Food’s role in the arrival of flow…

Flow arrived yesterday morning and luckily she came in a pretty mild manner. I have been blessed with her arrival coming on weekends for much of this year. This has allowed me to refrain from taking (pain) vacation days (so I can take actual vacation days) and has allowed me to rest my body and mind.

I did my best to keep my pain levels down by eating as healthy as I could. I was very conscious of what went into my body and the inflammatory affects it was going to have on me.

In the morning I had a berry anti-inflammatory smoothie and for lunch I had a green salad with homemade dressing. I made sure to drink lots and lots of water through out the day and I took my supplement regime to help keep down the inflammation.

And like I said, I felt pretty OK. I rested up with my heating pad and partook in relaxing things to get my mind off of flow.

I decided to make some soup for dinner. Seemed pretty safe right? Easy to digest and warm things are always nice when I start my period.

So I went to work chopping veggies. We had some “organic free range” chicken broth in the pantry, which I figured would work for the soup’s base. I checked the expiration date then checked the ingredients.

All seemed fine except for one that stood out — autolyzed yeast extract. I remembered that this was a questionable ingredient and recall it being included as a no-no on the diet for IC, but I couldn’t remember why it was bad.

I felt disgruntled that this ingredient threw the brakes on my soup. I was hungry and there was little left to eat that could cause a pain reaction and I certainly did not want to go somewhere to get food as I didn’t really want to exert any more energy and the food that I would travel to would surely cause pain.

Couldn’t be that bad right?

So I dumped the broth, veggies and rice together in a pot and let it cook as I went off to relax. I watched the movie I Am on Netflix — highly, highly recommended. Nothing like an inspiring, feel good film. This definitely helps 🙂

While I enjoyed the film, unfortunately my day of mild pain ended. Soon as the soup entered my body — the real pain started up. Oh Lord.

Autolyzed Yeast Extract and MSG

My mind kept playing with that ingredient — autolyzed yeast extract. Was that the same as MSG? This pop from my memory prompted me to pick up my iPad and do some Googling.

I quickly found my answer — Yes. Autolyzed yeast extract naturally contains MSG or monosodium glutamate. Since it is a natural component of autolyzed yeast extract, MSG does not have to be listed separately in the ingredients.

Autolyzed yeast extract results from the breakdown of yeast cells and it contains gluten.

Animal studies show that this yucky, unnatural additive causes inflammation. It is not natural. It should not enter our bodies. And definitely not at a critical time when I was trying to avoid pain.

MSG is an endocrine disruptor, causing an abnormal hormone releases from the thyroid, adrenals and ovaries. MSG has been shown to cause the ovaries to shrink, leading to reproductive issues and larger doses of it can lower thyroid levels. 

For further reference MSG can also appear as:

• autolyzed yeast extract
• glutamate
• monopotassium glutamate
• textured protein
• yeast nutrient
• calcium caseinate
• glutamic acid
• yeast extract
• hydrolyzed vegetable protein
• hydrolyzed protein
• gelatin
• sodium caseinate
• yeast food
• natural flavoring
• spices

I’ve found that MSG comes hand in hand with a lot of chicken products. I learned recently that most fast food companies use it as a flavor enhancer for their chicken. An FYI if you are in an eat out situation — avoid the chicken 🙂

On the Positive Side?

A nice long sleep has left me feeling much better today 🙂

I will not forget these tricky ways of labeling MSG and will do my best to avoid this ingredient from entering my body again (to my knowledge).

I suppose I need to figure out how to make my own broth for the soups to come. The weather here in Colorado is shifting. The days are getting shorter and cold weather is right around the corner.

Do you have any soup recipes that you can share? I would love to hear from you.

In exchange I will share my berry anti-inflammatory smoothie recipe on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Would love to see you there too 🙂

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