Carrot and Coriander Soup Avoiding Monosodium Glutamate

Sat 4th Mar, 2017 - 12:23pm by Emma Cockrell

Home-Made Soups to increase Vegetables

Soups are a fantastic way of increasing the amount of vegetables you can include in the diet – moving closer to the recommended 10 servings a day. However, I find that many clients aren’t making soups because they don’t know what to use for stock in recipes. Indeed, there really aren’t any stock powders or cubes that I would recommend for the anti-candida diet, even if they say they are ‘yeast-free’. More often than not, stock cubes and powders contain either monosodium glutamate (MSG), or its close relative hydrolised vegetable protein (HVP).

Monosodium Glutamate is a flavour enhancer generally known as an additive in Chinese food, but it is also included in most packaged savoury foods, to ‘enhance’ the flavour, in a way not achieved by simple seasoning. It can be found in foods such as canned soups, salad dressings, crisps, and roasted nuts. Although the benefits to the food industry are obvious, unfortunately, this product is definitely NOT beneficial for health.

MSG consists of approximately 78 percent free glutamic acid, 21 percent sodium, and up to 1 percent contaminants.

Problems with Monosodium Glutamate

When eaten, MSG tricks the taste buds on the tongue to think the food being eaten has more protein and tastes better than it actually does. No wonder food manufacturers like to use it! Unfortunately, because MSG is an excitotoxin, it overexcites your cells to the point of damage or death. For some people, there is no immediate recognisable reaction to the MSG, but a large number, particularly those who already have allergy reactions, do experience significant symptoms after eating this flavour enhancer. Symptoms include:

Numbness
Burning sensation
Tingling
Facial pressure or tightness
Chest pain or difficulty breathing
Headache
Nausea
Rapid heartbeat
Drowsiness
Weakness

Long term intake of MSG may lead to obesity, eye damage, headaches, fatigue and disorientation and depression.

Alternative Names for Monosodium Glutamate

Avoiding MSG isn’t quite as simple as checking ingredients lists for Monosodium Glutamate, since it is frequently included under the following ingredient names:

Autolized yeast
Calcium or Sodium Caseinate
Glutamate
Glutamic acid
Hydrolyzed protein
Monopotassium glutamate
Yeast extract
Textured protein

Monosodium Glutamate is also often included in these other ingredient names:

Flavours and flavourings – including natural flavourings
Seasonings
Soy sauce
Soy protein

Real Food Alternatives to Monosodium Glutamate

The easiest way to avoid monosodium glutamate and its associated additives is to get back to real food. There are a number of alternatives to using stock cubes and stock powders in recipes.

Just use filtered water, and add garlic and/or onion granules to add a ‘savoury’ flavour’
Add mild paprika and dried chives to increase a savoury taste
Use water kept after steaming vegetables, to add extra flavour and nutrients to soups and sauces.
Make bone broth and use this in soup, stews and sauces to add extra flavour. I keep the bones from cooking a free-range/organic chicken and then pressure cook for a couple of hours. Alternatively try simmering bones in a slow cooker for 24 hours to get a nutrient-dense and flavoursome stock.
Some supermarkets sell a quality meat stock, such as Tesco Finest (in a tub not the pack):
- Roast Beef Stock (99%) (Water, Roast Beef Bones, Tomato Purée, Onion, Carrot), Salt.
- Roast Chicken stock -Water, Chicken Carcass, Salt, Onion, Carrot, Leek, Parsley, Garlic, White Pepper, Bay Leaf

Cooking from scratch really doesn’t have to be time consuming. The following recipe can be made even quicker by adding the chopped vegetables straight to water, without pre-frying. Boil for 7 minutes, until veg is just soft, whizz through the blender and serve! Nearly as quick as opening a tin!