Diet Foods: Beware

Here's a good article on deceptive "health" or diet foods.

Low-fat foods may be high in calories. Low-fat salad dressings have more MSG and other ingredients to make it taste good. Diet soft-drinks, even though they have zero calories, they trigger insulin and its just like eating lots of sugar.

"We have talked to many individuals over the Internet and personally, who say their hypoglycemic reaction to MSG and aspartame is worse than their reaction to sugar and other carbohydrates. Excitotoxins cause the release of insulin. Insulin triggers fat storage and cravings. It also triggers an adrenalin release. To calm us down and regulate the effects of adrenalin, the brain releases serotonin, our "feel good brain juice." Consequently, serotonin levels are being used up too quickly. As a result, a person develops headaches, weight gain, depression, fatigue, and sleep disorders. Then the cycle begins again as a person reaches for the same jump starters: foods high in excitotoxins, caffeine, and simple carbohydrates." (Anglesey, 59)



"Dr. Arnold Mech, a child psychologist, addiction medical specialist, program developer at the Menninger Clinic, chemical dependency psychologist, eating disorder specialist and NOMSG member for three years. His theme was "Rage Reactions" caused by MSG. He had noticed that many of his patients seemed to be hypoglycemic. One of his patients was a young girl who had the habit of drinking three six-packs of diet cola per day. He gave her the glucose tolerance test and even though she was avoiding sugar, the test came back showing that she was hypoglycemic. He tested other patients and noticed a recurring pattern between aspartame, junk food, and hypoglycemia. He theorized that aspartame and other excitotoxins aggravate hypoglycemia. They cause people to crave more carbohydrates and sugar which sets the body up to release too much insulin which lowers glucose in the blood which in turn continues a cycle of craving more sweets and carbohydrates. But even if they aren't eating a lot of sugar or carbohydrates, excitotoxins like aspartame, can still trick the body into releasing too much insulin, which sets up hypoglycemia.

"When the blood sugar crashes, people turn to caffeine and excitotoxins for an energy "kick" and they need more and more to get that "kick". Their lives begin to revolve around high carbohydrate and high excitotoxic addictive foods and it's big business to the companies that produce them. He called it the "craving and withdrawal" cycle. Kids constantly want cereals and other fast foods high in excitotoxins. First they may be diagnosed with ADD as youngsters, then as teens and young adults, they may develop rage reactions. Many children, and eventually adults, lose their ability to control their impulses. This has shown to have terrible results, not only in eating disorders, but in relationships with other people. Dr. Mech noted that schools send out warning notices to parents to feed their kids well during national standard testing time, suggesting they want to look good as a school district." (Angelsey, 63)