This is a guest article.  The ideas, concepts, and thoughts written in this article are not that of Victoria Arya and should not be taken as such.

Did you ever see the Dr Seuss film “Horton Hears a Who?” I loved that film for the simple fact that it could so easily be true! Horton is an elephant who finds a speck resting on a clover. But on that speck is a whole world of tiny people called the Who’s.

Nobody believed Horton that the Who’s existed until the whole of Whoville got together and spoke up with one voice to protest against Horton being exiled for what he believed in.

I can relate to this because in the pregnancy fitness world I feel like I am one of the Who’s every day! You see there are so many big fat companies paying big bucks to the health agencies and scientific laboratories and spinning a big marketing web designed to persuade consumers into believing everything they say that the truth suddenly becomes “another scare story” or “sensationalism”.

The problem is that everyone I know of who works in the pregnancy health industry is either too scared to stand up and say what they really think, or they are brainwashed into believeing all the rubbish that is spouted by the health agencies just like everyone else.

The biggest thing that constantly drives me insane is the risks that food manufacturers take when it comes to the health of their pregnant consumers and their unborn babies. The second thing is the risks they take with those babies once they are born.

This weekend I went on one of the health and fitness industry’s most well respected and authoritative courses on advanced Kinetic Chain Theory and Asessment, (taught by my ex-boss, friend and mentor, Dax Moy). That probably means nothing to you apart from a load of gobbledeegook but the stuff I learnt is going to affect you in a BIG way!!

One thing that shocked me beyond belief and made me scared first and foremost for my own baby and secondly for all of my pregnant clients, friends and readers was a little known fact about MSG and how seriously it can affect your pregnancy health.

Now I think that most of us know full well that MSG during pregnancy is bad for us, right? There was a big panic a few years ago and a lot of Chinese restaurants banned it from their food ingredients, but what none of us know (or very few of us) is that MSG can come under different guises of at least 40 different names that we would never suspect AND because it is combined with other food additives, the food manufacturers are NOT REQUIRED to list it as an ingredient on the label – which makes it very difficult to exclude from your pregnancy diet

And do you know where it is most widely used?

In BABY FOOD.

…..

I know….I hear you – I was just as shocked, if not more so than you and my heart dropped out of my chest when I thought of all the instances where I have given my own son those pre-packaged organic baby foods over the last few months and thought that “natural spices” meant naturally sourced spices.

Apparently the Food Agencies don’t require it to be listed if it is combined with something else. So after my shock dissipated a little, I did some serious digging so that I could find out as much as possible about this to tell all of the Fit Yummy Mummy’s, so that you can exclude it wherever possible from your pregnancy nutrition.

What is MSG?

MSG comes from glutamic acid which is found in many natural foods like tomatoes, wheat, mushrooms, molasses and corn. It is even present in breastmilk and functions as a neurotransmitter. In this natural form it is known as L-glutamic acid. When broken down by our normal digestive process it is harmless but in a factory the glutamic acid is made free by various processes which you will recognise – hydrolysed, autolysed, modified or fermented by harsh chemicals, bacteria or enzymes.

These processes then produce a white crystallised substance which looks similar to sugar – MSG. MSG is then used as a component of food additives such as hydrolysed protein, whey protein, yeast extract, natural flavouring, spice extract, natural spices….. the list goes on. Because it is used as a component, the Food Agencies don’t require it to be listed as MSG.

What Does It Do To Us?

MSG is an excitatory neurotransmitter that destroys synapses and nerve cells in the brain and body. It runs around the body telling all of our nerve cells to FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!!! But what happens when they get overstimulated and fire all the time? They die.

The hypothalamus uses glutamate as a neurotransmitter and is also responsible for controlling fear, rage, hunger and cold. When hypothalamus cells die as a result of overstimulation by glutamate it results in things like ADD, ADHD, obesity and seizures.

Dr. Liane Reif-Lehrer, Harvard Medical School, has done extensive research on this, including trials on removing MSG from the diets of children with seizures and convulsions which resulted in a complete and full cure of the affectation.

MSG during Pregnancy

It is a common belief that the placenta is able to protect or at least partially shield the developping foetus from toxins such as MSG but in fact the opposite occurs. The placenta in primates (yep, that includes us) maintains amino acids in significantly HIGHER concentrations than found in the maternal circulation. The ratio is in fact is even greater than 2:1!

This means your baby is getting double the amount of neurotoxins that you are getting.

Now considering the very delicate balance of the developping nervous system, that spells BAD NEWS.

Symptoms of MSG Toxicity

One of the problems with MSG toxicity is that the symptoms can easily be disregarded as something else. Common symptoms include:

IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) / Colitis

Constipation/diahorrhea

Asthma

Hormonal symptoms like irritability, mood swings, temper, rage and hostility

Ulcers and sores in the mouth

Sleep disorders

Memory loss

Migraine

Chronic cough

The list goes on…

So what can we do to protect our little ones from this horrible neurotoxin?

Avoid ALL pre-packaged, processed food and diligently check the labels of everything you put on the table or in your mouth.

Where possible cook everything from scratch using organic whole ingredients

Speak to your childrens’ school about their menu and what they can and can’t have from it

Check the list below for common names:

Hidden Names for MSG

The following substances contain the highest percentage of factory created free glutamate, with MSG containing 78%:

MSG, Gelatin, Calcium Caseinate, Monosodium Glutamate, Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein, Textured Protein, Monopotassium glutamate, Yeast Extract, Yeast food or nutrient, Senomyx, Wheat Extract, Vegetable Protein Extract, Glutamate, Glutamic Acid

The following substances contain some factory created free glutamate in varying amounts. Please note that some food labels list several of these items, which can add up to a considerable and dangerous amount in one product:

Malted barley, natural flavours, modified food starch, rice syrup, natural chicken, beef or pork flavourings, lipolysed butter fat, maltodextrin, dextrose, dextrates, soy sauce or extract, low fat, no fat, soy protein, soy protein isolate, citric acid, milk powder, stock, spice, wheat corn oat or rice protein, enriched or vitamin enriched anything (i.e. calcium enriched bread, vitamin enriched cereal), whey protein or whey….

These lists are much longer and if you want the full table please email me at support@the9monthclub.com

European numbers for glutamate containing additives:

620, 625, 621, 627, 622, 631, 623, 635, 624

So what do you think? Are you shocked like I was?

Do you think manufacturers should be allowed to get away with this?

Nisha is the UK’s leading expert on safe and effective pregnancy health. For full access to Nisha’s latest video series “Top 20 Rules for Safe and Effective Pregnancy Fitness” please visit http://www.12daysoffitness.com and enter your details for access to over 100 free health and fitness gifts.