Jul. 18, 2008

My MSG Story

Posted in Healthy Living

My sweet friend Cindy at On Our Journey Westward has posted her MSG (that would be monosodium glutamate) story.  Please take time to head on over there and read it.  The Lord brought Cindy and I together in life for many reasons, and one of those reasons was that she was going to share with me her story about gaining freedom from MSG caused health problems.  And her story was to free me from years of chronic colon pain, digestive problems, and frequent violent vomiting.

 

I will not repeat everything she said, but just know that I could have wrote it myself!  The only difference was our exact symptoms varied a bit.  My problems also started in my young 20's, like Cindy said, perhaps that's when our bodies finally just have enough of the garbage, and similar to her, that's when my eating habits (living out on my own) became much worse.  I found myself frequenting my doctors office with colon and digestive pain, migraine headaches, and frequenting hospitals violently sick with unbearable stomach pain.  I too received lots of diagnosis' such as spastic colon, colonitis, gastroenteritis, and the sort.  I was put on a little blue pill to try and "calm" my colon down, which had undesireable side effects and only helped a bit and didn't keep the violent throwing up from happening.

 

I too, like Cindy, ended up on my knees praying for the Lord to help me find the truth and to set me free from this misery.  And one Sunday morning, I was in service, standing up at the doorways serving as an usher, and our pastor was speaking about healing.  And the whole time, I was having constant colon pain.  He said a prayer of healing and I reached down and held my stomach where it hurt and cried out in my heart for healing.  On to the scene He rushed His servant and my good friend Cindy!  In a simple sentence she ask me, "Have you thought about the possibility of it being MSG?"  The rest is history.

 

I did the same as her, researched, researched, and then did a "clean sweep" of my pantry, started cooking more from scratch, and started reading the ingredients in boxed and canned foods and pre-processed meats with a different view!  Read her story to know the rest of what I did, I do not want to be redundant!

 

Praise the Lord, since less than a week after changing my diet, I've not had any pains in my colon, NO violent throwing up, no severe stomach pain, and no migraine headaches (UNLESS I get ahold of some MSG unawaringly).

 

I so agree with her statement...whether or not you noticeably react to MSG or not, it's bad stuff for everyone!  If you have doubts about this statement please read what is MSG. And then do your own research to find the truth.  At first, the changes in diet are overwhelming, but it DOES get much easier.  From then on, I've been praying for God's Truth to reveal the dangers in trusting man when it comes to the choices of what we put in our bodies.

 

Stay tuned to Cindy's blog for great recipes she uses for replacing those nasty pre-packaged, pre-made spice mixes and more!  Perhaps I will pull a few out from my recipe book as well.

 

 

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Comments

Jul. 18, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by westward
Should we tell them about all the other similarities between us?? LOL The Lord truly brought us together as "iron sharpens iron" friends!!

Soon I'm going to write a post about our red food coloring story and the further dietary changes we made in our household. Yep, yet another similarity we can both share about!

Love ya! Cindy
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Jul. 18, 2008 - Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Posted by Anonymous
Great post. We have been MSG free for about ten years. It took my husband going temporarily blind from a migraine to find that MSG was the culprit. We immediately cleaned everything out, which wasn't actually all that much since I already had made a big dietary change in our life when my middle son was born and told he had food allergies. I already was cooking a lot from scratch but it took taking out every bit of "natural flavorings" out of the diet to help my husbands migraines and "ulcers". He is now symptom free except when he mistakenly eats something at a restaurant.....McDonald's is a big NO for him and his favorite Chinese place is a big gamble. :)

I read Cindy's comment about red dye and I have a whole saga about that too. My middle son had "allergies" as a baby which made him itchy and he had constant ear infections. They prescribed Amoxicillin and Benadryl......both dyed with red dye. He actually was allergic to and had terrible behavioral problems because of the medications prescribed. We were in a vicious circle. It took a lot of investigative work on my part to figure out the red dye connection to his rashes and behavior. A pink cookie at the grocery store was the key and after eliminating this poison from his system, he is a different child. He now knows if he slips and has anything with red dye....candy, popsicle, jello, etc.......he will be out of control within minutes.

I think it is criminal that more doctors don't know about these connections and our children. Most put children like my son on Ritalin thinking they are ADHD when in reality is their lunchboxes that are making them behave poorly.

I will get down off my soap box now. :)

Thanks for the post and I am off to read Cindy's.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom
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Jul. 18, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Brenda@CoffeeTeaBooks&Me
Both my son and daughter have had severe reactions to MSG.

My daughter was driving home with her husband from a wedding a few years ago and stopped for a bowl of soup at Panera. Soon afterwards, she started getting violently ill and they both realized there must have been a lot of MSG in the soup. As it turns out, many of the restaurant soups do have a lot of MSG in them.

My son has had similar reactions in Chinese restaurants.

It is bad stuff, we try to stay away from it but even some items in the health food stores have MSG (listed under a different name, of course).
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Jul. 18, 2008 - Very interesting!

Posted by Seasta
For years my husband has suffered with different digestive issues. He went dairy free and that has helped a lot. He has always been very sensitive to spices... I think this is something I should look into. I do a lot of cooking from scratch but do still use bullion and other things on those lists. I bet it would really help to look more closely at the labels and try to go MSG free.

Recipes and other ideas would be great!
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Jul. 19, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Honeybee
I was told it was IBS...One source even told me it was my hormones! Until we went processed-food free, fast food free, I never had any relief!

Good post!
Blessings,
Melissa
livinglifebetweenthetrees.blogspot.com
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Welcome to our blog home! My name is Melissa and I am a homeschool mom of three beautiful blessings ages 11, 9, and 2; and blessed wife to my husband for 15 years. Our homeschooling style is eclectic, but we love Charlotte Mason's educational philosophies and learning the natural, everyday hands-on life way! We especially see daily opportunities to learn and grow closer to God through His amazing creation in nature!

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