Yellow Prussiate of Soda = MSG?

Do you know what yellow prussiate of soda is? It's supposed to be an anticaking agent. It was in my "fine sea salt."

Which I have tossed in the trash.

Once ingested by my body, it gives me allergic reactions just like any other MSG misnomer. I've got the itchy eyes and scalp and face to prove it. I was eating a snack of leftover roasted potatoes, drizzled with olive oil, garnished with parsley and this sea salt (more than three hours after eating anything else).

It has to be the yellow prussiate of soda added to the sea salt that my body is reacting to.

Unless the food manufacturers are adding MSG to:

• ten-pound bags of whole russet potatoes or
• bottled olive oil or
• dried parsley flakes

without disclosing that fact to consumers who are buying these products.

See my earlier posts about my MSG allergic reactions regarding "natural flavor(ing)" and/or "modified food starch." Remember, I found unsalted butter has MSG in it under the guise of "natural flavors" which is not added to the salted butter variety in two different brands that I checked.

Makes me wonder, when I say "No MSG" to the waitstaff at any restaurant, am I still getting "yellow prussiate of soda" or "modified food starch" or "natural flavor(ing)"?

Now I will start saying:

• No MSG.
• No yellow prussiate of soda.
• No modified food starch.
• No natural flavoring.

Is anything untainted with MSG at any food establishment? Scary.

I was watching a video of Dr. Vincent Bellonzi, a doctor of chiropractic medicine and certified clinical nutritionist, who states MSG is added to our foods because it makes everything taste better, even dirt. Here's the link: http://completelynourished.com/2010/09/28/40/.

And the government wonders why Americans are getting fatter each year. 

Could be because current laws allow MSG to be hidden in our foods. It shouldn't be added in there at all.

Beware.

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
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What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
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Day Sixteen of Twenty-Eight: Another Round of J. J. Virgin's Sensitivity Diet

Yes, I did this earlier in the year, based on the free info found online. Thanks to some helpful comments to those initial posts, I found out that fruits, honey and Stevia are no-nos during this cleansing period without gluten, peanuts, soy, dairy, eggs, sugar and corn. So this time around I'm avoiding even the healthy God-made sugars.

I found days five, eleven and fourteen (with day fourteen as the worst) to be taxing on my commitment to this program. Those first two days were not bad, probably due to not ingesting enough good fats to satiate me. But day fourteen had several things working in concert: a restless night's sleep added to the lack of proteins and fats. I was craving liver and onions and revived after that and a good eight hours of sleep.

I find I'm eating so much less. Basically a snack upon waking, another at noonish, a late lunch of a regular-sized meal (one-fourth meat and three-fourths veggies, either cooked or raw as a salad) and a snack a couple hours before bedtime or later if I can't make it without it. Now work is a little hectic right now too, so I don't really have the time to cook much.

For instance, here's a few of the things I've been eating over the last couple weeks:

• Handful of almonds or pepitas or sunflower seeds
• Colored bell peppers (not the green ones; I find them too bitter when raw)
• Black olives
• Canned wild tuna stuffed in a tomato, drizzled with EVOO
• A lot of salads with EVOO and lemon juice that first week
• A lot of sauteed veggies the second week
• Grilled salmon and asparagus spears
• Grilled marinated shrimp and sauteed fajita veggies
• Bacon and blackened onions
• Beef liver and onions with mushrooms
• Black forest ham with an avocado
• Deli roast beef wrapped around a green onion
• Green tea mixed with mint herb tea
• Decaf coffee
• Lots of water

I'm not exercising, other than weekly lawn mowings, but I'm losing weight, so it's all good. Like the Dinner Diva Leanne Ely said in one of her videos, no amount of exercise can offset bad eating habits. Although I fully do intend to add in some daily exercise to counter my chair-sitting computer work. Right now, my freelance projects entail twelve-hour days. So I'm a little short on time.

And my normal triggers are gone. No emotional eating, regardless of a particular thorn in my side today. No stress eating, meanwhile making two of my self-imposed (earlier) deadlines today, and three more projects awaiting me. No eating what I see, even with cupcakes in the house. That was a big test. I passed.

I've got energy (except for day fourteen). In fact I never had withdrawal symptoms. No headaches. No grouchiness (until today but that was from an outside source). So I'm pleased. Very happy.

Now I'm on the downside of the hill heading toward day twenty-eight. Looking toward the maintenance program. Since I'm going by just what info I can research online, I'm going to reintroduce foods per Atkins's rungs (see Wikipedia article). Also increasing each week's carb intake by five the first week, five the next, and so on until I cease to lose weight. Want to know this carb cap to apply to my lifestyle eating from here on out.

I don't even know what carb count I'm hitting daily now, but it's probably below twenty a day. I'm surprised my body's not in shock. Where are the breads? The pastas? The sweets? I am so proud of myself. Even halfway through, I've done something wonderful for my health.

Here's to greater health for all.

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

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Healthy Eating Side Effects

I'm only on day four of this resetting-my-body/cleansing eating (no white foods except of course cauliflower, so no dairy, bread, pasta, pastries, processed foods, rice, grains, sugar in any form, plus no soy, peanuts, corn, gluten). But it was day two when I noticed how warm I felt, as if exercising. I was not visibly perspiring or running a fever, but my internal body temperature was definitely raised and evident all day long. I count this as increased metabolism going on. Yippee!

I don't believe I have ever had this happen when dieting unless I was engaged in weight lifting, yoga, lawn mowing. This is a first. I must finally be on the right eating path.

My bad cravings are gone almost completely. I can actually pass up the dark chocolate in my house and the breads in the bakery at my local grocery store. I don't tempt myself too much though.

My hunger is more easily satiated. After all, eating sugar does not fill a nutritional need but an emotional/psychological one. So you remain hungry after eating sweets, chips, carbonated colas, ice cream, even fake sugar in all its forms. These make you hungry for real food.

Start eating real food and the always-there hunger stops.

Also the last two nights I've slept deeper, dreamed heavily and vividly. Clearly in the REM stage, even from my viewpoint. I'm usually a very light sleeper.

Of course my fickle old-fashioned bathroom scale is as wonky as ever and tells me nothing reliable and consistent. But I have a favorite pair of Levi's button-fly jeans that is a great indicator.

For those of you interested, I'm following the tenets of:

• J. J. Virgin's elimination/sensitivity diet (except eggs, which were cleared for me to eat as proven by my previous twenty-eight-day foray into her plan) found at jjvirgin.com; 
• Dr. Mark Hyman's diabesity-avoiding guidelines as in The Blood Sugar Solution;
• Tim Ferriss's Four-Hour Body confirms my slow-carb leanings; and
• Even a bit from the Atkins diet (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkins_diet) as to the nine rungs, adding one food group for a period of time and allowing for five more net carbs per day for a week, starting from the intro restriction of twenty daily. This is great, pinpointing both the amount of net carbs my body can tolerate yet not gain weight while classifying each new food group reintroduced as either helpful or hurtful (per J. J. Virgin's foods sensitivities).

I'll update more later.


Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

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Day 28 of J. J. Virgin's 28-Day Break Free Diet

This diet eliminates seven food items (gluten, peanuts, soy, dairy, eggs, sugar and corn) that most people have sensitivities to and therefore their bodies attack them like toxins, all of which may cause weight retention.

It's call "break free" because we may be addicted to foods bad for our particular systems.

It is Day 28 for me.  I made it!  Me, a girl who can eat three meals a day of sugar.  But I had been slowly making better choices here and there which prepared me for J. J. Virgin's "total fast" from foods that taste good but maybe which weren't.  And I made it without cream in my coffee and bread!

From what I understand from the free literature on J. J. Virgin's site, this routine is meant to reset our bodies and now we add back in one element, test for any adverse reactions.  Mine will be the fruit dessert pizza on The Pioneer Woman's website.  Tomorrow!  Can't wait.

But I'm also "craving" bread and the aforesaid cream in my coffee.  "Craving" may be the wrong word because it does not contain the force and power of my previous cravings.  So I am able to choose one out of the others to indulge in.

Then four days later (time to watch for any sensitivities reactions), I'll switch from my sugar-cookie-with-fruit "pizza" to cream in my coffee.  Then maybe I'll have some really good homemade bread next.

I've also learned to substitute.  Instead of brown sugar in my oatmeal, I opted for maple syrup.  No sugar listed in the ingredients.  But sometimes substitutions don't work.

Usually I can swap out one-half cup Stevia in the Raw for one full cup of white granulated sugar.  It works for my tea.  And the oatmeal raisin cookies recipe on the Stevia package is really good.

But I can tell you firsthand, when I tried the powdery Stevia atop French toast (pre-elimination diet), it does not work.  For me.  If I indulge in French toast, it will be with real powdered sugar atop.

Butter (the Dairy element).  I cannot imagine a baked potato without it.  Yet, I made French fries from scratch and fried them in coconut oil while on J.J.'s plan.  How can an eating regimen be called a "diet" with French fries on it?  Yum, yum.

While I prefer bacon drippings to season my green beans and other dried bean varieties, I prefer butter for my other veggies:  broccoli, cauliflower, green peas, corn, carrots, etc.  And I haven't come up with a viable alternative.

In the grand scheme of things, cream rises to the top of milk and requires no real processing, so I'm hoping my body is not "allergic" to it.  Then butter is just the cream churned.  No chemicals necessary.  I'm hopeful my body has no reaction to it, either.  I'll reintroduce them into my eating separately just to be sure.

Breads.  I love good bread.  I can forgo the sandwich variety to have some artisan sourdough.  I've enjoyed BLT salads so much I don't see me wanting a BLT sandwich.  However, at some point, I will desire occasionally a real roast beef sandwich, complete with mayo and onions and lettuce.

While pizza never really calls my name (unless it has a white sauce), I can gladly give it up.  YET, at the grocery story the other day, I saw a specialty bread stuffed with pepperoni and cheese.  Depending on the presence of red sauce (or the quantity), I could get into that!

And the zero-carb pizza crust--that you heat up in a skillet with some Parmesan cheese and almond flour (1:1) or add 1-3 T. water and make a sticky roll that you pat out into your favorite shaped pan and bake--I've been craving that.  But mine would have no sauce whatsoever, just a drizzle of olive oil and some choice herbs and spices, some tomato slices with basil and fresh mozzarella or sauteed mushrooms, black olives and caramelized onions.

Maybe I should have done this post tomorrow.  You know, after my Day 28 was over and done with.

What have I found out?  That I can go seven hours without getting hungry some times.  That oatmeal and maple syrup are a nice snack.  That I will make better choices.  I'm eating as close to what God made as possible.  I can now "deny" myself things I love as long as I can have them four days later.  It's a process, so I have to experiment as I go.

And it's been a really good experiment.

Now, I'm off to see if I have all the ingredients to make that dessert pizza . . . ha!

Copy editor disclaimer: Per CMS(15) Rule 8.6, initials have periods (and spaces when used with the whole last name like "J. J. Virgin" or no spaces when just the first two initials like "J.J." or no periods at all when three initials, like JJV or JFK or LBJ). Which explains what I've done above.  However, J.J.'s preference is no periods, no spaces, as in "JJ" per her own site. FYI.  

Denise Barker, author
Good Ole Boys, a love story
Professional Freelance Copy Editor