Gentle Reader,
A friend and long time customer says “MSG and I are bitter enemies. Sometimes I get very wiggy in my heart and whole body, as I do when ingesting it, but don’t know why. Guess I’ll have to take these lists with me shopping and eating out!” She sent me this link to a blog post about MSG and MSG food. I thought I would pass it along. Clearly eating out and eating packaged foods, even labeled organic, could trigger wandering body and joint pain. Perhaps this post will help you avoid the problem. You, like Carolyn, might print out the list and carry it with you. That is, if you eat out often or shop for packaged foods. I love the picture of real food, which contains the same culprit protein, but because it is balanced with the other nutrients, does no harm. 
Here’s the list. If any of these names appear on the package, watch out. For restauants, you’ll just have to ask the cook, who may or may not be truthful.
Hidden names for MSG and free glutamic acid:
Names of ingredients that always contain processed free glutamic acid (7):
- Glutamic Acid (E 620)2
- Glutamate (E 620)
- Monosodium Glutamate (E 621)
- Monopotassium Glutamate (E 622)
- Calcium Glutamate (E 623)
- Monoammonium Glutamate (E 624)
- Magnesium Glutamate (E 625)
- Natrium Glutamate
- Yeast Extract
- Anything “hydrolyzed”
- Any “hydrolyzed protein”
- Calcium Caseinate
- Sodium Caseinate
- Yeast Food
- Yeast Nutrient
- Autolyzed Yeast
- Gelatin
- Textured Protein
- Soy Protein
- Soy Protein Concentrate
- Soy Protein Isolate
- Whey Protein
- Whey Protein Concentrate
- Whey Protein Isolate
- Anything “…protein”
- Vetsin
- Ajinomoto
I do not eat any processed foods except for those made by Shaklee. I seldom go out to eat in restaurants. But I do eat soy protein, and soy isolate. I think of the Shaklee products that have soy in them or are primarily soy as in the 180 smoothees mixes. I have submitted a querry to the Shaklee health sciences department about this issue. In the meantime, I happily continue to consume at least 2 servings of our protein power/bar products every day and feel only wonderful. I’ll keep you posted.
Please take a minute to tell us what reactions/problems/issues you have had with MSG and how it has effected your joint pain levels.
Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving,
Fondly, Betsy
206 933 1889
I just heard from Shaklee: “Lifespa is not the go-to source for ingredient safety or efficacy by the scientific and medical communities. We and other experts are quite aware of the issues regarding MSG, and you may rest assured that there is no free glutamate in any Shaklee product. So you know, msg is produced during the breakdown of protein as a natural body process, and many foods contain naturally present levels of MSG.”
In other words, You don’t need to worry about Shaklee products and you may want to watch carefully when you buy and consume packaged foods.
To your good health. Betsy