Posted on 11/29/2005 9:32:46 PM PST by neverdem
Perhaps the increased incidence in nut allergies is something nefarious like - evolution.
Occam's razor and all.
Nope, they are real and you are wrong.
Speaking of genetic: My husbands mother died of stomach cancer, all her sisters died of stomach cancer, their mother and her mother all died of stomach cancer (we found out about his GGrandmother when we found a copy of her obit.
My husband is very allergic to MSG. We have to ask in resturants before he orders soup if they make it and if they use MSG -- same with Chinese food, etc. You're right, so many food have it buried in the ingredients, we always read carefully. He also has Asthma and there has been some studies that show a link between Asthma and food ingredients like MSG.
Maybe this is just the emerging intellectually-reactionary curmudgeon in me, but I'm beginning to think we should trust anecdotal information a bit more than science, whose parameters for investigation often dictate the kinds of responses they will get.
Sudden feeling that I am painting a target on myself . . .
I have to agree with you about anecdotal evidence, after working in a teaching hospital for years, participating in research studies, and seeing ancedotal evidence first hand.
You'd better not eat any proteins then since virtually all of them contain glutamic acid. All vegetables contain glutamic acid in some form or another as well. Protein is a major source of glutamic acid so everybody metabolizes glutamic acid.
MSG is used to enhance the flavor and mouthfeel of food. If allergies were a problem with glutamic acid, you'd have a lot of sick people in this country. MSG is a small molecule and allergies are usually caused by large molecules such as proteins.
There have been cases where people consume so much MSG that it get through their brain blood barrier. When this happens, the brain cannot metabolize it and headaches and nausea can follow. This was, at one time, called Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. I am unaware of any case where someone became deathly ill or died from consuming MSG. Had this ever happened, there is a pretty good chance that MSG would be banned now.
Thanks for posting that you don't get the flu shots. I never have gotten one, because I've never had the flu.
Now that my immune system seems to be in some kind of rebellion (the recent onset of asthma in my 50s), I thought I probably should get flu shots. Then I thought twice about it and have decided against it again. I just know it would do me more harm than good, and no need to fix something that isn't broken.
OTOH, I did have whooping cough this year and it is rough. Six weeks of barking constantly, never stopping, totally involuntary. It happened when I cut back on my antihistamines for a couple of weeks, due to poverty. I later found out that our many-years-old DPT vaccines *do* wear out, as mine must have.
And then there's the shellfish thing! I've eaten any and all shellfish daily, weekly, all my life. I made some linguini with white clam sauce a few months ago and one whole side of my face swelled up--really badly. I told myself it was the canned clams and probably just that one batch--though I ended up throwing out all the rest of the sauce I made. Now I'm scared of canned clams. Have eaten many more types of other fresh or frozen shellfish since then, but still scared to try clams, at least canned ones.
My goodness, people have been eating soy since the beginning of time. You sure you've got the right bean? Soy is made up of about 50% oil, 35% protein and the rest is a combo of carbs and minerals. Once the oil is pressed out of the bean, the remainder (cake) is used mainly for animal feed. If humans eat the cake before it's processed, the carbs left over cannot be be metabolized in the gut and transfer to the large intestine. Here, when microorganisms get a hold of it, a lot of gas can be produced. This is a good reason not to feed your dog any food made with unprocessed soy.
Other than this there is absolutely nothing wrong with soy beans. Are you sure you're not thinking of castor beans?
My husband went through a siege of being sensitive to shell fish, we stayed away from it for over a year and then he ate it again and didn't have a problem with it. Go figure.
Even highly sensitive peanut-allergic children are unlikely to experience a severe reaction from casual external contact with peanut butter, research has shown. Soap and water effectively remove the allergen from surfaces such as tabletops, while disposable wipes work well with hands.
Food research produces some interesting theories. MSG may increase the palatability of food which, in turn, causes animals to eat more. However, MSG contains the same amount of calories as any other amino acid or protein. To think that MSG causes weight gain defies science.
Look at how many packaged foods have msg under it's many, varied names to disguise it.
And what are all the other names these nefarious food producers use to hide the fact that their products are loaded with MSG? If you believe this then you don't know much about the FDA and their rigid food labeling requirements.
..how many products use high-fructose corn syrup?
The new bogeyman of the food police is HFCS. Why is HFCS such a bad product?
Except it's not Big Sugar, but Big Corn (high fructose corn syrup).
Nonsense. Sucrose (sugar) is half glucose and half fructose. HFCS is made up of the same ingredients, it just contains more fructose and less glucose. If fructose is bad we'd all better quit eating fruit and honey.
Are you you've got the right bean?
It's the Asian Glycine soja that's been eaten for thousands of years
The cultivated African soybean, Glycine max was grown as forage crop for animals in 1903.
It wasn't until the early 1930's before the African variety was used for humans consumption in the form of soy flour and soy milk.
Also the Glycine max has 21% oil compared to less than 10% for the the wild grown soja variety.
Whenever I've have not gotten the flu shot, I get the flu badly. I have three young kids, and it's hard to take care of them when I'm sick. My husband can't take off time from work to help, so I am miserable. One year I got it, and then my son got it the next week. My daughters who did get the flu shot didn't get sick.
Today's generation searches for reasons to be victimized. That explains the concocting of the fictitious peanut allergy.
OK. Both.
I think we can rule soy out. If it were soy related we'd see higher instances in Asia than the USA, and we're seeing the opposite.
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