Between work, children and the life of a couple, it is sometimes difficult to get busy making good homemade dishes. Thus, the food industry has been constantly developing simple dishes and fast, such as sandwiches, salads or cans and individual plates. Although practical, these prepared dishes contain additives and preservatives harmful to health including this dangerous white toxin. Explanations.
Easy to use, these industrial products attract by their marketing, always more innovative and close to the consumer. But one thing is certain, it is that they do not maintain our health! Loss of vitamins and minerals during the development process, addition of food additives and preservatives, these prepared dishes bring nothing to our body. On the contrary, it affects it, especially because of a white toxin: sodium glutamate.
Sodium glutamate, also known as monosodium glutamate (MSG), monosodium glutamate (MSG) or E621, is a white powder used as a flavor enhancer. It is a food additive particularly common in the food industry because it enhances the taste of the ingredients while acting as an excitement for the taste buds.
Moreover, the original history of monosodium glutamate is based on the fact that there are not four basic flavors (acid, bitter, salty, sweet) but five, adding umami. It is a flavor that is close to the taste of broth and activates certain receptors of the taste buds, offering a feeling of comfort and a taste of return. Thus, to find this taste, biochemist Kikunae Ikeda discovered glutamic acid, an amino acid produced by the human body and present in food. He reproduced the chemical formula of the latter by adding water and salt, creating sodium glutamate.
But the industrialists quickly realized that it was mainly a way to add taste to almost everything. So, instead of subconsciously and naturally associating foods to reach umami, such as enjoying cheese with fresh fruit jams or adding caramelized onions to a sandwich, we consume excess monosodium glutamate. And the latter, consumed in excess, can cause disorders of health.
Health risks
In addition to "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome", a hypersensitive reaction to sodium glutamate causes burning sensations, headaches, nausea and chest pain. It seems that glutamate is responsible for the destruction of neurons, especially in the brain. Indeed, in his book "Excitotoxins, The taste that kills", Dr. Blaylock explains that glutamate is responsible for excess calcium in cells and therefore their destruction. Moreover, this causes an excessive increase in free radicals in the body.
This phenomenon is called excitoxicity because glutamate excites or stimulates the death of nerve cells. The key is memory, hearing, epileptic seizures and a higher risk of neurodegenerative diseases, or aggravating them, such as Alzheimer's.
But that's not all, glutamate would also promote obesity and eating disorders in view of its addictive effect. By its nature to the taste of return, and therefore the desire to eat more, glutamate would activate the reward system related to the production of dopamine (a hormone of well-being) in the same way as the sugar. This creates an addiction comparable to drugs.
The best way to guard against such risks, while being able to access the umami that is naturally present in food, is to opt for home-made preparations using fresh seasonal produce. So, to your furnaces!