MSG in Your Personal Care Products

Posted by admin on Jun 26th, 2010 | 0 comments

Important! Read this before you buy any cosmetics or personal care products that contain protein or amino acids!

MSG may be hidden in your cosmetics and personal care products. If you know you’re sensitive to MSG, you may be avoiding it in your food but still noticing MSG-type reactions and not know where they’re coming from.

Do you ever get a headache or notice other unpleasant symptoms when you put on your makeup, shampoo your hair or wash your face? Have you ever wondered why? Or do you just shrug it off and pop a pill to mask the symptoms? Maybe you just grin and bear it and don’t give any thought to the fact that there might be a relationship between the product you’re using and the symptoms you’re feeling.

If you try to avoid MSG in your food, just because you believe it’s harmful, you may be surprised to know that MSG is found in more than food. It can be found in your cosmetics and personal care products, like makeup, soap, shampoo and conditioner. You may also be getting a dose of MSG in your daily vitamin supplements. Over-the-counter and prescription medications may also contain it, as well as vaccines that are given to your children.

MSG sensitivity is commonly referred to as Chinese Restaurant Syndrome because it’s frequently used in Chinese foods and many people experience symptoms like headaches, dizziness and sweating after eating Chinese food.

MSG is short for monosodium glutamate. It also applies to processed free glutamic acid, which is glutamic acid that has been freed from protein through a manufacturing process or fermentation. MSG is a neurotoxin. It crosses the blood-brain barrier and the placental barrier and excites nerve cells to death. If you’re pregnant, it may even affect your unborn baby.

Even if you’re not sensitive to MSG, these are good reasons to avoid it.

How do you know if MSG is in the products you use?

First of all, you have to read the label. Not just the front of the label that tells you what the manufacturer wants you to believe about the product, but the ingredients list on the back of the label. You know, that tiny print that’s often so small and in a color that blends in with the label that it’s almost impossible to read. The more difficult it is to read, the more important it is for you to read it. Carry a magnifying glass with you and make sure you read every label of every product … BEFORE you buy. Dying To Look Good is a book that will help you read labels and choose healthy products.

Look out for these ingredients that are hidden sources of MSG:
-hydrolyzed proteins
-amino acids
-yeast extract
-nayad (potent yeast extract)
-glutamic acid
-glutamates

MSG may also be in or be the result of:
-processed proteins
-enzymes
-carrageenan

There are many more ingredients that are hidden sources or potential hidden sources of MSG, but these are the ones that are most likely to be found in cosmetics and personal care products.

MSG is not the only ingredient that you need to watch out for in your skin care products. There are many harmful ingredients in the cosmetics and personal care products on the market today. Some are even known to cause cancer. Make sure that the products you use on your skin contain safe and healthy ingredients because what you put on your skin can be absorbed directly into your bloodstream and affect your health.

Want to Live an Extra 10 Years?

Skin Care: Are We Killing Ourselves With Our Personal Care Products?

Posted by admin on Jun 21st, 2010 | 0 comments

If you’ve been paying attention, you may have noticed a growing concern about the toxic chemicals present in the personal care products we use every day; toxins that enter our skin and go straight into our blood in 8 to 10 minutes.  For once, the media are reporting the truth!

This ABC interview with Stacy Malkan gives just a glimpse of what is going on in the skin care industry today.  Americans – men, women and children – use on average 6-12 personal care products daily, exposing their bodies to 8 to168 chemicals.[1]  The cumulative effect of these chemicals can cause numerous health problems from allergies to cancer to reproductive problems.

One study showed newborn babies’ umbilical cord blood carried 287 chemicals.  Of those chemicals, 180 could cause cancer, 217 could be toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 could cause birth defects or abnormal development.[2]

Our skin is the largest organ in our bodies.  Whatever we put on our skin absorbs directly into our blood.  Truly, we are what we absorb.  If the skin’s main job is to protect us from infections and toxins, applying toxins to our skin every day defeats its purpose.

So what are we to do?  The cosmetic industry is largely self-policing.  According to the FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors, “…a cosmetic manufacturer may use almost any raw material as a cosmetic ingredient and market the product without an approval from FDA” (FDA 1995).[3]  We can’t trust the government to make sure personal care products are safe for us to use, so we must educate ourselves.  The Environmental Working Group was formed to use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment.  See their research relating to toxins in our environment, cleaning products, food and personal care products at www.ewg.org.  They have created a database at Cosmetic Database, a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products.  There you can research for yourself the ingredients in the products you use, and on a scale of 0-10 (no toxins to very toxic) see how toxic they are and why.

Consider reading Not Just a Pretty Face by Stacy Malkan, about “The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry.”  Another good reference is Beauty to Die For by Judi Vance.  Both of these books will help you take proactive measures to reduce the toxins we put in and on our bodies.  We have to take charge of our family’s health, now!  Good health is no longer something to take for granted.

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Want to Live an Extra 10 Years?