The most important reason to watch out for hidden MSG in your food
Warning: These common food additives can actually be deadly
When some really important health information is finally acknowledged by a mainstream medical group, what do they do?
Why, bury it in a document and water it down as much as possible, of course!
The important news I’m talking about is hidden in a 2011 paper by the American Heart Association. They finally got around to saying it: MSG is a “common” trigger for A-fib.”
Now other experts have been warning us for years about how monosodium glutamate can send you into A-fib — a chaotic heart rhythm that raises your risk of having a stroke. So it’s nice to see the AHA join the chorus.
Still…how to find — and avoid — that MSG — now that’s something the AHA can’t be bothered to tell us.
But unless you know exactly what to look for, you could literally be putting your heart in danger every time you eat.
A deadly game of seek — and hide
Ever since MSG started making headlines, we’ve seen a growing list of reasons to avoid it. But this may be the most important one — especially if you already have A-fib.
So here’s what you need to look for and why:
When you eat foods that contain MSG your blood levels of glutamate will rise. That can go on and on throughout the day with each meal — and those levels can remain high during the night as well.
And that’s the first step in how seemingly innocent foods like canned tuna or soup can turn into a nightmare health problem.
There are triggers on your heart called “glutamate receptors” that are activated by MSG. A group of these receptors controls your heart rhythm. And eating all that flavor-enhancing MSG can short-circuit your heart’s electrical system (an even bigger threat if you’re low on magnesium.)
And some of these short circuits can be deadly.
But if you want to protect your heart from going haywire, you have to know what to look for.
And that’s where it gets tricky…
Here are the top five additives in food that always contain MSG, and what you need to watch out for on ingredient labels (even the ones that say NO MSG):
- anything “hydrolyzed” such as a “hydrolyzed protein”,
- soy protein, including soy protein concentrate and soy protein isolate,
- autolyzed yeast,
- yeast extract, and of course,
- the Big Kahuna — monosodium glutamate.
All these ingredients can have the same bad effect on your heart, especially if you’re sensitive to glutamate, which millions of us are. Many people can react to very small doses and not even know what hit them.
So check those labels like your life could depend on it.
I mean who would ever think a cup of “healthy” soup could trigger an A-fib attack?
Sources:
“FAQs of atrial fibrillation (AF)” American Heart Association, American Stroke Association, 2011, heart.org
“MSG, cancer, and your heart,” Gailon Totheroh, CBN News, cbn.com
