Hi, in one of the other posts you wrote about glutamate/aspartate. I'm also very aware of their effects and have previously posted about their exitorary functions on this forum and included some links to a couple of informative sites.

I don't know anyone else who is into this, so I'm wondering if you could share what you do....what you avoid and how it has made a difference??? I would love to hear about someone elses experience as glutamate/aspartate avoidence has made a world of difference to me mentally and physically.

Thanks <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I too am aware of the glutamate sensitivity issue. I was first diagnosed with glutamate sensitivity and have battled that for many years - it got incredibly worse after a tooth chipped. My ND thought I had leaky gut which was complicating the glutamate stuff - now 8 months later we know mercury is the culprit. It wasn't were my doctors first went but when we tried hair analysis to eliminate the possibility - everyone was surprised by the results. I have had to be very careful how I cook my meat and I have avoided high glutamate foods - tomatoes, walnuts etc. I am slowly able to handle more glutamate but it is very slow. I hope my blood brain barrier will heal after the mercury is out.

Do tell what your experience is!! I am very interested.

Anonymous,

Classic symptoms of glutamate/aspartate intoxication for me are:

> immediate tired/woozy feeling including loss-of-balance
> unclear thinking and loss of concentration
> slurred speech
> very cold feet
> insomnia

My reactions have somewhat lessened since removing my amalgams, but I remain sensitive. My solution has been to alter my diet. I no longer consume any prepared/processed/purchased foods; the risk is too great. It is difficult to see how much free glutamate is in these kinds of foods. For example, while the food may technically be "MSG-free", flavorizers that are high in free glutamate (like yeast extract, hydrolyzed protein) will added and thus cause problems. Even at restaurants, if I request that a small piece of meat be prepared with only salt and pepper, the cook will almost always use some kind of flavorizer that is invariably high in free glutamate. I used to be able to detect this as a tingling on my tongue, but since my amalgams have come out I can't. Now, my stomach will hurt and I'll get indigestion.

So, basically I only eat food that I prepare, and I tend to prepare primarily vegan/raw dishes.

This may seem a bit radical, and I suppose that it is, but it's not as if I jumped to this diet all in one day. It has been a year-long process of gradually taking out bad foods and adding good or neutral foods. I slipped up frequently and often ate foods that caused complications. For example, all natural, MSG-free, chicken broth (even homemade) can be an issue, because the chicken cooks so long that the protein starts to break down freeing up the glutamate. This is why I'm tending now to eat vegan, as I can only handle so many days of being unproductive at work.

I'm happy to talk more about this issue.

Tito

Hi <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thanks both for responding. Tito, your symptoms match mine, especially the loss of balance and cold feet. I go into this terrible brainfog frame of mind, which kind of fits your other symptoms. I also get the "MSG chinese syndrome" headache and this is even triggered from the natural gluten in especially wheat.

The diet change has helped stop my panick attacks and I haven't had one since. Quite unbelieveable really as I was scaringly close to starting antidepressants before I found the solution. I also go into a zombie kind of state from the glutamic acid in wheat. It really puts me in a depressed kind of state. As if I haven't any emotions.

Like Tito, I have stopped buying processed food as almost everything has glutamate in it......and by now I feel I have read every label out there <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> Now I eat salads, fruit, vegetables and some fresh chicken which is the kind of meat with the least natural glutamic acid. I do have some brown and wild rice and just a little potatoe as these two are lower than wheat, rye, oats.

I have read that B6 is necessary to convert glutamic acid (which is exitorary amino) into the calming GABA, so I probably will try this.

With regards to tomatoes which M mentioned, I think I read that the least ripe ones had less glutamic acid. I react to tomatoes too, especially any ready made tomatoe sauce or paste and these are even without MSG. But unripe tomates I can handle ok.

A chewing gum was recommended from a guy who can't handle glutamate/aspartate either. It's called Big Red from Wrigleys. I have found Polo Original Peppermint from Nestle to be G/A free. I contacted Nestle which confirmed it. Every other chewing gum seems to have aspartame!

This is what I have found so far: High: Turkey, pork, oats, very ripe tomatoes, wheat, beef, nuts especially peanuts and cashews (pecans have less), beans, lentils, cheese and soya and of course processed products with pure MSG disguised under many names...........Aspartame in soda, chewing gum and most "sugarfree" candy.

Tito, do you know if eggs contain high natural glutamic acid?

Wheat is high in gluten, which is often an allergen. Barley and rye also contain gluten (I'm not sure about oats). Gluten also hits on opioid receptors in the brain (search "gliadin" in PubMed). There was a point when my brain was under so much stress (before I removed glutamates, wheat and dairy from my diet and mercury from my teeth) that I began stuttering. At the time I was reading a book entitled "Dangerous Grains" and thought to try removing wheat from my diet: it cured my stuttering. When I added wheat back the stuttering returned. I'm NOT saying that wheat is the root of all stuttering, but at the time it worked for me. FYI, dairy products contain casein, which also breaks down into an opioid (search "casomorphin" in PubMed). In my case, for a while, eating dairy would wreck my short-term memory and word recall. I'm immensely helped by taking large amounts of vitamin C and B6. My rationale for Vit C and B6 is that this has been shown to alleviate the consequences of food sensitivies/cerebral allergies. The general recommendation in the orthomolecular literature is Vit C to bowel tolerance (loose stools) and B6 until you have dreams again. I've also found pomegranate juice to be very helpful; it is high in anti-oxidants and low in salicylates.

I once found a text that listed the amounts of glutamic acid per 100 grams of different foods, and as far as I know, all plants and animals that we eat contain glutamic acid. The issue as I see it is that some plants have more readily absorbed glutamic acid (like mushrooms). In terms of meat, by weight meat has relatively more glutamic acid than plants and people tend to eat large amounts of meat in a sitting. Cooking food breaks down proteins and thus makes glutamate more freely available and absorbable (and generally taste better!).

When I was most sensitive, I was also reacting to sulphites (red wine!) and nitrates (cured meats). And not to open a huge can of worms, but your list includes a wide array of foods that cross over into relatively common food allergens that can affect the body in non-standard ways. For example, I can't eat cashews because for some reason they cause a precipitous drop in blood sugar about an hour after eating them. They taste great, but within an hour I'm feeling the blood sugar blues. For me feelings of low blood sugar cross over into feelings of glutamate intoxication. As for eggs, it may be that they are not particularly high in terms of the amount of glutamic acid by weight, but that they are easily digestible and thus yield a quick glutamate hit.

You?

Tito,

I am on a very clean diet and haven't eaten anything out of a box for years! Quinoa used to bug me, sulfite bug me and I haven't had cured meat for years so I don't know if they bug me. Chicken was bad 10 months ago but I am slowly able to add more things to my diet - pecans, almonds, hazelnuts I do okay with. It end to get a headache then my shoulders ache then I get the chills, feel wobbly and uncoordinated, then I feel sped up and usually nausated. As I have started to heal, my reactions are very dampened down- hardly noticeable really but still there. Have you read Blaylocks excitotoxins?
Just curious.