Glutamates: The Final Piece of the Health Puzzle?

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

For those who have been following this blog for some time, you’ll know that I’ve addressed and written about my specific health concerns in numerous articles. For instance, this series of 9 parts about “Gaba Gaba Doo” highlights some of the information related to two neurotransmitters that our bodies use to help keep us balanced.

As pointed out in the article, both GABA and glutamate work with one another to keep the mind and body balanced. When we have too much of either one, things can get out of sync. For instance, glutamate works like the gas pedal in a car. When you’re at cruising speed on the highway, you might often use cruise control, which forces your car to be at roughly the same speed all the time until you override the cruise control. Imagine if you simply got into your car, floored it and kept it floored. Eventually, your car’s speed would top out but you’d be going very fast at that point, which, unless you’re on a straight racetrack, would be very dangerous. As you drive, you modify your speed based on the conditions around you.

GABA acts like the brakes on a car. As your glutamate increases, GABA works to slow things down, like the cruise control. Too much glutamate and you’re likely to start experiencing panic attacks, anxiety, major migraines, or even paranoia if it gets bad enough in your system. Too much GABA and you’ll experience things like fatigue, foggy brain, and things like that.

So the question becomes, how do you keep your body in balance? Well, if you’re me and you have to deal with the MTHFR gene that doesn’t allow you to absorb folic acid (requiring you to use folate, a methylated form of folic acid), as well as other issues related to the methylation pathway that everyone has, it becomes a bit problematic.

You can’t really take supplements that will simply “increase” GABA or “decrease” glutamate. You’d simply be guessing at best and some have found that by taking even small amounts of glutamate supplementation, they start experiencing some of the major side effects noted above (anxiety, etc.). A few have reported that even though they only took 2 mg of a glutamate supplement, they experienced bad side effects which lasted up to a year from just that one dose.

If this is the problem, what can be done instead? For me, I’ve realized through the help of research and dietitians/nutritionists that I can help balance my glutamate by simply eliminating or greatly reducing the amount of foods I eat that are already high in naturally occurring glutamate.

There are some very interesting articles on the ‘Net that cover this subject quite well. Here is just one called “Low glutamate foods can reduce the excitotoxicity in the brain.”

The simple truth appears to be that too many foods already contain glutamate. As an excitotoxin, this can play havoc with our brains, pushing us way over the edge of feeling tired while wired, making it difficult to calm down and deal with stress. This can all tie in with our adrenals as well, because the adrenals are the ones that help fight off the effects of stress. However, when they become overused, they can come to a point of not working that well or not at all. When this happens, they are unable to fight off the effects of too much glutamate in our systems.

Most of the problem seems to come from highly processed foods, including fermented foods, like cheeses. In fact, dairy products that come from cows are very high in glutamate. Parmesan cheese is one of the highest.

I’d already sworn off dairy products a while ago, but was clearly still having problems with certain foods, but didn’t know which ones were the problem. After reading several articles, I learned that the following things I eat almost daily are very high in glutamate:

• tomatoes
• peanuts (peanut butter)
• broccoli

There are actually many other foods, but the three above are ones that I eat almost daily or at least several times each week. Since I’ve learned this, I’ve decided to avoid these three foods. In fact, I started this morning. Normally, I’ll have a couple of eggs, some tomato and avocado slices, spinach leaves and either uncured bacon or sausage. Today, I left off the tomato slices.

By the way, most meats like bacon, sausage and deli meats are cured meaning they are somewhat fermented so that they will last longer. This curing process adds/creates glutamate into the product, not to mention food companies use nitrates/nitrites as a preservative to keep the meat lasting longer in the fridge. These nitrates/nitrites are not good for our bodies because they make the body work harder to break things down. How much of these preservatives are left in our bodies after the actual meat has come and gone is anyone’s guess. Is this possibly why there has been such an increase in cancer-related illnesses over the years?

Another thing that has glutamate in it is something called pectin. Pectin is used in fruit jellies and jams, among other things. Every day, when I take my niacin, I open the capsule and pour out the contents of each capsule into a tablespoon of jelly. Even though I’ve chosen a jelly that is not sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, it still has pectin in it. If I do this three times per day, I’m adding more glutamate to my system that I probably don’t need. That makes a total of four foods with high amounts of glutamate that I’m introducing into my system that I do not need.

So now, instead of using jelly, I’m using unsweetened applesauce (organic) to take my niacin. I’m going to note over the next few days to a week what, if any positive changes, result in the elimination of these foods.

You know, as a bit of an aside here, the Bible tells us that our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made. They are extremely intricate and scientists probably know less than half the story related to our bodies and how they work so effectively. God designed us, yet too many believe human beings are the result of millions or billions of years of “chance.” How absurd is that thinking, all because the fool says in his heart, there is no God?

Consider how most people go through life eating whatever they want without any care. They are effectively trusting the Big Food companies to serve them only good, nutritional foods that cannot harm us. These people are wrong. The Big Food companies go out of their way to make the food-like-stuff we buy smell, taste, look, and feel like it’s all great, wonderful food. Instead, they are selling us what only appears to be good food. Yes, it smells good, yes, it looks good, and yes, it tastes good and has a pleasing texture. However, with all the chemicals and preservatives that are put in processed foods, it is no wonder that the average American is obese and suffering from a malady of illnesses, often ending with some form of cancer that kills them.

Average doctors don’t have any real solutions. Most of them tell us to “cut back” on certain foods, but that isn’t good enough. Most foods contain addictive ingredients (high fructose corn syrup is among the worst), that keep us coming back to that food. I used to eat anywhere from 10 to 12 or more Oreo or Chips Ahoy cookies before dinner. Then after dinner, I’d have more. I recall how quickly I chewed and swallowed them to get the next cookie. This addiction to these sweet treats is what put weight on me. It wasn’t enough to eat them in moderation because of all the garbage they contain. I had to eliminate them and did.

I triple dog dare ya to go to this link and read all about the foods and ingredients that contain glutamate. But be warned, it will surprise you and make you think you can’t eat anything. No, you just need to start reading every food label to see what’s “hidden” in that product.

Good Grief… Glutamates!

You may wish to print that list out and take it shopping with you. It’s also interesting to note that glutamate, aside from being in its own group of supplements, is also added into many supplements separately.

As the above article notes, the following things contain glutamate:

• Hydrolyzed protein or hydrolyzed oat flour
• Sodium caseinate or calcium caseinate
• Autolyzed yeast or yeast extract
• Gelatin
• Glutamic acid
• Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

Any idea how many food items/supplements contain gelatin as just one example? I started going through our pantry and noticed that many items contain something called “pea protein,” which is code for an ingredient that contains glutamate.

Most of the things listed in that article are simply found in highly processed foods. However, I’ve noticed that some of those things are in “gluten-free” foods. Many of these foods are still “processed” to an extent, but I’ve thought that they weren’t really highly processed like those within the mainstream produced by Big Foods. I was wrong.

Ultimately, it’s best to eat organic if you can afford it. If not, and you want to improve your health, you’ll need to read every label to ensure that you’re not adding glutamate to your system. Your body actually produces glutamate and it doesn’t need us to add to that store. The only time we might need to add is when we are not eating properly. However, in that case, we’re going to likely have far more glutamate than we need and less GABA than we should have to keep things in balance.

The more I study all of this, the more I realize that it is truly all about the foods we eat. Decades ago, this was not so much of a problem. Highly processed foods came to the fore in the 1950’s when women began working out of the home. This required the creation of things like “TV dinners” that could be popped into the oven and out in 45 minutes. No more slaving over the stove and preparing good, healthy meals. But to keep those TV dinners and other quick-cook entrees so that they would not go back quickly, Big Food companies knew they needed to add preservatives to these meals.

Virtually overnight, Americans went from eating good quality, home-cooked meals to prepared frozen food-like-stuff that looked, smelled, and tasted great; even better than Mom made! Now, look at society today. Everything is fast food, easily prepared and no thought required.

My wife and I both work to create meals that are wholesome and healthy. We buy as much organic produce as possible. We read every label. We buy meats (chicken, beef, pork, lamb) that are hormone free, without the preservatives because we understand that our bodies are really worth it. It’s not what we do to the outside of our bodies necessarily that makes us healthy, though certain things can make us appear healthy even though we might not be. It’s what we put into our bodies that creates good health or destroys it.

I’m hopeful that this glutamate thing is the last piece of the puzzle for me. It has truly been a very long road from my previous obesity (255 pounds), having to use a CPAP machine, and having to take 5 blood pressure medications, to where I am now; 165 pounds, no CPAP machine and I finally got off my last blood pressure medication last week.

I’m very glad the Lord brought me through this as He did, one small step at a time because had I understood from the beginning what I’d be giving up, I likely would’ve balked at it. The process has been slow and long. I’m ready to be done with it and start living life and maybe this glutamate step is the final step for me. I really don’t know.

I do know that I spent the last few days praying up a storm over this and it has become clear that my anxiety was allowed by God in order to bring me to my knees. He had a reason for it and the reason appears to be that I had too much glutamate in my system. I was literally feeding myself glutamate with some of the things I was eating, though I thought they were healthy things. For the average person, they might be. For me, they’re not.

I’ll provide an update on this subject in the next week or two. I hope this offers something for you as well.

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective