Hi All,

I have another question

I have just discovered thanks to my wonderful food additive site that #621 flavour enhancer is MSG. The "pure beef" sausages (0.7 gm carb each) I have been eating contain #621 MSG.

I have been stalled (on induction) for a week now, which could be because of TOM, or could be because of excess artificial sweeteners (which I've now cut out) or now I wonder MSG can cause a stall too? I'm still showing moderate to large ketos.

Needless to say I don't like the idea of eating MSG, so will be giving up the sausages anyway, but I'm curious about people's experience with it.

Does anyone have any insight on the effect of MSG on weight loss?

Thanks
Kim

This is purely a guess on my part, but MSG is monosodium glutamate and we know that sodium causes water retention. I can tell you that MSG isnt something you want in your diet; can you find another brand of saussage? Delis will often sell them made w/o nitrates and other nasty additives.

Btw, K-Louise, one week of no weight loss is not a stall. It's your body taking the time it needs to adjust to previous losses. A stall is six weeks with no scale loss and no inches lost.

Nat

Hi K-louise. I have a very high sensitivity to MSG and have to look for it in everything. I don't necessarily "stall" since I don't follow Atkins, but I start craving which for me is even worse. :-( If you are sensitive, it could very well be causing your lack of loss, but as Nat mentioned, it may not even be a stall. Regardless, MSG is nasty stuff in my opinion. When you start watching for it, you will be amazed at where it shows it's ugly head!

PS - can you tell me what the food additives site is?? I have a heck of a time trying to track down what the stupid additive numbers mean here in Oz.

Hi Lori,

This is the site I use. I find it VERY useful. That's how I learned to weed out aspartame too #951.

http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/6454/additivs.html

The codes are international, so thankfully they are the same for us here in Australia.

We are about to get a storm, so hopefully there will be lots of rain on the bushfires!

Cheers
Kim

Thanks Kim,

I have bookmarked it and I'm sure will be referring to it often!

Yikes Kim, I've been watching a lot about those bush fires... I will do a rain dance.
Doods.

I know that MSG can be made from several different sources... wheat (not supposed to be in U.S. products, but who knows?), soy, corn, sugar beets or sugar cane. It's very hard sometimes to get manufactureres to acknowledge exactly what's in their products - from what I understand they aren't required to list a food ingredient that is less than 2%, and are dodgy (again not required to disclose information) about what's in their "natural flavors" or "spices". Just great for people with allergies.

Well, thank you all for your comments. You know, if I can't be exactly sure what is in it, then I'm not going to eat it. ('ll give them to Monster .. my cat )

I kinda like the idea of pure things going into my body. 3 packet of splenda (which is made from sugar anyway, and 1 decaf coffee per day will be my only non natural indulgence). The liver (major fat burning/processing orgam) will be much happier without the artificial stuff.

The bushfires are still out of control. 15,000 firefighters from all over Australia here in NSW now, and another 100 degrees scorcher shaping up for today (morning 1 January here). We all need to do a rain dance.

Happy new year all, I am going to be much lighter and healthier at the end of this .. I promise myself.

Kim