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25 responses so far ↓

• 1 Vicki Jul 12, 2009 at 2:33 pm

  Enjoyed your article in the Denver Post! Scared me to think about what we eat. Sent me looking through pantry at all my bags and boxes. Thanks for the “heads-up”! Yikes!

• 2 greg Jul 12, 2009 at 5:22 pm

  Great article in the Post… can’t wait to read the 2 followups… looking forward to perusing your website as well…

  Regards,
  greg

• 3 Jen Jul 12, 2009 at 6:22 pm

  Thanks for the great article about MSG in the Post. I had a friend recently tell me about all the foods it finds its way into. Hard to believe but true. I’m wondering what your favorite farm-to-table restaurants are in Denver. Thanks!

• 4 Lynelle Jul 12, 2009 at 7:33 pm

  Hi, Megan
  I also have severe MSG intolerance. In my case , my body reacts with full blown migraines. Sadly I’ve had to give up going out for all Asian and Mexican foods, surprisingly even seemingly “healthy” places like Chipolte/ Qdoba. I am curious if Dr. Guillory performed any food allergy tests or was it more process of elimination. Also, do you have a full list of aliases for MSG?
  Thanks for the article! Glad to know that I am not the only one out there! Lynelle

• 5 Teri Lopez Jul 12, 2009 at 8:55 pm

  Great article in the Post on July 12. I have suffered with many of the problems that you identified in the article and have wondered many times about the possibility of MSG as the root of those problems. I would also like to know the names of some of the restaurants you have found and also what types of foods you can and cannot eat (other than the obvious). We have started shopping almost exclusively at Whole Foods, Sunflower, etc., but am still wondering if we can find problem foods at those locations. It’s all still so confusing. Saw Food, Inc. and agree that the processed food piece was a big missing link in the movie.

• 6 Becky Jul 13, 2009 at 3:52 am

  Megan, I really enjoyed your article. I have been on a similar journey over the last year with my daughter. In the process, I discovered that my 20 years of stomach problems were resolved by eating gluten-free and staying away from all the chemical additives in the standard American diet. We also discovered that my sons extreme mood swings were caused by food dyes. We think “simple” when we eat around here now. I bake more and we enjoy wonderful fresh meals. More time consuming? Of course, but so worth it! There’s a great article about the hidden sources of MSG that others may be interested in http://www.rense.com/general35/hidd.htm. My rule is simply . . . if I don’t know what the ingredient in the food is, I won’t buy it. Thanks again! Becky

• 7 Fernanda Litt Jul 14, 2009 at 5:34 pm

  Loved your article about processed foods! Have you read Robyn O Brien’s (http://www.robynobrien.com/) book, THE UNHEALTHY TRUTH: HOW OUR FOOD IS MAKING US SICK AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT? MSG is one of many food additives that is making us sick and in Europe, because the public protested, additives have been removed (pp.172-173) “A whole host of companies, including the UK branches of Wal-Mart, Kraft, Coca-Cola and the Mars candy company (who make M&M’s) have VOLUNTARILY removed artificial colors, the preservatives sodium benzoate and aspartame from their products.” Why not in the US? (p177) “When people in Great Britain (and Europe and Australia) get sick, the government feels their pain - because the national health care system has to pay for medical costs. That gives both taxpayers and government an incentive to keep health care costs down, partly by demanding that corporations do everything possible to keep harmful products away from the public. Here in the US, by contrast, our commercialized health-care system turns each of us into little profit centers for the drug industry and the medical establishment, so there’s no similar incentive to prevent health problems.” I highly recommend reading Robyn’s book. It goes far beyond Food, Inc. and will really open your eyes to what’s going on. As a mother of two children with disabilities, it makes me furious to see who controls our country’s food and what they are up to. I also highly recommend David Kessler’s book, THE END OF OVEREATING to understand how MSG, fat, sugar and salt are being used to create the “highly addictive” eating patterns that have led to the overwhelming amount of weight gain (and associated health problems) in this country.

• 8 Sara Jul 15, 2009 at 3:28 am

  Thanks for the article in the Post Megan, great writing. I too have been suffering from health issues and trying to change my eating habits- specifically in staying away from soy (impossible?) and processed foods (this one is going to take some time!)- and MSG is just one more reason! I would love to know all of the aliases MSG has. I would also love to hear if anyone has any tips for grocery shopping smarter and on the cheap- my budget is beyond tight so places like Whole Foods and Sprouts are luxuries at this point and I only have the budget to buy select items, otherwise I have to rely on discount big box stores like WalMart. can one make healthy choices in such places??

  I love Dr. Guillory’s quote: “We need to get back to eating food, the whole food, and nothing but the food.” Awesome!

• 9 Timmie Jul 15, 2009 at 6:34 pm

  Megan -
  I read your recent article, “The food fight,” in the Denver Post. I was really very interested in all that you had written in this article as I believe we are on to something which will help one of my family members who sounds like he has many of your symptoms. We first thought milk, or wheat, or whatever in his diet and tried to get rid of them in his diet but to no avail, as did you. He is in his early 20’s, out on his own, so is in the eating out mode along with buying “boxes and bags” (processed food) as you put it for his at home meals. I will be doing some more research myself regarding not only MSG but those additives which contain it. Thank you for including that list in the article of those partially-containing MSG products. I guess my question to you since you have begun to live this MSG-less lifestyle is would you be willing to share a list of foods that you consistently include in your shopping list that you find to be without MSG? I understand that most organic fruits and vegetabels are a good place to start along with unprocessed meats and legumes. Are there any good sources of things such as crackers or bread that we can trust to be without the MSG products? What else do you find to be good? I would so appreciate any information that you could give me in this area. I’ve stayed away from MSG myself for years but was not awrare of the products partially containing MSG. What a mess the food industry has become. Also what were the farm-to-table restaurants you found here in the Denver area? Once again, I thank you for writing this article. Really great information. I would so appreciate your response.
  - Timmie
  Megan - I just read the other responses below and see that I am repeating some of their inquiries. Sorry but I didn’t read them first. Still I can’t tell you how interested I would be in getting some feedback.

• 10 Michele Willingham M.A. L.P.C. Jul 19, 2009 at 4:50 pm

  Really found your article today 7/18/09 telling it like it is. Exercise and Real Food for children (and I might add mentally ill and addicted people get better faster too.)

• 11 David Jul 19, 2009 at 11:22 pm

  Interesting that I just finished listening to Michael Pollan’s book, “In Defense of Food”, and now your article which makes basically the same points. Our food supply is increasingly being brought under the control of large corporations to the detriment of our health and the environment. Keep trumpeting your message about the benefits of good food. We all need to hear it.

• 12 Jennifer McLeland Jul 20, 2009 at 4:20 am

  Wondeful article in The Post. Thank you! People need to be aware of this. I haven’t been able to shop at the so called “normal” grocery stores for quite some time because of what I see in people’s grocery carts. It’s NOT food, yet they think it is. The chemicals, preservatives, food dyes, uneccesary fillers. It’s just plain wrong and saddens me that this is what most families are feeding their children. Wake up americans. Organge colored fish crackers are not real food! I encourage everyone to be label readers and look at the ingredients in everything they put in their mouth. We have to be our own advocates for good health and nutrtition. Mass food mfgs certainly are not watching out for us. They are watching out for their bottom line.

• 13 Charlene Jul 21, 2009 at 12:51 am

  Ditto the other comments on your great Denver Post series. Great facts and fabulous writing! I want to make sure you and your readers know about a great opportunity to experience what you are advocating by having a day at the “Slow Down and Eat” event at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland on Aug 22.

  Info at http://www.sunriseranch.org/slow_down_and_eat.php

  Sunrise Ranch is the oldest organic farm in Colorado, having been established in 1945. I lived there for 18 years until I recently moved to Denver to go to law school. These Slow Down events are truly great, and amazingly affordable. A great way to find out what great food is all about. It is all about doing something, after all, and not just talking about it…..

• 14 Lisa Oct 8, 2009 at 1:41 am

  I am an MD who discovered, by way of some very nasty mouth sores that were thought to be cancerous, that i am allergic to cobalt chromium. I used to believe that I was allergic to milk, nuts, soy, corn,… Turns out I am allergic to the stainless steel (cobalt chromium is the alloy used to harden stainless) that processes, transports, cooks and then gets the food to my mouth. Since changing all my cookware and tableware to true ‘non-reactives’ like aluminum, bamboo, and even plastics and non-stick and returning to basic (not even milk or vinegar escapes stainless from the minute it leaves the cow or the vine), I am rid of the mouth sores that luckily were recognized as an allergic reaction by a very astute dentist. After he had me tested and I changed things in my kitchen, not only have the mouth sores gone, but so has my stomach pain(that I attributed to being acid intolerant), my fatigue and even some of the mental fuzziness that I was attributing to age. Makes me wonder how many other folks out there might suffer from a similar allergy ( I have no reactions on my skin when I handle these things, only in my mouth and gut and when I was patch-tested). I hope some of the folks who have read your article and responded may also think about this aspect of our modern food habits. I know there are a lot of people suffering from being fed all kinds of chemicals by agribusiness, but also by the makers of our cooking utensils. We were not biologically designed for these things and have been exposed to them only in the last 100 years or so of our species’ existence. Our health care costs show it. Could these also be the sources of increasing rates of ADHD, autism, cancer, autoimmune disease ( I am also diagnosed with lupus?, The list could be endless. Thanks for getting the word out there. Lisa

• 15 Kevin Yuran Feb 13, 2010 at 11:08 pm

  Some writers cheat in their work, you don’t. Subjects, and topics, I don’t particularly care about, I read about in your columns. You are a writer to be appreciated for your passion and the skills with which you pass that passion to your readers. Thank you.

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