My lovely OS homecooked food is full of MSG! -what does it do to you?

Swan_2

I stopped using Oxo etc years ago because of the additives, & since then have used soy sauce in everything I cook that would need a stock cube. I keep a bottle of dark & a bottle of light, dirt cheap from a Halal shop or Chinese supermarket. check the labels though, some of them do contain additives

once it's cooked in, it blends with whatever else in in the dish

I remember watching my granny eating a minced beef pie I'd made using soy sauce & thinking how she'd throw a fit if she knew what she'd been eating

thriftlady_2

Soy sauce is another one of my favourite flavour enhancers too-excellent in combo with sherry and mushrooms :heart2:

Swan_2

thriftlady wrote:

Soy sauce is another one of my favourite flavour enhancers too-excellent in combo with sherry and mushrooms :heart2:

mmmmm yes, love that with noodles :drool:

mazza245

A subject close to my heart! My husband and son are both extremely allergic to any artificial flavourings but especially MSG. We always used to use Knorr stock cubes until suddenly my husband got a migraine and when we checked everything he had eaten, Knorr had changed the recipe without any sign on the packet! We too have to use Kallo 'Just Bouillon' stock cubes which are sold in some shops, veggie as well as beef and chicken. I dread the day they too change the recipe. We can never go anywhere near a Chinese as, one day my husband had to eat there on business, so he had a steak and he still had a migraine! I think it must be embedded in the pans or something.

I am talking about proper migraines, not just a bad headache but numbness, vomiting, sight temporarily lost in one or both eyes, the lot. Our son actually ended up in hospital in a migrainal coma for days from a bacon sandwich with brown sauce where the shop had decanted a cheap sauce into an HP bottle so he'd thought he would be alright. It takes us ages to shop, as you can imagine, as you have to read every single label. We can only use butter as margarine of any description is out, all except plain crisps, any fizzy drinks, chewing gum, custard, jelly, you name it, they can't eat it!

If we go out for a meal, they always have to have a steak or a gammon or something that hasn't any additives. We went out last night and our son had to have a roast beef meal without gravy as he can't risk it. I have been astonished that manufacturers haven't picked up on the number of people who must be allergic to this. I have talked to people about it and then they suddenly realise that's why they always feel ill after eating a Chinese or drinking Coke. The word needs to be spread as I am sure all these children eating rubbish and drinking gallons of Coke will be very ill eventually.

comping_cat

Had never thought about the MSG in our stock cubes!!!! Will def be looking out for these Kallo cubes instead!!!

thriftlady_2

Mazza I sympathise,I find it a full time job avoiding nut warnings on food,my dd is allergic to nuts.People who don't have to be careful about what they eat don't realise how limiting these things can be.

My house is nut free and msg free although nuts are thing I'm really worried about.

[Deleted User]

MSG can seep through the blood/brain barrier

http://www.holisticmed.com/msg/msg-mark.txt

Near the bottom it says that aspartame acts in a similar way. I had heard lots of times that aspartame would be the next big scandal but I never knew why

I hardly ever use sugar substitutes ie low cal anything and now I know why

slobbery

My DS has ADHD and is also diabetic. We have noticed his behaviour is a lot worse if he has msg and many other additives (especially sodium benzoate - found in loads of fizzy drinks).
Shopping is indeed a nightmare, having to check both for additives and sugar content-we've basically just about given up buying premade food, but we have noticed lately that some manufacturers are removing msg from their foods. We can now buy msg free walkers potato head crisps, tesco's salt and vinegar and most of waitrose's own brand are also msg free. Birds eye are also removing additives from a lot of their ranges, which has helped us enormously. Don't buy stock cubes, but I'm now off to check the gravy granules!

squeaky

You could also read this earlier thread which includes a link to an interesting article on mono sodium glutamate:-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=132795

Curry_Queen

kittie wrote:

MSG can seep through the blood/brain barrier

http://www.holisticmed.com/msg/msg-mark.txt

Near the bottom it says that aspartame acts in a similar way. I had heard lots of times that aspartame would be the next big scandal but I never knew why

I hardly ever use sugar substitutes ie low cal anything and now I know why

Aspartame has already hit the headlines in a big way as it's strongly linked to depression and suicidal behaviour. There are numerous articles on the internet if you want to find out more information, far more than I could possibly list here, but if you put aspartame + depression into Google you'll come up with 346,000 hits