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.

Great material possessions and lofty positions in life are worthless without good health. Therefore, the primary and most important thing in life is good health.

Good health is not an elusive thing. God created us perfect, and in the best of health. When sin entered into the world, curses, plagues, and diseases followed resulting to death as a consequence.

To be healthy, we need to follow some basic principles or rules when eating. These principles when followed can bring us true happiness and joy. And here they are.

1. Eat your meals with regularity. Do not eat your meals early or late. The human body has a biological clock, and the stomach is upset when meals   are  eaten irregularly.
2. Eat moderately, and eat only what is needed by the body. Do not overeat. Eat only to satisfy your hunger.
3. Take small bites. This will tend to eat less.
4. Relax while eating your meals. Do not rush your meals. Do not eat when you are in a hurry, anxious, tired or angry.
5. Chew your food well and thoroughly. Doing this will produce more saliva for digestion.
6. Do not eat various food at one meal. Three to four variety is the most. Too much variety confuses the digestive system, and results to indigestion.
7. Avoid meal mixtures that are complicated. Keep your meal simple.
8. Avoid additives and enhancers such as vinegar, sugar, monosodium glutamate and spices.
9. Vary your diet from meal to meal.
10. The food should be palatable so as to be eaten with relish.
11. Do not eat food or drink water or juices that are prepared in aluminum containers. It causes Alzheimer’s and other hundreds of ailments and diseases.
12. Drink water between meals only, and not during meals. Only fresh fruit and vegetable juices can be taken during meals.
13. Eat your fruits at one meal, and the vegetables at another meal. But acid fruit such as citrus can be eaten with either.
14. Eat more green leafy vegetables. They supply more vitamins and minerals, and more fiber too.
15. Choose food that are rich in vitamins and minerals. Most important, choose those that have more antioxidants, and those that can greatly boost the immune system.
16. Eat like a king at breakfast, like a queen at lunch, and like a pauper at  dinner. You can skip dinner or lunch, but never the breakfast.
17. Eat three square meals a day only. There should be no eating in between meals.
18. Be happy when you eat your meals. Be thankful to the Lord for the food you eat. Happy mood helps digestion greatly.

How tissues are affected by excitotoxins

All excitotoxins harm the body. They cause a lot of ailments and diseases that may cause death.

What are excitotoxins?

Excitotoxins are substances, usually amino acids that react with receptors in the brain and destroy certain types of neurons. One of these excitotoxin is monosodium glutamate. It comes from natural glutamic acid.

Glutamic acid is one of the many amino acids that are building blocks of proteins. It is naturally found in tomatoes, milk, mushrooms, and in many food in varying concentrations. It is also found in  mother’s milk. Glutamic acid is found in the cells of the body and is involved in a variety of brain functions as a neurotransmitter. It is the most commonly used neurotransmitter by the brain, and the most important neurotransmitter in the hypothalamus. This natural glutamate in plants and animals is called L-glutamic acid. The digestive system breaks down this natural glutamic acid, and delivers this to the glutamate receptors in our body and brain. When broken this way, it is harmless. But when it undergoes processing with the use of strong chemicals, bacteria, and enzymes, it becomes “free” and harmful, and this is what is commonly known as MSG or monosodium glutamate. It is 78.2% glutamate, 12.2% sodium, and 9.6% water. Its chemical formulation has been altered, and is technically called as D-glutamic acid. It also contains L-glutamic acid, pyroglutamic acid, and contaminants. Take note that plant and animal proteins do not contain D-glutamic acid, pyroglutamic acid, nor contaminants.

Free glutamate or monosodium glutamate is the product of certain chemical processes such as hydrolysis, autolysis, and fermentation with the use of strong chemicals, bacteria, and enzymes. They come from  various raw materials mostly from corn.

How do excitotoxins harm the body?

Glutamate and other excitatory amino acids attach to special receptors such as NMDA, AMPA, kainate, and metabotropic. These in turn opens the calcium channel on the neuron cell membrane, allowing calcium to flood into the cell. This calcium will trigger various reactions including free radical generation, eicosanoid production, and lipid peroxidation which will destroy the cell. With this calcium-triggered stimulation, the neurons become very excited, firing its impulses repetitively up to the point of death. This activation of calcium channel also involves other membrane receptors like zinc, magnesium, phencyclidine, and glycine receptors.

Glutamate acts on its receptors via a nitric oxide mechanism. Over stimulation of glutamate receptor produces an accumulation of reactive nitrogen species which result in the generation of several species of dangerous free radicals including peroxynitrite. This is how excess glutamate damages the nerve cells. Many studies have demonstrated the link between free radical generation and excitotoxity.

Free radicals have been  shown to damage cellular proteins  (protein carbonyl product), and DNA. The most immediate DNA damage is the mitochondrial DNA, which controls protein expression within a particular cell and its progeny. Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disease is suspected to be affected in this way. Chronic free radical accumulation can result in an impaired functional reserve of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and thiol which are needed in neural protection.

Monosodium glutamate penetrates the blood-brain barrier. This barrier is a system of specialized capillary structures designed to exclude toxic substances from the brain. But the brain has areas that normally do not have a barrier system. These unprotected areas are in the hypothalamus, the subfornical organ, organium vasculosum, area postrema, pineal gland, and the subcommisural organ. There is a most consistent finding that monosodium glutamate can penetrate the blood-brain barrier. It was found out that exposure to MSG damages the arcuate nucleus  of the hypothalamus. This area of the hypothalamus controls many neuroendocrine functions, and is intimately connected to several hypothalamic nuclei. It was demonstrated that high concentration of glutamate and aspartate can enter the blood-brain barrier by seeping through the unprotected areas, such as in the hypothalamus or in other circumventricular organs. This is the situation when individuals consume foods high in excitotoxins on a daily basis. Conditions associated with the seepage of toxic substances into the blood-brain barrier include hypertension, head trauma, diabetes, strokes, collage-vascular diseases, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, brain infections, Alzheimer’s disease, and premature aging.

Besides monosodiun glutamate,  a  growing list of excitotoxins are being discovered. One of  these is aspartame . It contains approximately 40% aspartic acid, 50% phenylalanine, and 10% of methyl ester. Aspartame, like monosodium glutamate can cause brain lesions,  brain tumors, and brain cancer.

Another excitotoxin is L-cysteine. It is a powerful excitotoxin that is added to certain bread dough, and is sold in health food store as a supplement. Also, hydrolyzed vegetable protein contains cysteic acid, another excitotoxin.

If you want to be trully healthy, you must exercise temperance in all things. It pays good dividends to exercise the will to resist temptations to overindulged in anything.

Most people are suffering from diseases because of their ignorance about healthy lifestyle. Most would have not died prematurely had they knew the harmful effects of junk foods that litter groceries and supermarkets everywhere.

To stay alive and healthy, we must avoid these:

1.  Avoid sugar and sugar foods. It is harmful to the brain, and the whole body in general. It raises blood sugar level that may lead to diabetes.

2.  Avoid spices and condiments – they overstimulate the system, and bemuddles   our senses.

3.  Avoid margarine, and other hydrogenated products. They clog arteries and  veins that lead to strokes and heart attacks.

4.  Avoid fried foods. They are the main cause of vascular and heart diseases that lead to many deaths.

5.  Avoid ice creams, cakes, and all other sweet delicacies. Milk and sugar combination destroys the memory, and impairs the healthy functioning of the  brain.

6.  Avoid all processed foods. They are all junks, worthless and dangerous to the body. They are loaded with toxins such as monosodium glutamate, ,  additives, preservatives, food colors, and other toxic chemicals.aspartame

7.  Avoid softdrinks and all carbonated drinks. They are loaded with caffein,  aspartame, and other toxic enhancers.

8.  Avoid cheese. It has toxic substances thyramin and tryptamin that are harmful to the brain. Thyramin stimulates stress, and tryptamin has mind-altering effects associated with nightmares. It causes hyperactivity in children.

9.  Avoid coffee, tea, and other synthetic drinks. They are addictive and harmful to the body.

10. Avoid liquors and all intoxicating alcoholic products. They destroy the brain cells permanently and beyond repair. It destroys the liver and other  organs of the body.

11. Avoid milk and all dairy products. It is mucous forming, and harmful to the brain, lungs, bronchial tubes, sinuses, and the intestines.

12. Avoid cigarrettes and all tobacco products. They are the main cause of lung  cancer, and other cancers and diseases of the respiratory tract.

13. Avoid all illegal drugs. They are very dangerous, toxic addictive stimulants    that destroy the nervous system and the whole body in general.

14. Avoid flesh meats of animals. They are loaded with growth hormones, feed additives, preservatives, stress hormones and food colors. They are also carriers of communicable diseases, bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens   that are very harmful to the body.

What are excitotoxins? These are substances, usually acidic amino acid that react with receptors in the brain that destroy certain types of  neurons. One  of the common excitotoxins is glutamate. MSG or monosodium glutamate is the sodium salt of glutamate. This is an amino acid commonly used by the brain as a neurotransmitter. Then how could this harmless neurotransmitter become harmful to the body? Because glutamate exists only in a very small concentration, no more that 8 to 12 uM, such that when it exceeds this amount, the neurons begin to fire abnormally to exhaustion until death.

Excitotoxins are very harmful substances that causes a lot of neurological disorders.  These were discovered in 1957 by Lucas and Newhouse, while experimenting on mice to study a particular eye disorder. It was found during the experiment that newborn mice fed with MSG have widespread destruction of the inner nerve layer of the retina. In 1969, Dr. John Olney of the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis, repeated Lucas and Newhouse ’s experiment. His assistant found that newborn mice fed with MSG became grossly obese, and short in stature. The mice also developed hypoplastic organs including thyroid, adrenal, pituitary, and reproductive dysfunction. They demonstrated multiple endocrine deficiencies, such as TSH, growth hormone, LH, FSH, and ACTH. Discrete lesions of the arcuate nucleus, and less severe destruction of the hypothalamic nuclei were discovered when the mice brain were examined. Later studies showed that damaged by MSG is much more widespread, including the hippocampus, circumventricular organs, locus cereulus, amygdala-limbic system, subthalamus and striatum. Studies have shown that glutamate, and other excitatory amino acids attach to a family of receptors (NMDA, kainate, AMPA, and metabotropic), which in turn either directly or indirectly opens the calcium channel on the neuron cell membrane, allowing calcium to fllood into the cell. When not checked, this calcium will triggere a cascade of reactions including free radical generation, eicosanoid production, and lipid peroxidation, which will destroy the cell. The neuron become very excited with this calcium-triggered stimulation, firing its impulses repetitively until the point of cell death, thus the name excitotoxin.The activation of the calcium channel via the NMDA type receptors also involves other membrane receptors such as magnesium, zinc, phencyclidine, and glycine receptors.

MSG and other excitotoxin taste enhancers become more toxic when added together. Excitotoxins in subtoxic concentrations can become fully toxic to specialized brain cells when in combination.

Among the disorders caused by the use of MSG are  migraines, seizures, abnormal neural development, infections, certain endocrine disorders, learning disorders in children, neuropsychiatric disorders, hepatic encephalophathy, obesity, episodic violence, ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease.

Glutamate acts on its receptor via a nitric oxide mechanism. Overstimulation of the glutamate receptor produces an accumulation of reactive nitrogen species, resulting in the generation of dangerous free radicals including peroxynitrite.  Studies have shown that this is how excess glutamate damages the nerve cells.

MSG damages an area of the hypothalamus known as arcuate nucleus. This controls a multitude of neuroendocrine functions. High concentrations of glutamate and aspartate can penetrate the brain by seeping through hypothalamus or other circumventricular organs. Chronic elevations of blood glutamate can also seep through the normal blood-brain barrier whenthese high concentrations are  maintained over a long period of time. This is the situation when foods high in excitotoxins are consumed on a daily basis. The harmful effects associated with the barrier disruption are hypertension, diabetes, strokes, head trauma, multiple sclerosis, brain tumors, collagen-vascular diseases, AIDS, brain infections, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Excitotoxins are present in almost all processed food. They come in the form of monosodium glutamate, cysteic acid, L-cysteine, homocysteine and aspartame. Almost all junk foods are loaded with MSG, and softdrinks and other carbonated drinks are also mixed with aspartame. And some o fhtese junk foods or drinks have two or more excitotoxins in them, which make them more dangerously toxic.