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?