Lumberton of Lacoochee

[sff_corgi_lj]

Nah, that was just something I liked from some spam. Happy Belated Beltane! (or Samain, for the Antipodeans). I've missed everything in April by nearly a week (Medeni's anniversary, Black Day, Earth Day, everybody's birthdays...), at least I might be getting better. So, did anybody go dance a Maypole Tuesday?

This will be a post of great miscellany. Hasty miscellany, I almost overslept.


Rhiannon's been reminding me she's allergic to MSG for forever and a half — now I understand why. I found some interesting blog entries discussing the concept of the taste of umami, which sits at the very back of the tongue, and artificial versus natural glutamates and umami-flavoured sources:

• Tigers and Strawberries.com: Umami in the West
• Tigers and Strawberries.com: More on MSG and Glutamates

I have to figure out if garlic falls into this category, too. Apparently it has something to do with amino-acid-rich food sources...?

In turn, she linked to another blog, 'Monosodium glutamate: Bad for your brain, your figure and your health' which is wonderfully detailled about how this century-old commercial product works, and how scarily omnipresent it is.

Tigers and Strawberries also linked to Slow Food, a site devoted to countering the fast food concept in meals. Haven't explored it yet, but I love the name.

Can a dog mauling be murder? — the return of the San Francisco Presa Canario trial (may require registration, but c'mon, it's the L.A. Times, what harm will that do? You're already Googleable.).

Fatal dog attacks in the United States are rare. Only about two dozen people are mauled to death each year in a nation with 70 million dogs, said Karen Delise, founder of the National Canine Research Council, which tracks and investigates fatal dog attacks.

Pit bulls and Rottweilers most often top the list of killers, according to various studies, but killer canines have included a Yorkshire terrier, a dachshund, a Labrador retriever, a cocker spaniel and a collie.

(No, I was not able to find the details on the death-by-Yorkie; apparently it was in the '70s...? Yes, I'm really curious too.)

The National Canine Research Council referenced in the article has some great statistics. Too bad the politicians, press and dog-haters never bother with facts. It sums up to what, to dog people, is the obvious: Most problems arise with young unneutered males in a pack, who are poorly socialised and abused/neglected. (And bitches with puppies, but jeez, never mess with mothers.) It doesn't matter what breed, it matters how they're treated. Dogs are NOT organic alarm systems.

Anyway, go check out the page. It has lots of well-organised information.


And last but hardly, least:

Season 2 of The Wild Wild West is out on DVD! Buy it 'blue': Barnes & Noble Buy it cheap: Amazon Z-Shop

Comments

[delirium23.livejournal.com]

When I search for Yorkies killing someone, I only get hits about Yorkies GETTING killed by something. Maybe one of them just had enough and sought revenge for his kind.

re: fine print --

People who don't like registering for sites can go to bugmenot.com, where people share logins and passwords they've made just for the purpose. It's not like I never register for sites, but I feel it's ridiculous, and BugMeNot allows me to avoid it on principle.

Yeah, I know they do it for statistical purposes, but screw them, y'know? Those stats are used for advertising choices, and I don't particularly want to help them advertise to me.

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

Maybe one of them just had enough and sought revenge for his kind.
*SNORK*

Hey, that BugMeNot's a great tip - hadn't heard of that before. :)

[ladyfox7oaks.livejournal.com]

YIPES! There appears to be a missing tag or bad code or SUMTIN' in there... Right at/after the "Wild Wild West" Icon?

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

:headdesk: That ALWAYS happens when I trust Semagic and don't doublecheck by loading the page.

Found two errors, fixed both. Sorry and thanks.

[ladyfox7oaks.livejournal.com]

Oh- Thank YOU!!! Season TWO is OUT? SQUEEEEE!!!!

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

I was tipped off by a screenwriters' newsletter I never get to read. ^_^

[cerrberus.livejournal.com]

Lumberton of Locheree
Hey, I DEL that just this week! Sounds like a JRRT story title [or would that be Locheree of Lumberton?]
'K, who here saw [& loved] the Wild Wild West when first broadcast, on a B/W telly?
::waves paw::

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

Alas, I had to wait until syndicated reruns to become a convert.

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

P.S. Turns out I spelled the location-name wrong (darn those Scots), and have corrected it. Yeah, hadn't emptied my mail-trash lately. :)

[wormtorturer.livejournal.com]

The umami food blog was very interesting, thank you!

I checked out the blog listing the perils of MSG and spent way too much time commenting on it. Basically, I'm skeptical of the "MSG = Poison" claim simply because glutamate is part of all protein foods, and many foods have high levels of naturally-occurring free glutamate (per the Strawberries & Tigers blog). We add MSG to make something taste like a more satisfying food, often to make up for a lack of good stuff in over-processed factory food. (So skipping anything with MSG on the label may be a good way to avoid fake food.) But unless the levels of MSG in my Top Ramen is 1000x what I'd find in a dish with meat, tomatoes, mushrooms, and olives, I'm just not going to get that upset about it. Unless there are good research studies showing those levels are harmful. Not the equivalent of 150-500 grams for a 50-kg person, like in the "MSG causes obesity in mice" paper. And until proven otherwise, I'm very very skeptical of things like "avoid citric acid, because it's contaminated with MSG" because, geez, THE DOSE MAKES THE POISON. And I doubt that something present in every protein on the planet is like arsenic with no realistic safe dose.

Yes, I am a very crotchety biologist, thank you. But I'll probably check it out in more detail after finals, since I do have ADD and it has gotten out of control since the docs took me off the meds for it due to side effects. If dietary glutamate either causes my problem or interacts with the meds, I need to know.

Frankly, I've seen enough health hazard fads to recognize the signs. Something that's very hard to avoid is claimed to cause all kinds of problems that everyone has from time to time. If you look closely, you can see it as a contaminant in things that don't have it on the label. If you try to avoid it, you end up being malnourished because the list of safe foods doesn't support life. (I'm also a very cynical biologist.)

Back before I was a biologist, however, I fell for the Yeast Epidemic scare and nearly drove myself bonkers trying to eat right. I stopped believing anything my allergy nurse told me after she handed me a Yeast Diet list. It was about 20 years old and purported to list what brands of food, supplements, etc. I could eat and not eat based on yeast or yeast contamination. It wasn't even accurate, claiming that baking powder = yeast. Therefore, I wasn't supposed to eat anything containing baking powder because I tested positive for Candida antigens. (And no, I don't mean during Passover.) I told her I probably had way more yeast living in my gut and ladyparts than I could possibly eat, so (a) of course I have antigens and (b) why would it matter if I ate bread yeast, beer yeast, etc. which is a completely different organism? She told me the diet would take care of those feminine infections, too, because the yeast in food keeps replenishing those. Arrgh! Candida <> Saccharomyces! She reminds me of those nurses who take Nursing Physiology from my faculty advisor and really really hate learning Science, because why would a nurse need to know how the body works?

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

I'm working on learning the 'vocabulary' of Japanese cooking, at least a little. :) Umami's important.

I'm thinking the MSG blog-entry is talking about MSG in the same way you can talk about white sugar - not a natural source, too much added to processed foods, way too refined. However, a good suspicious-eyed biologist's review is an excellent thing to have, too. >:D< (I keep losing track of all the interesting professions my Flisties have.)

[wormtorturer.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the compliment about biology!

Well, white sugar's a good comparison for other reasons, too. People who don't know their chemistry/biochemistry/physiology demonized white sugar and completely ignored other sources of simple carbohydrates. It makes no sense that a teeny bit of molasses would convert evil white sugar to wholesome turbinado sugar--they're both concentrated sucrose. I don't want to stay up later to analyze it thoroughly. It bugged me that there was the "omagawd" list of MSG equivalents and all, because I'm too lazy to research the list items to see if it's like my silly yeast list or if it's bonafide, but it raises the food scare fad vibe.

The problem with having so many food scares--sugar, Alar, yeast, etc.--is that when we finally DO have dangerous food, people like me will think they're still crying Wolf. This pet food thing could be the tip of the iceberg for contamination of our food supply by toxic chemicals... or not. If it is, it's a much bigger deal than whether it's worse to eat umami-rich food vs. MSG-enhanced food.

Now, let's see if I can remember to look any of that up after finals...

MSG, ADD, dose, finals, and comments :-)

[(Anonymous)]

Hi all, this is Nika from that MSG-blog entry .. wormtorturer (oh the humanity of it all, poor C elegans) I wish you luck with the finals. I have been swamped with loads o stuff on my end so I have not had a chance to respond to your comments .. will when I have some time. Didnt want you to think I was blowing you off.

just for context - I hold a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology - years of postdoc work in reproductive cell biology. I also live with ADD types. As you likely know, each of us has very different challenges and ADD profiles (or not). I try hard to only eat and serve food as close to natural and unprocessed as possible. No one is perfect. I have always avoided MSG because it gives me a massive and immediate reaction (am not ADD or allergic to anything but latex from years of latex gloves in the lab).

To veer off into a non-MSG domain .. I can tell you that we have only ever found one drug that is like magic with the profound ADD in our family (and I am not a magical thinker). My husband and daughter went through all the first lines (damn docs even put my husband on thorazine as a kid, so wrong) and then the doc was starting to move my young child toward anxiety and depression drugs and I said "not happening" .. I pushed my doc to try this drug Provigil on them and the effect was immediate, very low toxicity (none really but one never knows until the postmortem), and has a rapid clearance...no build up (as in you reset daily as the drug is cleared within 12-16 hours I believe). Look it up, find the studies (both adult and children for ADD) .. give it a try.

I am not a food reactionist but I also do not like to eat chemicals put in the food that are not necessary. To me MSG is wholly not necessary. There is plenty bound msg species in meats and veggies and fungus to do the job. No need to dose at high boluses. (high meaning eating KFC chicken that has skin that is marinated in the stuff, etc)

Nika
http://nikas-culinaria.com
http://nikaboyce.com

Re: MSG, ADD, dose, finals, and comments :-)

[wormtorturer.livejournal.com]

First of all, my apologies for being flip/snarky, and for lumping you in with the typical anti-science alarmist types. I misread the tone of your writing, which of course was meant for laypeople. I've also ran into a lot of Luddites in my community and online lately. I'm not sure how directly neuroscience is related to your specialty, but at least you understand things like molecular pathways.

I will ask my doc about Provigil. It didn't seem to do much when I tried it in 2004, but there were other stressors that might have interfered. At least it didn't cause problems while I was on it for a month. But it took about 3 months to start having problems from time-release Adderall. Regular Adderall is listed as having a fairly short half-life (~12 hours) but doesn't work that way with me. Still, since Provigil is different structurally, it might be eliminated via a different pathway.

The last time I checked out Provigil studies for ADD, the FDA had rejected it for that indication, even with the drug company's best data. However, if it works for some people with a certain DA receptor subtype mutation and they were underrepresented in the testing, that could explain the poor overall findings despite it being great for some people. I should at least find out why Dr. Chen rejects it.

I agree it's probably much healthier to eat the way you do. However, I will need a LOT of occupational therapy/Provigil/whatever to get my life in order and eat that well. I'm a good cook, but I can't figure out how to balance school/home/internet and tend to forget to plan meals until I'm hungry or need to leave the house. There are lots of Natural Food restaurants/takeouts here, but I can't afford $6-15 per meal. I think some people are more sensitive to MSG than others, but everyone would probably be better off eating food that is wholesome enough it doesn't need MSG to taste good. KFC is not healthy food for lots of other reasons, and so are most of the processed/convenience foods that are high in MSG.

But I want to be very careful before I try to ban any particular ingredient from my diet. Based on my previous experience with restricted diets (that turned out to be medically unnecessary), the effects of stressing about food too much, or skipping meals if I was caught away from home without diet-approved food, were much worse than the effects of eating the forbidden foods. I know I feel better when I eat well, but I'm not sure how much of that is just that I only manage to prepare healthy meals when nothing else is going on in my life.

After I take care of a few deadline things this week, I will check out the evidence for MSG problems.