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Americans are in a world of hurt. Use of store-bought painkillers primarily for headaches increased by nearly 90% between 1997 and 2005 according to statistics provided by the Department of Drug Enforcement.
What’s worse, frequent use of over the counter painkillers can cause withdrawal headaches causing the sufferer to use an ever-increasing dose to treat symptoms and a cycle of overuse.
It’s no secret that recurring and sometimes debilitating headaches are a primary reason for the abuse of over the counter pain meds. Unfortunately, most folks popping pills to rid themselves of headaches have absolutely no idea what is causing them. Neither do most people know about natural ways to relieve headaches.
What if I told you that completely eliminating a single food additive would rid you of many, if not the majority of headaches that you suffer from?
That additive is none other than the ubiquitous monosodium glutamate, better known as MSG.
MSG is the mirror image of the naturally occurring glutamic acid in the human body. In a nutshell, MSG is glutamic acid gone bad.
MSG is a Neurotoxin and a Primary Cause of Headaches
MSG is a potent neurotoxin, according to neurologist Dr. Russell Blaylock MD, author of Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills. When consumed as an additive in processed foods, it hammers the hypothalamus, part of the brain stem, and shrivels and kills brain cells.
The hypothalamus is the Master Gland of the endocrine system. It controls body temperature, hunger, thirst, fatigue, and sleep.
Rats fed or injected with MSG get morbidly obese, possibly because the MSG causes the pancreas to increase the amount of insulin it secrets which can rapidly lead to insulin resistance and Metabolic Syndrome.
Ok, so we now know that MSG can contribute to weight issues and other metabolic problems.
But did you also know that MSG is a primary cause of headaches and migraines?
Most people fail to make the connection between MSG and their headache problems because the headache doesn’t always immediately happen after eating a MSG laced fast food meal, for example.
In some cases, the headache won’t take hold for a full 24 or even 72 hours later, long after that brief, dietary lapse has faded from memory.
The good news is that you can eliminate this additive from your life once and for all, and with it, your headaches and dependence on over the counter pain meds!
This is especially important for children. For example, even infrequent Tylenol use increases asthma risk tremendously.
Remove Processed Foods from Your Life
To accomplish this goal, you must basically swear off most, if not all, processed foods. Earlier in this post, I referred to MSG as ubiquitous because it is everywhere. MSG is the dominant additive in the food supply occurring in approximately 95% of all processed foods!
Restaurants use MSG-laden ingredients too. Most soups and sauces in restaurants come from some sort of “flavor” package. This innocent looking packet or bouillon cubes are loaded with MSG.
Steaks are frequently brushed with MSG before grilling to make them tastier for the consumer. This also disguises poor quality or old meat.
Beware also of restaurants that claim that they do not use MSG! What they are really telling you is that they don’t add any MSG.
MSG is still very much present in the flavor mixes, soup starters, and bottled sauces that they buy and use to prepare the food. They don’t make that stuff from scratch, I can assure you!
Beware also of products that have on the label “No MSG Added”.
The picture above is of a package of beef sausage bites my husband bought for our kids thinking it was MSG-free. Is it? Absolutely not! The ingredients list includes “natural spices” which is an MSG-alias.
Again, the manufacturer can get away with the “No MSG added” label because none of the listed ingredients contain more than 50% MSG.
Games, games, and more labeling games. Bottom line? If you think a product may contain MSG, it most likely does considering that 95% of processed foods have it added somewhere.
Once you decide to get off MSG and avoid it like the plague like I do, you will be delighted to see that headaches become a distant memory in your life story.
I can’t remember the last time I actually took ibuprofen or any over the counter pain med for anything, let alone a headache!
There is much benefit to be gained from slaying the Processed Food Giant in your home! Start by eliminating MSG from your life and experience the wonder of headache-free days that ensue from a happy hypothalamus!
References
(1) Department of Drug Enforcement
(2) When Headaches Come Off the Rebound
More Information
Chicken Broth: “No MSG” Labels are False!
Bone Broth and MSG: What You Need to Know
Healthy and Easy Bouillon Cubes Recipe
Stock or Broth? Are You Confused?
Francine Guillot
Carol Tinkler
Deven Conway
This is such an important post. MSG is banned in Australia but whenever I travel, especially in Asia I can taste it in food right away. Then I start to get a headache and if it has been used in rather strong quantities my symptoms of Fibromyalgia start to spike. It’s not good! But I’m grateful that since my body never usually has it, it can immediately let me know when I have.
It is truly amazing when you begin to look at food ingredients and realize what is considered MSG. For the longest time I carried with me a list of ingredients and food additives that always contain MSG. I printed this list out small and laminated it for my wallet so that I would always have it with me in case I had a question while shopping. I was doing this when I first began to change what I ate. Now that I make the majority of my foods from scratch I notice when I eat something that contains MSG (like eating out somwhere) all of my joints hurt the next day.
oh my goodness. It’s so nice to see articles like these. I’ve recently become aware of the terribleness of msg and how food manufacturers are using it to enhance their sales. I’ve been “screaming” at everyone I know about it and almost all of them think I’ve lost my mind. My boyfriend seems to be angry at me for “scaring” him into not eating his fave foods. I feel like such a villian. Some people have simply ceased contact with me. In my mind the facts about msg are something to be alarmed about and the insidious tactics of food manufacturers exposed as much as possible but so many people seem to want to be ignorant like they really truly believe that ignorance is bliss! It isn’t! What you don’t know really can hurt you!!! I feel like screaming! Msg isn’t the only thing to be alarmed about either!! DX
I appreciate this and its posting was timely as I was visiting family. It helped me pinpoint the horrible headache I got a couple days after eating MSG from a package of onion soup mix used in a beef roast – and therefore we knew the following week to make our own! Then the same thing happened after some supposedly no-MSG Chinese food. I shared your info with my family. I am so horrified that the lie of “no MSG” is being propogated. We were wary after that and double checked by internet search when we saw a box of Progresso “NATURAL” beef broth – with “NO MSG” and a little asterisk saying “except naturally occuring in autolyzed yeast.” Lo and behold it’s just another labeling gimmick and that is the same thing as MSG. Sickening, literally and figuratively. I already eschew all processed foods at home but this will help when we’re fending out and about.
Hi Jennifer, my content was being scraped and stolen all the time using a full feed. Had to go to partial as this type of stuff is so not cool and very difficult and time consuming to stop.
Love the new blog look! Miss the full feed in Google Reader, though 🙁