How about a piece of gum, a mint or maybe some soy milk - aspartame and glutamate

[Issie]

Did you know that almost all the gum and hard mints in the USA have aspartame in them? Also, many yogurts, sodas, sugar free items etc. What's wrong with soy and MSG and nutritional yeast? Well depends on if glutamate is a problem with us or not. Here's some interesting articles that may make you want to read food labels.

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/salud/esp_salud23k.htm
http://www.naturodoc.com/library/nutrition/aspartame.htm
http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/nutrasweet_scandal.htm

Interestingly, I learned about aspartame and glutamate the hard way. I was having one of "those days" and chewed a whole lot of gum. Just nerves and the chewing helped. But, it started hyping me up and then the POTS kicked in with its surges and tachycardia and then I had a mast cell attack. I mean the worst of the worst. I couldn't breathe or catch my breath, it felt like I was having a heart attack. Hubby took me to the emergency room. For sure my heart rate was very high as was my blood pressure. I had taken allergy meds before I went to the hospital thinking it was a mast cell attack. But, that wasn't working and I didn't have an epi pen YET. So, they think Im having a heart attack too. They put me on 24 hour watch and start giving me nitro glycerin. Yep, it started working, so then I got a patch. So, now we really think its a heart attack. But, as the blood draws continue - there is no muscle damage. But, still I was a mess - as was my heart rate and blood pressures were swinging. I had severe hyped up feelings of anxiety and panic. Okay, so long story short ------it was the aspartame in the gum that triggered a mast cell attack that hit my heart ----called Kounis Syndrome. The aspartame increased my glutamate levels and caused a mast cell degranulation. The treatment for Kounis Syndrome is massive antihistamines and nitro glycerin. The exact treatment I had. Also, waiting for the aspartame/glutamate to get back to normal.

So, there are also other illness and things that glutamate can do to you. Seizures are one of them. So are migraines. Since this is related to MSG a known migraine trigger. So what else could our diet be doing to us? Something as simple as a piece of gum. (I got reminded of this, as I chewed a piece of it this afternoon. It gave me an instant lift. But, what else is it doing to me. And PLEASE don't chew a big container of it at once.) You would think I would have learned. Hubby had some on his desk and I snitched a piece. Won't be doing this again, since I reminded myself of the results. That was an expensive lesson but a good thing to learn. Hope this helps others.

Issie

 

[ShyestofFlies]

Plenty of people can eat MSG, commonly found in chinese food where MSG is considered a flavoring, but also found in other foods, and have no reaction. But many of us with migraines over the years have narrowed it down as one of the triggers. If you have a migraine all you know is that you would way rather not have a migraine.

A lot of natural gums now use xylitol, and some even have moved to stevia. While you can find people who are allergic to rare things, offhand the worst thing I can say about xylitol is it is deadly to dogs and cats. Stevia gives some people diarrhea.

I am sorry to hear this happened to you Issie! But glad you know now what to avoid.

 

[Neunistiva]

Just a warning about Mercola and his site that you linked: He regularly goes against good quality scientific research. He questions that HIV causes AIDS, he is against surgeries, against vaccines, claimes mobile phones and microwaves emit dangerous radiation, supports homeopthy... in other words, he's a quack and I wouldn't take ANY advice from him.

 

[Remy]

Just a warning about Mercola and his site that you linked: He regularly goes against good quality scientific research. He questions that HIV causes AIDS, he is against surgeries, against vaccines, claimes mobile phones and microwaves emit dangerous radiation, supports homeopthy... in other words, he's a quack and I wouldn't take ANY advice from him.

Funny, the things that make someone a quack in one person's opinion are the same things that someone else may appreciate most.

Quite frankly, Mercola may be a sell out, but I think his heart is in the right place. There are a lot of questions that conventional medicine dismisses rather than actually attempts to answer with science. That's a big problem.

 

[Not dead yet!]

I'm undecided about the aspartame issue myself.

I do know that "gluten" refers to a fraction of the protein in some grains, called the "Prolamins" which are only soluble in alcohol. And that the body breaks them down into high proline and high glutamine peptides (smaller protein pieces). It's those peptides that cause the cytokine release and immune attack that causes Celiac.

In general, it might be glutamine peptides that are foreign that the body fights against. I'm not sure if that helps, but it's the connection my mind made.

Is gum with xylitol ok? I kind of like the taste of xylitol, but I'm not familiar with it in comparison to other sweeteners. I just got into it when they used to have Biotene gum (now that's gone I think).