of good questions others may have as well so we asked for permission to post it and she said it was OK.  

Hi!
 
I just found your website today - thank you SO much for what you are trying to do to help.  I too am a crusader in this fight against excitotoxins but I am fighting by educating doctors, of which I have too many.  May I print some of your pages to add to my education folder?  They would only be used to give to health professionals and others who show an interest in excitotoxins.  I would of course leave your website info on there.
 
I did join the forum and my user name is sculptr.  I would love to have the laminated card, thank you!  Can I send you something for postage etc.?
 
Just a suggestion, and it may have been made by others, but you could put the card on your website in printable form, and give people the option of printing/laminating it themselves.  They could either join the forum and get it free, or print it themselves, OR what I would have done would be to print it myself AND join your forum.  I think we all want to learn as much as possible and the forum is a valuable contribution by you, thank you.
 
Regardless, I look forward to participating in the forum and will no doubt start today!  Thanks again for all that you do.
 
Warmly,


Name redacted



My response:
Thank you so much for your kind letter.  You may print all the pages you care to and give them to whomever will accept them.  I have found that doctors have little interest in what we have to say.  I am diabetic so I see more doctors than most people do.  I always ask about their knowledge of MSG and other excitotoxins and found they have very little knowledge or interest.  I have suggested that since headaches are one of the most prevalent issues they deal with, and if they helped their patients by changing their diet instead of giving them a pain pill or send them to a pain management class, then that should be a good thing.  The answers have been a condescending look, I have nutrionists I refer my patients to, and other vacillating answers.  We had a doctor from a Southern California Hospital email me angrily wanting to know what my expertise was and what credentials had I earned.  She suggested if I was not a degreed something in the field of medicine or nutrition, then anything we had to say was useless or suspect.  I answered her with references from our research and challenged her to find where we were in error.  She never responded, even after I asked a second time for a response.  So if you are getting positive responses from the medical field, I applaud you.

We have pondered putting a printable copy on the forum.  On our website, www.saynotomsg.com  there is a list of over 80 excitotoxins that people can copy/paste into a word program and print.  We carried 8 1/2 by 11 sheets for years so we could compare the list to the labels we were reading while we were learning what Sassafras could eat and what she couldn't eat.  We chose not to put a printable copy on the forum because we really think it is important for the forum to create a community of individuals that can share their experiences and ask questions about their suffering while they are making the adjustments in their diet that will eliminate the debilitating symptoms from the use of excitotoxins.

At one time, we simply sent the card out to anybody that requested it.  About a year ago, a lady that received a card was so happy that she wrote us saying she felt everybody should have one and she was going to put it on her facebook page and make us famous.  It gave us nightmares.  The power of the internet was looking us right in the face and we could see thousands of requests coming at us at once.  It isn't that we don't feel more people should be aware of MSG, we do, but the task of printing thousands of cards and laminating them and mailing them as well as the cost overwhelmed us.  We decided to request that anybody that asks for a card to please join the forum.  It has worked well, with us sending out a few a week.  Unfortunately, not many people are active on the forum and we are traveling a lot in our business, so the forum, to us looks inactive at times.  We are always hoping that will change as members like yourself join.


warmly,

Mick Zellar
« Last Edit: June 08, 2013, 10:42:31 AM by misfitguy »
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Offline misfitguy

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Re: email from new member with answer
« Reply #1 on: March 09, 2013, 10:30:41 AM »
Another email from another sufferer.




Stanley, VA 
 
 I am really allergic to MSG and am havaing a very difficult time getting over the effects from it.  Wish it could be outlawed!   I ate at Olive Garden yesterday and I have not been able to go to sleep and it is now 3:57 A.M.  Thanks. 


Rosee,

We are very sorry you suffer from MSG.  My wife, Sassafras also suffers dearly and when she made the statement, "I don't want to get sick ever again", in 1999, our quest to eliminate msg and other excitotoxins began.  There was very little information available at the time and we spent hundreds of hours of research to be able to list many of the ingredients that were causing my wife problems.  Fortunately for you, much of the research is already done.  If you go here, http://www.saynotomsg.com/basics_list.php  and print the list and begin reading labels, you can immediately change your life.  I would start with what is in your cupboards.  Eliminate anything that has any of the ingredients on the list from your diet.  Start a food log and write down everything you eat that causes you problems.  Some people are more sensitive to certain excitotoxins than other individuals.  This will not be easy, because you will be changing your diet completely. 

Just to start, DO NOT EAT

-flavored snacks, like nachos, or flavored chips
-anything with "diet" on it...they use fake sugars such as aspartame, maltodextrin, sucralose, etc and you are allergic to them
-ranch dressing.  70% of the people we talk to that suffer from headaches say they love ranch dressing.  It will kill you.
-Soups and gravies in a restaurant or from a can.  and don't add bullion cubes to anything
-flavored coffee creamers
-any spices that are a mixture or something like Lawry's or Mrs. Dashes

Read the website at www.saynotomsg.com  There is a lot of information that will get you started on the road to recovery.

If you haven't please join our forum.  http://www.misfitcityforum.com/forum/index.php?board=16.0  We ask everybody that we send a card to join.  Again there is a lot of information and we need your input and we need you to share with others about your diet changes.

warmly,

Mick and Sassafras Zellar


 
 
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Offline misfitguy

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Re: email from new member with answer
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2013, 10:40:50 AM »
Hi Mick,
 
I have been looking at the labels for a lot of years and, somehow, a few days ago, after making some research over E627 flavor enhancer, I ended up making research about MSG. WoW !! The industry is actually poising us.
 
My question are: has fresh fish (non-farm grown) MSG?
 
What about farm-grown fish?
 
 
Thanks !
 
Albert from Melbourne


Albert,

Sorry for the delay, but we have been travelling extensively.  There is no worries concerning msg and fish regardless how it is raised.  In fact, bound msg, that found naturally in nature such as msg found in tomatoes, is harmless and our body does not respond badly to it.  Free glutamates, in other words manmade or processed excitotoxins, are the culprits we need to avoid.  These are created by hydrolyzing a protein or autolyzing yeast or extract from known and safe herbs and spices.  So anytime you read hydrolyzed, autolyzed, extract, beware.  An example would be that recently we have been seeing "extract of paprika" on labels.  Paprika is a safe and good spice used around the world but when you extract a protein from it, you have created an excitotoxin (flavor enhancer) that is bad for us.  It helps make things taste good, but it causes so many neuro problems. 

Join our website www.misfitcityforum.net

I am going to post this email and my response without your name on our forum.  You may also want to go to www.saynotomsg.com  for more information.

Keep up the good fight.

warmly,

Mick Zellar


Go to www.misfitscentral.net  Why not?

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.

~Groucho Marx

"The world is one country and mankind is its citizens..."  Baha'u'llah

Offline misfitguy

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Re: emails to us at Say No To MSG with answer
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2013, 06:00:35 PM »
Received recently from a new member

Hi Mick,
Thank you so much for the say no to msg site.
I’m in that category now of people who now notice an (increasing L ) reaction to msg. I had no idea before how prevealent all the forms of msg are in food – processed and even potentially home made food.
 
I have a two quick questions -
 
1)       I’ve found that I get a bad msg reaction if I eat home made/home marinated beef or chicken that has been marinated using lime or kiwi – I believe the
Lime and kiwi are breaking down the amino acids in the beef into the equivalent of msg.  Am I crazy or on the right track? I get a msg or msg-like reaction to
meat marinated like this. I get hives, a headache, a stomach ache that can last for 3-5 days, and fee; disorientation and drunk within a hour or so - even though the chicken or beef is
 home cooked, organic,  grass fed(for the beef), and I’ve seen with my own eyes that nothing else was added to it before it was baked to cook it.
 
2)      I used to eat Korean (cabage) kim chee but now I’m staying away from it. I can find a store made brand that says it has “no msg added” – but I’m wondering on a bigger level, does the process the cabbage goes through to make it into kim chee, in particular the fermentation that happens or can happen, especially in old kim chee, create msg or the equivalent to msg?
 
Thank you so, so much!
Name withheld


My response

We are happy you have enjoyed our site.  The site became available simply because my wife, Sassafras, suffered with reactions to excitotoxins and over the years we had collected a lot of information so she could avoid the chemicals that were causing her distress.  She also happens to be a web builder and the website came about in a normal progression.  

Concerning you reacting to meat marinated.  Unless the lime and kiwi were personally squeezed by you and did not come out of a container that said lime or kiwi juice, then you are reacting to the ingredients in the juices.  If a juice is in a bottle, most of the time, it will contain excitotoxins.  MSG is only one being used by the food industry and we have a list of over 80 excitotoxins on our website.

http://www.saynotomsg.com/basics_list.php

 Please share with me how the marination was created.  I can pretty much assure you that fruit and vegetable juices are safe for you, even in a marination, but if they come from a bottle, even if it says, 100% lime juice, for instance, then the processing usually includes something like a dextrose based additive, or gum of some sort or most recently carrageenan added to the mixture.  In fact, if a bottle of something was used, share the ingredients with us, if you would.  Another thing that can cause a reaction is if your meat is over cooked.  The over cooking will breakdown the barriers of the naturally occuring msg and turn it into an item that will cause a reaction.  The free glutamates are the harmful ones, not the bound glutamates that you find naturally occuring in items. Slow cookers can be hell to sufferers.

Now concerning cabbage., it is safe to eat all fresh fruits and vegetables, but when you process them they can become filled with free glutamates. I do not have any experience with kim chee, but the word "fermentation" sends up warning flags.  I would think the process used is similar to the hydolyzation of vegetable proteins and if it is, beware of anything that is hydrolyzed.One of the rules of thumb we have learned is if you react to something, don't eat it again.  

You may want to go to our Forum   called http://www.misfitcityforum.com and then go to the section on health.  There are a lot of entries there that may help you.  Also, join and share with us as you begin this journey of eliminating excitotoxins from your diet.

I hope these have helped you, but let me say, we generally give this advice, if you are starting to react to excitotoxins, then you must become a label reader and you must learn what items to look out for.  We have done much of the work for you on both of these sites, so fortunately it is now up to you to accept that you have developed ESS(excitotoxin sensitivity syndrome) and the only way you can avoid reactions is to avoid excitotoxins.  Let me add that seemingly harmless items like toothpaste, hair conditioners, lipstick and anything you put on your skin or ingest may have these harmful items in them.  

Let us know how else we can help you.

We wish you will.

Keep up the good fight.

Mick and Sassafras Zellar

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Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.

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Offline misfitguy

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Re: emails to us at Say No To MSG with answer
« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2013, 06:30:57 PM »
Continuing this thread

Hi Mick,
Thank you for your reply  - My Godmother and sister-in-law make the homemade lime or kiwi marinated (organic) chicken or organic/grass fed beef that I react to now. The lime juice in the marinate is fresh squeezed from whole limes (I've watched myself). And when kiwi is used in the marinade, its juiced (with water only) fresh kiwi.

If my Godmother or sister-in law make boiled or grilled chicken or beef (with nothing added to it) - I'm ok.

They also like to make a tomato and kale salad with lime and avocado dressing (made with fresh squeezed limes) - and I don't react to the salad. If I drink water with fresh squeezed lime added, I'm ok too, no reaction.

That's why I've gotten to the point of wondering what's up with the process of marinating.

I definitely agree with you about over cooking meat potentially causing MSG reactions.

A couple months ago a friend who does not cook often, made Galbi-jim - a Korean dish in which chunks of beef are 'stewed' in a pressure cooker with soy sauce, garlic, and cane sugar. She used organic, grass fed beef and 'no msg added' soy sauce,  but WAY over cooked the meat. I made the mistake of having a good sized portion of the meat. Within 10 minutes my face became itchy. Within 30 minutes I was all-over itchy. In my case I don't do well with Benadryl, but I felt so itchy that I took a benadryl. Soon I felt icky/nauseous from the Benadryl and still itchy. The next morning when I woke up I felt like I'd been run over by a truck - I had a massive headache, whole body aches, and had  just a sick, poisoned feeling in my stomach for 2 days.

Anyway, like you and Sass write, when you know you react to something, avoid it.

Like (I'd guess) so many people you hear from, I didn't use to notice or feel the effects of MSG. But in the last year it feels like I've tipped past some balance point. Now I definitely react to MSG. And now I get stronger reactions from smaller and smaller amounts of it.  (Such a bummer)

Agai,n thank you and Sass for your site. I'm checking labels now, learning ingredients, and working on avoiding all the forms of MSG I can.

What sort of reactions have you and Sass gotten from other people? From family? From friends?

When I tell one of my family "I'm allergic" to soy sauce or MSG, they kind of seem to get it. But if instead I say I react to MSG, they look at me like I'm a hypochondriac or being dramatic.

My mom, luckily is great. She completely understands and sympathizes with what I'm now starting to go through with MSG because she was diagnosed a year ago with Celiac Disease and is msg senstitive also. If my Mom happens to cook something I know I will react to, she doesn't take it personally if I tell her I'm really sorry but I can't eat that dish.

Others in my family, though, seem to take it personally and give me some push back. I don't want to get the reputation of being a picky eater, but on the other hand I don't want to feel I have to eat something I know I'm going to react too.

I'm getting better at just smiling and hiding msg-filled food in paper napkins or on my plate under napkins, but its kind of a bummer.

Thank you again!
Name withheld



My Reply

Sass and I are not experts on the chemical construct of food additives, although a lot of our research has caused us to learn more about chemistry than I would have ever thought I would simply to be able to understand the language used by the industry.  If they don't confuse you with the names they use, they will with their explanation of how it is derived.  

The number one advice we give is to become a label reader.  Print out the list of ingredients we have afforded you and carry it with you while you are shopping.  I can assure you, your shopping time will increase two fold by doing this.  I think when we quit being in a hurry to get our shopping done, it allowed us to make better decisions when picking out the food we purchased.  If you email us your address, we will send you a laminated pocket card with some of the ingredients to avoid....no charge.

We have heard of the complete gambit of symptoms.  The number one complaint, of course, is headaches, followed by light sensitivity, lethargicism, tingling in fingers, and throwing up.  We also have been told how a mother used our website as well as other websites to cure her 12 year old son of ADHD.
We had a gentleman from England that had been doctored for depression and even managed to avoid shock treatment while this was going on thank us for our website.  His research brought him to our site and he used the information to change his diet and cure his depression.

We believe the use of excitotoxins is the number one cause of obesity in the nation.  We also suspect that conditions such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease are caused by the use of excitotoxins.  by the way, throw in the increased use of high fructose corn syrup in our syrup for the increase in diabetes and you can see how the food industry is doing us no favors.

We found many of our friends and relatives looked at Sassafras like she was being fussy.  We have gone to a dinner party where she literally cannot eat anything the host/hostess has prepared.  This can be a very touchy situation.  We now, when invited, ask the questions when we are invited and if we are not sure, then we eat before we arrive.  We have come to the conclusion that there is no reason for Sass to be embarrassed about her condition.  There is nothing she did to cause it.  The same, I am sure, goes for you.  In fact, we tell people she is like the canary in the mine.  Everybody is being affected by the use of excitotoxins, Sass is the one that is reacting.  Most people don't get it.  They make "homemade" soup and use chicken stock from a can.  They make a barbeque sauce by opening a bottle and adding spices and claim it is homemade.  They use flavor packets for their gravy, soups, etc and they are loaded with excitotoxins.  They serve diet pops, diet anything really is harmful because of the use of fake sugars.  By the way, most of the commercial Stevia everybody espouses as healthy, is made from an extract and all extracts are harmful to you.  

One last thing, carrageenan is being used by the food industry as a binder in so many products.  In the SW, Sass cannot eat the cottage cheese because they use carrageenan.  This is not true in the Midwest.  Almost all ice cream has carrageenan in it today.  It is found in almost all the toothpastes.  Carrageenan was used by the pharmaceutical industry to kill brain cells in lab animals to mimic Parkinson's Disease so they could test medicines they were developing for that disease and it is now used in our food supply.  UGH!

Keep up the good fight

Mick and Sassafras Zellar
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Go to www.misfitscentral.net  Why not?

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.

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