When Can We See Some Healthy Thai Food?

[tutsiwarrior]

when in Thailand, if the food emanates evil smells it's probably good for you...

by implication when food smells like western food, ie., without evil smells, then it's probably not...(good for you)...

ergo...don't eat too many cheeseburgers when in Thailand...

[Nam Plah]

Breathing some new life into an old thread.

I found that when I first arrived and upon dining out and eating Thai food at nearly every meal I suffered from numerous health problems, mostly digestive but also some headaches, malaise, ear-ringing, rashes, etc..

After a while I began to eat more food at home, still Thai food but prepared with the best ingredients I could find.

Quality meats and veggies and all the traditional fixings.

My girlfriend still used astronomical amounts of MSG in the dishes and while they were very tasty (I simply LOVE Thai cuisine) I continued to suffer bouts of systemic discomfort, especially inability to have a proper digestive process.

In the last year I have judiciously removed all the MSG laden products and condiments that were possible and trimmed our intake of ajinomoto down to a bare minimum and you know the food still tastes pungent and spicy, sweet and salty, sour and savory.

Lo and behold my health problems all but vanished and my girlfriend's mood swings, irritability, inability to concentrate or focus on what she is doing have also dissappeared.

We cook and eat in probably 27 days a month and the only time I have to make a bolting run for the lavatory or my girlfriend gets episodically psychotic is after we have eaten out at a restaurant.

I can only say from my personal experience that removing the MSG from our diets have helped us.

Some folks may not be affected at all but from my own empirical experience I can say that it has radically improved my whole life in Thailand.

Here are a couple of links to bolster my opinion and flush out some of the science and facts.

MSG Truth

http://www.msgtruth.org/body.htm

MSG myths

http://www.msgmyth.com/

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found no evidence to suggest any long-term, serious health consequences from consuming MSG

.

While that may be true it is also misleading.

For instance the FDA has a history of allowing things like rat faeces, tumourous meat and animal effluence in hot dogs and bologna because they have found no evidence to suggest any long-term, serious health consequences from consuming them.

I also choose to eat food that I can see someone prepare (Those stalls and carts can't hide anything) rather than trust the back-room kitchen of some restaurant.

No matter how expensive or well appointed it might be, if a food establishment doesn't want you to see the kitchen there is probably a reason why.

That said, I LOVE Thai food on all its myriad forms and eat it at nearly every meal.

Except for the fact that I have introduced my girlfriend to hamburgers, pizza, spaghetti and grilled-cheese sandwiches and she often begs me to cook or buy them for her.

I guess this is part of the cultural exchange.

One Laab Moo for one Fettucini Bolognese!

[sabaijai]

You missed this one, and several others like it.

It is apparent that there is no shortage of research conducted on this ubiquitous ingredient and its potential health effects. Because MSG is one of the most intensely studied food ingredients in the food supply and has been found safe, the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization placed it in the safest category for food additives.(19)

Subsequently, in 1991 the European Community's Scientific Committee for Food confirmed the safety of MSG. Based on the extensive scientific data, and in view of large normal dietary intake of glutamates, the committee determined that specification of an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) was unnecessary.(60)

The American Medical Association's Council on Scientific Affairs and the National Academy of Sciences have determined that MSG, at current consumption levels, is safe.(9, 61) Finally, the 1995 FASEB evaluation, sponsored by the FDA, reaffirmed MSG's safety as a food ingredient for the public and noted the lack of scientific information reporting negative effects of MSG on human health in the general population.(11, 62)

References

(9) National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council. The 1977 Survey of the Industry on the Use of Food Additives: Estimates of Daily Intake. Vol. 3, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1979.

(11) Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). Analysis of Adverse Reactions to Monosodium Glutamate (MSG). Prepared by the Life Sciences Research Office, FASEB, for the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Bethesda, Maryland: FASEB, 1995.

(19) Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives. L-Glutamic acid and its ammonium, calcium, monosodium and potassium salts. In Toxicological Evaluation of Certain Food Additives and Contaminants, WHO Food Additives Series No. 22. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 97-161, 1988.

(60) Commission of the European Communities. L-glutamic acid and its salts. Report of the Scientific Committee for Food: 25th Series, No. EUR 13416, 1991.

(61) American Medical Association's Council on Scientific Affairs. Report D of the Council on Scientific Affairs on Food and Drug Administration Regulations regarding the inclusion of added L-glutamic acid content on food labels. Report adopted at proceedings of the American Medical Association's House of Delegates Meeting. June 1992.

(62) U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FASEB Issues Final Report on MSG. FDA Talk Paper, T95-44, August 1995.

International Food Information Council (IFIC)

[Nam Plah]

I wont quibble with the likes of the AMA, FDA, WHO and other agencies interested in asuring consumers of the safety of food additives as they have the utmost respect as authorities on what will give someone cancer or make them go blind or worse if something unsafe is consumed.

But MSG is a food additive that has no nutritional value of its own and doesn't have to be added to any food product in order to make it palatable.

In fact the fresher and more high quality the foodstuff is the better it will taste alone.

This leads me to think MSG is added to heighten otherwise marginally tasty food to the level of being delectible or simply to mask inferior quality edibles.

I emphasize that my post is my opinion and not the last word on MSG and that the one authority I trust above all others is my own body. Something that took millions of years for nature to perfect (if you believe in evolution) or that God created in perfection (if you believe in creation).

While MSG may not have ben catagorically proven to be harmful, those succesptible individual's reactions cannot merely be discounted because it rails against the calm voice of science.

This food additive is stimulating some type of negative response in certain individuals and whether it is because of predisposition, hypersensitivity, underlying health issues or genetic factors those affected feel it as being real.

There is a wealth of information both pro and con available on the subject and I encourage others to seek their own path to live in a more balanced way in accord with their own inner nature.

I still love Thai food and it doesn't need MSG to taste great.