Speaker 1: Let's turn to our health.
Speaker 2: I am pleased to welcome to the fifty five Cars
Speaker 2: Morning Show doctor Catherine aka Katie Reid. She's the founder
Speaker 2: of Unblind My Mind, inco, nonprofit dedicated to improving health
Speaker 2: through informed food choices. It's got a background of biotech, cancer,
Speaker 2: pharmaceuticals and brings a wealth of scientific knowledge to her
Speaker 2: work on chronic inflammatory disease. Joining the fifty five Cars
Speaker 2: Morning Show to talk about a book she co wrote
Speaker 2: along with Barbara Peice, PhD. It is Fat, Stressed and
Speaker 2: Sick MSG. Processed Food in America's Health Crisis. Doctor Reid,
Speaker 2: is a real pleasure to have you on the program
Speaker 2: this morning.
Speaker 3: Oh thank you for having me, And I don't know how.
Speaker 2: You feel about I honestly very excited about RFK Junior
Speaker 2: and hopefully his ability through raising our awareness so kind
Speaker 2: of the things you're talking about in your book so
Speaker 2: we can make informed choices about our diets, because I
Speaker 2: think a lot of people are really uninformed about processed
Speaker 2: foods and are what's in them, including as you illustrate
Speaker 2: and number one out of the gate in the title
Speaker 2: of your book MSG. I remember all the rage was
Speaker 2: getting Chinese restaurants to drop MSG from there, from from
Speaker 2: from the foods, and we're going back a couple of
Speaker 2: decades at least on that one, and a lot of
Speaker 2: them advertised no MSG added.
Speaker 1: Good. Well, apparently it's all over the place.
Speaker 3: It is. It's all over the place. And yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm excited about RFK Junior making some changes about you know,
Speaker 3: being aware and having a you know, back to real
Speaker 3: whole foods. Not such the process, but the Yeah, it's
Speaker 3: the processed foods. The MSG is hidden in the ingredient
Speaker 3: with and so even foods that will say no MSG added,
Speaker 3: what it's implying it's not pure MSG, not including MG
Speaker 3: that's created from the processing of proteins. Okay, it's a
Speaker 3: bit of a yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's not on the label as contains MSG.
Speaker 2: But MSG is in the foods that we buy, the
Speaker 2: process as foods we buy because of how it's how
Speaker 2: the food is made, how it's processed.
Speaker 3: And if you think about ingredient labels, they're not required
Speaker 3: to put the manufacturing process on there and then the
Speaker 3: end product resulting from that processing. So if you take
Speaker 3: a protein and you process it with a bunch of
Speaker 3: you know, pasteurization, acid hydrolysis, fermentation, it'll degrade the protein
Speaker 3: into its component parts, the amino acids, and glutamate is
Speaker 3: an amino acid. And they know that. I mean, that's
Speaker 3: how MSG used to be processed, is using wheat gluten
Speaker 3: and doing an acid hydrolysis on the wheat gluten. But
Speaker 3: now there's cheaper processes to making MSG, so they're very
Speaker 3: well aware that processing these proteins makes MSG. It's a
Speaker 3: very addicting component, so we keep going for more. It
Speaker 3: hijacks our taste receptors and our brain thinks it's wonderful,
Speaker 3: and so like rigged against us trying to find a healthier,
Speaker 3: more quality of life.
Speaker 2: Well, isn't that the point of MSG being an additive
Speaker 2: or as a byproduct of processing to make the food
Speaker 2: taste better, like salt makes food taste better.
Speaker 3: Exactly, it's it is the underlying mechanism of all addictions.
Speaker 3: But yeah, so they're putting it in there too for
Speaker 3: you know, increasing profits, increasing you know, consumption.
Speaker 2: Okay, Now, I think most people know that as a
Speaker 2: just a giant a dietary recommendation, we all hear it,
Speaker 2: stay away from processed foods. How do you define processed
Speaker 2: foods is like, if I go out to the Indian restaurant,
Speaker 2: I get carry out, I don't think of that as
Speaker 2: processed food. They're using spinach, they're using a specific kind
Speaker 2: of cheese, or they're using whole chunks of meat, And
Speaker 2: if I did that at home, it wouldn't be defined
Speaker 2: as process So how does that, you know, homemade preparation
Speaker 2: type thing differ from a processed food as we know it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and there's different categories on the degree of processing.
Speaker 3: So it's the ultra processed foods that they discussed in
Speaker 3: the book you know, Fat, Stressed, and Sick MSG processed
Speaker 3: foods in America's Health Crisis. You know that can be
Speaker 3: purchased on Amazon. That it really is the ultra processed
Speaker 3: foods that contains the largest amount of the MSG because
Speaker 3: of the processing of the proteins. So you just mentioned cheese,
Speaker 3: and a lot of people won't consider that process, but
Speaker 3: that is process you're taking. Yeah, you're taking milk, you're
Speaker 3: fermenting it, you're you know, having it. You know, cultures
Speaker 3: that are added to it to degrade the proteins and caseine,
Speaker 3: the major protein in milk or dairy products. Is then degraded,
Speaker 3: and so you get glutamate as a byproduct of the
Speaker 3: fermentation of that milk. The more age the cheese, the
Speaker 3: more the higher the MSG. And so you know, even
Speaker 3: the breads the way they're making them, they're fortifying it
Speaker 3: with gluten, they're fermenting it, they're adding you know, a
Speaker 3: bunch of different ingredients that will degrade that protein. So
Speaker 3: if you think about cheese and bread, well, wow, you know,
Speaker 3: that's like a big staple in American But then like
Speaker 3: you know, the the Americans craze on protein, you know,
Speaker 3: the protein powders collagen seems to be a big fad lately.
Speaker 3: But they're using hydrolyzed collagen. They're using an acid hydrolysis
Speaker 3: process on that collagen that will degrade that protein and
Speaker 3: break it up into its subunits of amino acids. Glutamate,
Speaker 3: you know, being a significant part of that degradation. Weigh
Speaker 3: protein is a it's actually a cheese byproduct, waste product
Speaker 3: from you know, making cheese. And so they wanted to
Speaker 3: use whey because they didn't want to have a bunch
Speaker 3: of waste from the cheese manufacturing. So now it's all
Speaker 3: over our you know, different protein enriched products, but like
Speaker 3: weigh protein isolate or protein isolate, these are code words
Speaker 3: of it went through an extreme amount of processing. So
Speaker 3: what is not processed would be eating you know, like
Speaker 3: you said, your vegetables, your whole grains like you know,
Speaker 3: brown rice or quene waw starchy vegetables could be used
Speaker 3: as a carbohydrate source, like potatoes or sweet potatoes, root
Speaker 3: of bega, having you know, good whole quality uncured or
Speaker 3: unprocessed meat like pasture raised chicken, grass fed beef, wild
Speaker 3: caught seafood, and then fruits, organic, raw nuts, seeds. You know,
Speaker 3: again the glycis shape or the round up that they're
Speaker 3: putting in some of these products also kind of contribute
Speaker 3: to inflammation and some of that glutamate signaling even in
Speaker 3: the body. So those are some of the things that
Speaker 3: would be considered unprocessed. You know, you're literally just you know,
Speaker 3: so when you talk about Indian food, you know they're
Speaker 3: obviously putting a lot of you know, cheese in there
Speaker 3: or dairy or a lot of these creaming things and sauces.
Speaker 3: And even though it's got spinach.
Speaker 1: You're going after my pilock panier.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well we don't do it all the time,
Speaker 2: but are we doing our souls?
Speaker 1: In the Thomas household.
Speaker 2: My wife makes sour dough bread every week and uses
Speaker 2: it from sour dough starter. There's no additives, there's none
Speaker 2: of the multi gazillion labels that you're you know, the
Speaker 2: components that are in a store bought loaf of bread
Speaker 2: which will lasts like three or four weeks, if not months,
Speaker 2: on your shelf. Is that a healthful thing to do?
Speaker 2: By contrast? Or are we sort of spin in our
Speaker 2: wheels thinking it's better for us?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean it is better for you than like
Speaker 3: the like you said, like the wonderbread that are, like
Speaker 3: you able to be in your house for weeks and
Speaker 3: weeks without molding.
Speaker 1: Half life of patrol plutonium.
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly, But you know it's using cultures, as you
Speaker 3: suggest that the sour fermentation is using lacto bacteria to
Speaker 3: ferment the wheat, and that's how they used to make MSG.
Speaker 3: Is fermenting ge wheat.
Speaker 2: Well, your bursts and all kinds of bubbles this morning, doctor, I.
Speaker 3: Know, I know, you know, but it is a happy Monday,
Speaker 3: like you said, and you know it's it's awareness and
Speaker 3: so even if people start moving the needle like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm going to have you know, less cheese in my
Speaker 3: diet or I'm going to have more newer, you know
Speaker 3: cheese as opposed to like older age cheese like mozzarella
Speaker 3: or cottage cheese. And you're kind of just making more
Speaker 3: mindful choices to improve the health, especially if you're afflicted
Speaker 3: with a chronic inflammatory condition, which most of us are, Like,
Speaker 3: I mean, I think there's like seventy percent of the
Speaker 3: population that has at least one chronic inflammatory condition. Most
Speaker 3: have two. So we're dealing with a you know, a
Speaker 3: health crisis. And so this is all about getting the
Speaker 3: word out there and making more informed health choices.
Speaker 2: Well and looping back to MSG that apparently is everywhere.
Speaker 2: Is that the problem with MSG is is this inflammatory
Speaker 2: issues that most of us.
Speaker 1: Are dealing with.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so you know, it is very highly inflammatory,
Speaker 3: but it's a neurotransmitter, so it's activating our nervous system,
Speaker 3: but it can trigger the inflammatory response where we're almost
Speaker 3: neurologically wired to the inflammatory you know condition, and so
Speaker 3: we make all the glutamate we need where we need it,
Speaker 3: when we need it for the neurological activation or a
Speaker 3: variety of other functions. It serves in the body metabolics,
Speaker 3: you know, energy production, insulin release. I mean, it's signaling
Speaker 3: a variety of different functions. So when it's at high levels,
Speaker 3: it's signaling stress.
Speaker 1: It is the.
Speaker 3: Stress response in our body at high levels. So if
Speaker 3: you think about like anxiety for example, or people who
Speaker 3: are experiencing like panic attacks, it is typically excessive glutamate
Speaker 3: signaling that is triggering. Yes, and so if you are
Speaker 3: constantly in that you know, fight, flight, fear, fawn response,
Speaker 3: it is an excess of glue to make signaling going
Speaker 3: on in your nervous system.
Speaker 1: How about that?
Speaker 3: So yeah, and so it is. It's fascinating how this
Speaker 3: is absolutely wired to our survival response. And some people
Speaker 3: are wired to thinking that cheetah is around the corner
Speaker 3: constantly even though there's no cheetah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get so it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well okay, Now other than that, you know, anxiety feeling,
Speaker 2: you know so many people have it. I was just
Speaker 2: ready to ask you, you know, if if so many people
Speaker 2: are dealing with this, this inflammatory disease, will call it,
Speaker 2: how do they know the signs and symptoms of it?
Speaker 2: Because you know, I think of inflammation. I think of inflammation.
Speaker 2: You know, it's like you know your your your fingers
Speaker 2: roll and or you got arthritis or something like that.
Speaker 2: But you know that the telltale signs of it, so
Speaker 2: anxiety being one of them. Are there any other signs
Speaker 2: that someone might be suffering from this perhaps MSG connected problem.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's where I kind of have a whole
Speaker 3: chop in the book, you know, fat, stress, and sick MSG,
Speaker 3: processed foods in America's health crisis, I have a whole
Speaker 3: chapter dedicated to all the various conditions or you know
Speaker 3: what we call these states that are associated with high
Speaker 3: levels of glutamate. So obesity we wouldn't think as an
Speaker 3: inflammatory condition, but it is. It's an energy and balance
Speaker 3: glue tomate signaling is absolutely at the basis of that.
Speaker 3: There's an entire category of depression labeled glutamate based depression.
Speaker 3: So there's depression anxiety. My whole journey started with my
Speaker 3: youngest being on the spectrum with autism. And for those
Speaker 3: parents or anybody who's afflicted with autism, you can understand
Speaker 3: that many are it trapped in a fight like fear
Speaker 3: fawn response, or they're very vulnerable to a stress response.
Speaker 3: It doesn't take much from their environment to be like, okay,
Speaker 3: they want to shut down, right, And that she was
Speaker 3: very sensitive to glutamate, had no idea that this was
Speaker 3: really going to help you know her condition and have
Speaker 3: a much better quality of life by really being aware
Speaker 3: where the glutamate is in the food supply. So cancer
Speaker 3: and I go through a lot of that with cancer
Speaker 3: is if you think about cancer, cells is a metabolic
Speaker 3: cellular abnormality. Gluet Tomate signaling will cause a lot of
Speaker 3: that abnormality because it's a stress response, and cancer can
Speaker 3: sometimes be what the body thinks is a cure to
Speaker 3: that stress response. I understand, Yeah, And so it's it is.
Speaker 3: It's you know, we're getting like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's. You know,
Speaker 3: even migraine headaches are typically attributed to the successive glutamate signaling. So,
Speaker 3: like you said, the swelling could be, you know, one
Speaker 3: of these signs of you know, but pain response is
Speaker 3: a glutamate signaling response often. I mean, there's a lot
Speaker 3: of other signals going on to but glutamate is often
Speaker 3: at the base of some of these pain responses.
Speaker 1: I understand.
Speaker 3: We're talking like the mother load here, yeah, well.
Speaker 2: I undert and sugar is not good for you either.
Speaker 2: So I just by cutting sugar out of my diet,
Speaker 2: I've been able to lose like seventeen pounds over the
Speaker 2: past six months. I just stay the hell away from
Speaker 2: all added sugar. So maybe by doing that, I'm also
Speaker 2: getting a lot of the MSG out of my diet.
Speaker 2: Because everything's got added sugar in it, and it's a
Speaker 2: product with added sugar, I'm not going to eat it exactly.
Speaker 3: Now, It's true. It's like, so once you start getting
Speaker 3: rid of refined sugars, you are eliminating a lot of
Speaker 3: process foods, and that is where you know, you start
Speaker 3: to get rid of a lot of the MSG sources.
Speaker 2: Now I've learned a lot today, Doctor read This has
Speaker 2: been a fascinating conversation. Your book, Fat, Stressed and Sick
Speaker 2: MSG Processed Food at America's Health Crisis is on my
Speaker 2: blog page fifty five cars dot com and the link
Speaker 2: so everybody can get it. And I appreciate what you're
Speaker 2: doing raising America's awareness to where the problems come from.
Speaker 2: And I hope you keep up the great work, and
Speaker 2: I hope a lot more people start paying attention