The Vegan Lifestyle

Junk foods are bad for our health. They are loaded with chemicals that are harmful to our body. They are mixed with food colors and preservatives too.

Almost all junk foods undergo a certain process. Most junk foods are deep-fried in hydrogenated vegetable oils. Vegetables oils that have undergone hydrogenation are harmful to the body. Hydrogenated vegetable oils are originally mono or polyunsaturated fatty acids that are artificially converted into a saturated fatty acid by the addition of hydrogen molecules to it. This process is called hydrogenation.

When hydrogenated vegetable oils are heated, they are converted into trans fatty acids. Trans fatty acids are very harmful to the body, and can cause cancer. That is why it is not safe to re-use frying oils that have been used already.

Junk foods are palatable and delicious. They are mixed with flavorings or food  enhancers to make it taste good. That is why most children and even adults like them very much. The most famous food enhancer is the monosodium glutamate or MSG. This is a free glutamic acid produced from hydrolyzed amino acids from proteins by the use of strong acids as catalysts. This substance is sold in the market with various brand names, the most common of which is Ajinomoto or Vetsin. MSG is very harmful to our body. It causes brain cancer and a host of other diseases. It penetrates the blood-brain barrier and affects the normal functioning of the hypothalamus. This organ of the endocrine system is the controlling center of all neuroendocrine regulation, sleep, wake cycles, emotional control, caloric intake regulation, immune system regulation, and the regulation of the autonomic nervous system. Please read my previous article “Dangers Of MSG” to know more about this.

This is the reason why people become obese, and wonder why they become so fat when in fact they often skip their breakfast and other meals in a day. This blood-brain barrier disruption can also cause hypertension, diabetes, strokes, brain tumors, lupus, brain infections, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.

Other additives in junk foods are food colors, artificial sweeteners, and preservatives. All these chemicals are toxins that poison our body. Do you not wonder why junk foods remain fresh and crispy even after months or year in the shelves? Consider what harm they can do to your body.

Most people are not aware of the dangers of MSG. Monosodium glutamate or MSG is a toxic substance that is used as an enhancer in almost all processed foods. It was first discovered in  1908 by Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University. He isolated this flavor from seaweed broth and called it monosodium glutamate. Ikeda patented MSG in 1909 through the help of Ajinomoto Corporation of Japan, and from then on, it became the most popular food flavor in the name of Ajinomoto.

Monosodium glutamate is an excitotoxin like aspartame, and caffein. Like all excitotoxins, it is very dangerous to the body especially the brain and the nervous system. It causes brain tumors, brain cancers, and many more different disease.

Some of the consumers are now aware of the harmful effects of monosodium glutamate, and because of this, the manufacturers of MSG are hiding its name in euphemised names such as hydrolyzed protein, textured protein, yeast extract, sodium caseinate, glutamate, calcium caseinate, yeast nutrient, yeast food,  autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) , hydrolyzed plant protein (HPP), and others.

Hydrolyzed protein is made from rotten vegetables. This decaying vegetables are boiled in a vat of acids. After the acid bath, the veggie-acid slurry is then neutralized with caustic soda. The proteins then coagulate into a brown sludge, solidifies as a sludge mat on the surface of the vat. This brown sludge is dried up and powdered and sold as hydrolyzed protein.

MSG disrupts the endocrine relationship between the meta-thermoregulatory modulators like neuropeptide Y (NPY) and leptin and their target tissue, reducing the thermogenicity of brown fat while suppressing the food intake (hypophagia). This means that MSG will make you to gain weight even when you decrease your caloric intake.

Glutamic acid is one of the amino acids that are the building blocks of protein occurring naturally in tomatoes, milk and mushrooms. This natural glutamate in plants and animals is called L-glutamic acid. Nomal digestive process breaks this natural or “bound” glutamic acid, and then delivered to glutamate receptors in our body and brain. Broken this way, it is harmless, but when it is processed (autolyzed, hydrolyzed, modified or fermented with strong chemicals, bacteria or enzyme, it becomes “free” , modified and harmful. MSG is 78.2% glutamate, 12.2% sodium, and 9.6% water. This ‘”free” glutamic acid contains d-glutamic acid, L-glutamic acid,  pyroglutamic acid, and other contaminants which are not found in natural glutamic acids in plants and animals.

The following are some of the symptoms of MSG toxicity: swelling of hands, numbness or paralysis, mouth lesions, atrial fibrillation, rise or drop in blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, angina, vomiting,  heart palpitation, stomach cramps, painful rectum, spastic colon, joint pains, muscle aches, water retention, shortness of breath, mental dullness, tightness of chest, depression, runny nose and sneezing, loss of memory, dizziness, anxiety,  extreme dryness of mouth, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s, insomnia, infertility, gall bladder problems, kidney pain, aching teeth, skin rash, tinnitus or Meniere’s disease, , slurred speech, balance problem, obesity, brain tumors and cancers, chronic cough, asthma, ALS, ADD, ADHD, diabetes, epilepsy, hypothyroidism, multiple sclerosis, pituitary tumors, hypoglycemia.