There is a wide misconception that some whole foods are major problems when it comes to FGA sensitivity. Some sources list \u00a0mushrooms, wheat, dairy, peas, and tomatoes as major concerns. It’s my belief that these are not the true problem unless a person is extremely sensitive, and that worrying about these foods before other more concentrated sources are eliminated is counter-productive.<\/p>\n
First, it’s important to understand the difference between free and bound glutamate. It’s ONLY free glutamate that is an issue, NOT whole foods or the glutamate content of food in my opinion, from reading, personal experience, and talking with others that have glutamate sensitivity. \u00a0For most people, simple processing of whole foods does not release (or possibly change the form of, see http:\/\/www.truthinlabeling.org\/manufac.html<\/a>) enough of the glutamate to be a problem. \u00a0Boiling peas for dinner, baking bread, and tossing a few mushrooms on your burger is not going to free up enough glutamate to be a problem even for most sensitive individuals. I wrote about this some when I wrote about Glutamate versus Gluten: http:\/\/stroyan.net\/lisasblog\/2011\/glutamate-versus-gluten\/<\/p>\n So let’s look in more detail at the differences between the FREE glutamate content of whole foods versus foods that are heavily processed, freeing glutamic acid either deliberately or as a side effect.<\/p>\n Monosodium Glutamate is close to 99% FGA, or roughly 100,000mg per 100g. \u00a0Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to find exact concentrations of FGA in other food additives but many sources claim that they are 15-20% FGA. \u00a0According to\u00a0Food Flavorings<\/span> by Philip Ashhurst, from a regulatory standpoint, hydrolyzed protein can have up to 20% free glutamic acid content by weight (in another location he says they often have 35%); Autolyzed Yeast or Yeast Extract can have up to 12%. So, I’ll use a conservative estimate of 10% by weight, or 10,000 mg per 100g serving.<\/p>\n Here is a list of the free glutamate content of \u00a0some foods from Wikipedia. (http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Glutamic_acid_(flavor)#Concentration_in_foods<\/a>). It’s the first column that we are interested in:<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Given that, I would estimate that yeast extract is \u00a050-100 times more concentrated than whole foods such as peas or tomatoes. \u00a0Even soy sauce, parmesan cheese, and seaweed are an order of magnitude different, though they certainly have enough to cause reactions in sensitive individuals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is a wide misconception that some whole foods are major problems when it comes to FGA sensitivity. Some sources list \u00a0mushrooms, wheat, dairy, peas, and tomatoes as major concerns. It’s my belief that these are not the true problem unless a person is extremely sensitive, and that worrying about these foods before other more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-excitotoxins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stroyan.net\/lisasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stroyan.net\/lisasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stroyan.net\/lisasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stroyan.net\/lisasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stroyan.net\/lisasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stroyan.net\/lisasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300,"href":"https:\/\/stroyan.net\/lisasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stroyan.net\/lisasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stroyan.net\/lisasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stroyan.net\/lisasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n \nFood<\/th>\n Free glutamate (mg\/100 g)<\/th>\n Protein glutamate (mg\/100 g)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n Makombu (kelp)<\/a><\/td>\n 3190<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Rausu kombu (kelp)<\/a><\/td>\n 2286<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Rishiri kombu (kelp)<\/a><\/td>\n 1985<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Hidaka kombu (kelp)<\/a><\/td>\n 1344<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Nori (seaweed)<\/a><\/td>\n 1378<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Marmite<\/a><\/td>\n 1960<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Vegemite<\/a><\/td>\n 1431<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Japanese fish sauce<\/a><\/td>\n 1383<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Roquefort cheese<\/a><\/td>\n 1280<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Parmesan cheese<\/a><\/td>\n 1200<\/td>\n 9847<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Korean soy sauce<\/a><\/td>\n 1264<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Chinese soy sauce<\/a><\/td>\n 926<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Japanese soy sauce<\/a><\/td>\n 782<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Oyster sauce<\/a><\/td>\n 900<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Green Tea<\/a><\/td>\n 668<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Cured Ham<\/a><\/td>\n 337<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Sardine<\/a><\/td>\n 280<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Grape juice<\/a><\/td>\n 258<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Clam<\/a><\/td>\n 208<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Scallop<\/a><\/td>\n 159<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Squid<\/a><\/td>\n 146<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Oyster<\/a><\/td>\n 137<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Mussel<\/a><\/td>\n 105<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Peas<\/a><\/td>\n 200<\/td>\n 5583<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Tomatoes<\/a><\/td>\n 140<\/td>\n 238<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Corn<\/a><\/td>\n 130<\/td>\n 1765<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Potatoes<\/a><\/td>\n 102<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Cow milk<\/a><\/td>\n 2<\/td>\n 819<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Human milk<\/a><\/td>\n 22<\/td>\n 229<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Eggs<\/a><\/td>\n 23<\/td>\n 1583<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Chicken<\/a><\/td>\n 44<\/td>\n 3309<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Duck<\/a><\/td>\n 69<\/td>\n 3636<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Beef<\/a><\/td>\n 33<\/td>\n 2846<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Pork<\/a><\/td>\n 23<\/td>\n 2325<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Salmon<\/a><\/td>\n 20<\/td>\n 2216<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n