MSG

Dr. Katherine Reid is a biochemist from California and she cured her daughter’s moderate spectrum autism with dietary changes. In addition she has had similar success in 74 out of 75 other children. It’s worth looking at her story and considering the negative effects of chemicals in processed food. Before she cut glutamate (MSG) out of their diets, they had tried a special needs school for their daughter, applied behavioral analysis, play therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and auditory integration therapy.

Her experimentation on her daughter with eliminating unbound (free) glutamate (as opposed to bound glutamate), shows how diet can have an astounding effect on the body and brain. Her daughter changed in amazing ways. She no longer has sensitivity to light and sound or seizure-like extreme repetitive behaviors. She now easily makes eye contact, communicates and has normal social activity, and has mainstreamed in her school. In particular, cutting glutamate completely eliminated the dysfunctional repetitive behaviors that the family was suffering through for hours on end 2-3 times per week.

Dr. Reid found that free glutamate has also been linked in studies to bipolar/depression, ADHD, schizophrenia, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and many other diseases and disorders. Monosodium glutamate is the most common glutamate in our diet. The fraction of a percent of glutamate in our real foods is normal — it’s when we have excess free glutamate that there’s a problem. MSG can be labeled 50 different ways on food labels, for example, protein (hydrolyzed, isolated, whey, etc.), gelatin, rice syrup, maltodextrin, etc. Dr. Reid’s perception is that many people who benefit from gluten and dairy free diets are doing so because they are eliminating free glutamate due to the connection between it and processed gluten and dairy products.^[1]

Interestingly enough, pharmaceutical drugs currently in clinical trial for treating autism and other brain disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, block the glutamate receptors in the brain.^[2] You can find the list on her website of ways MSG shows up on labels of processed food, and on my Resources page. There’s an easy way around most any chemical, though, by avoiding food that comes to you via a conveyor belt – buy, cook, and celebrate real food.