During a break in a meeting yesterday, some people were chatting. Guess what they were talking about: allergies! One woman told another how they think they just figured out what their 6 year old daughter is allergic to, MSG.

For years, I guess since birth, their daughter would eat certain thing, but not easily categorized foods like nuts, and her tongue would start itching. It wasn’t just a “Mommy my tongue itches,” either, it was a physically scratching with her fingers until her tongue bled. Needless to say, the parents were always concerned, but never could figure out what it was she was allergic to. Recently she said, she heard of someone with an MSG allergy, not just intolerance, but a possible anaphylactic allergy. Now this family is trying to cut out MSG from their daughter’s diet and is seeing, what many of us already know, how very difficult that is.

We often think of Chinese food when we think of MSG, but in many restaurants now you can request to have the MSG left out of the food, other restaurants have cut it out all together. It is in a lot of other foods though, and here are some to be on the watch for:
Fast foods (apparently KFC is the worst offender)
Packaged foods
Chips
Soups
Salad dressing
Seasonings (like Goya or Lawry’s) – I remember making something that called for Goya             Sazon seasoning and just feeling AWFUL afterwards
Aspartame (I think artificial sweeteners are a whole entire story)

Everyone is probably affected in some way by MSG, some much worse than others. The concentration of the additive also plays a factor in a reaction. If the amount is very heavy, the effects will be more intense. The best way to avoid it altogether is to cut out processed, packaged and fast foods. Use organic when possible and use natural seasonings like lemon juice and herbs. Stay away from the “seasoning” blends. Use as natural as products as you can.

Look here for a very thorough (and frightening) list of foods that contain MSG and check out the site www.msgtruth.org for more valuable information.