What Are Excitotoxins? You're Probably Eating Them Now – 9 Ingredients To Avoid

So just what are excitotoxins? And what a funny word – almost like a single-word oxymoron – "excito" sounds great, but "toxins"?

Well, they're all to do with what ends up in our food – and that happens for various reasons.

There is no doubt that as a general rule, we have become a nation of convenience food consumers. Let's face it. We are busier than we have ever been, and there are more societal and work demands being placed on us than we care to think about.

The media is in our face any time we find time to draw breath, with their ubiquitous advertisements, imploring, begging and cajoling us, so that we give in to their calls to buy.

And buy we do! Because again, let's face it. It's easy. It's convenient. Moreover, our children are a captive audience. The food is packaged appealingly and it tastes great! So why not? The reality is that 'taste' is MANUFACTURED into these foods, in an effort to get us to eat more of it. The addiction process has begun.

Think! But what if we were to stop, take stock and think about what might be in that convenience food? Is there any parent on earth who wants less than the best for their family? Probably not! And yet, perhaps, in giving in to convenience, we are giving in to our children having a less-than-fair chance at healthy living, optimal learning, and dare I say it, longevity!

Russell Blaylock - In his book, "Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills", Russell Blaylock, a neurosurgeon, suggests that everyday additives in food are anything but benign. Excitotoxins are substances that bind with the neurons in our brain allowing a build-up of calcium within cells leading to a destruction of the nervous system.

Additives such as monosodium glutamate, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, aspartame, and 'natural flavouring', which are far from natural, over-stimulate the nerve cells in our brains, an over-stimulation that excites them to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees!

But, the brain is a chemical factory, according to Doctor Blaylock. It depends on careful quality-control for its operation. The amount of these chemicals needed to transmit signals is infinitesimal.

This means that even small fluctuations could result in dramatic alteration of brain function, perhaps even the death of the cells. How scary is that?

Apparently babies are five times more sensitive than adults, says Blaylock, and excitotoxicity can be triggered by flu, cold, the West Nile virus, even measles.

It's in the process! You see, the reality is that too many of us ingest these in overly-large amounts through consumption of diet soft drinks and processed foods, so upsetting the delicate balance, and leading to the dying of the brain cells.

This may well cause, at a later stage, other degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's Disease, and stroke - diseases that are on the increase in our western culture.

The food industry has been very clever in the way in which it has disguised these additives. It is deception at its worst. But it's really not all that hard to decipher them.

Just look for the following 9 ingredients, and learn to avoid them.

Malted barley
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein
Soy sauce extract and protein
Bouillon
Textured protein
Natural flavourings
Yeast extract
Spices
Caseinate (in baby formula, especially hypoallergenic ones!)

Hard work - Trying to ensure that our children are appropriately fed and nourished is hard work. With fast-food outlets mushrooming at rates we can't control, school canteens still pedalling junk foods in the name of profit, and with the wealth of processed food sold in supermarkets on the increase, it's a recipe for absolute disaster.

It seems like fighting an uphill battle to keep our children healthy when we are so deliberately (albeit subtly) derailed by the food industry itself, an industry that puts profits ahead of health.

If you are as yet unconvinced about all of this let me assure you that the food industry has known for many years that its additives have been implicated in a myriad of physical problems such as migraines, seizures, obesity, ADD and ADHD, and Alzheimer's , to name a few, but it has chosen to ignore the evidence.

The Glutamate Association even has its own Public Relations Organization, whose task it is to, "research information on the safety and efficacy of MSG" – What?

Profit-based - As I said, it's all about profit. Using additives such as MSG allows manufacturers to use inferior quality ingredients and then compensate with unnatural flavour enhancers. And guess what, that heightened flavouring is addictive! They've got us hooked!

We are fast approaching a time when the actuality of food in our 'food' is but a dream. The harsh reality is this. Food manufacturers will stop at nothing to claim your dollars. If they can add more 'enticement' into their products through chemical additives, rest assured they will.

So, the onus is therefore on you, the consumer. Don't depend on government agencies to protect you. They won't.

Buyer beware! – So now you have an idea of what excitotoxins are, how do you avoid them?

Begin by removing processed foods from your diet – this is your first step in safeguarding your family. Concentrating on fruits and vegetables (preferably organic) and whole grains will ensure that you are not exposing them to excitotoxins.

That's where your journey begins. Getting back to cooking from scratch, just the way our forebears did, is part of that journey.

By: Maria Renouf

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