Table of Contents
What food items are considered excitotoxins?
Everyday Excitotoxins Small amounts of MSG are found naturally in many common foods such as seaweed, mushrooms, whole grains, carrots, meat, nuts and cheese.
Is Splenda an Excitotoxin?
These excitotoxins are found in ingredients such as Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), Aspartame Nutrasweet, Sucralose, Splenda cysteine, hydrolyzed protein, and aspartic acid.
Which of the following are common excitotoxins allowed by the FDA to be in processed food?
The most common excitotoxins are aspartame and monosodium glutamate (MSG). Glutamate also happens to be the most commonly used neurotransmitter by the brain, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s safe to ingest.
How are excitotoxins produced?
Excitotoxins are released from neurons as a consequence of brain damage. Microglia also represent a potent source of glutamate and the neurotoxin quinolinic acid (Espey et al 1997; Heyes et al 1996; Lehrmann et al 2001).
Is MSG a neurotoxic?
MSG has been linked with obesity, metabolic disorders, Chinese Restaurant Syndrome, neurotoxic effects and detrimental effects on the reproductive organs.
Is aspartame an Excitotoxin?
FDA-approved excitotoxins, such as MSG and aspartame, can be found in everything from fast food and chips to diet soda and yogurt. Excitotoxins are substances, usually amino acids, that overstimulate neuron receptors.
What does sucralose do to the brain?
Sucralose is a hydrolyzed product of 6-chloro-6-deoxyglucose that enters the brain through the blood by inhibiting the process of d-glucose transportation across the epithelium [15].
What does monosodium glutamate do to your brain?
Effect on brain health For starters, it acts as a neurotransmitter — a chemical substance that stimulates nerve cells to transmit signals ( 1 , 2 ). Some studies claim that MSG can lead to brain toxicity by causing excessive glutamate levels in the brain to overstimulate nerve cells, resulting in cell death ( 2 , 7 ).
Is alcohol an Excitotoxin?
We further acknowledge that alcohol treatments might potentiate excitotoxic mechanisms promoted by other insults such as brain ischemia/reperfusion (Zhao et al., 2011); additionally, brain damage in the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome in alcoholics might include a prominent excitotoxic component, since neurodamage from …
What are glutamates in food?
Glutamate is an amino acid, found in all protein-containing foods. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. This amino acid is one of the most abundant and important components of proteins. Glutamate occurs naturally in protein-containing foods such as cheese, milk, mushrooms, meat, fish, and many vegetables.