MSG free and low glutamate eating plan

Having benefited hugely from BenzoBuddies in times of stress during withdrawal from Ambien/Stilnox/Zolpidem we would like to share our experience with finding food that can be tolerated. Having spent many a night wide awake and jolting around the bed, this food seems to help avoid to excite the synapses in the brain unnecessarily.

The basis of this meal plan is:

- Low glutamate

- No MSG

- No/Low gluten

- No refined sugar

- All home made

- Only natural ingredients (eating pure helps!)

- All products are fresh, from the local shops, grown in the area

- Quickly made

Please feel free to comment. This is based on personal experience, not everybody is the same and you may be sensitive to certain ingredients mentioned below. This has helped to calm my system down.

Breakfast - same every day, vary the fruit

Oats porridge made with water

Sheep yogurt (Greek style)

Any combination of following fruits:

Pine apple, melon, pomegranate, berries, apple, banana, pears, orange, grapefruit, kiwi. Any combination you like and you can vary this throughout the week

(Berries we buy frozen, but we checked nothing is used to increase the taste or the shelf life)

Pumpkin seeds & sunflower seeds

Topped with a little natural honey

A spoonful of homemade peanut butter if you have no peanut allergy

Any combination of the above is good for you, if there is anything you don't like or can't have, just leave it out.

Do stay away from raisins and grapes!

Lunch

Standard with every meal: Ryvita crisp bread or homemade dark rye bread with butter

Fresh cucumber, celery

Toppings:

- poached farm fresh eggs (or boiled, fried)

- tuna in water (not too much) and homemade mayonnaise

- homemade peanut butter

- egg salad with homemade mayonnaise (don't forget the parsley)

- cooked chicken slices

- Banana & peanut butter & honey

- homemade houmous (make tahini by mixing sesame seeds and sunflower oil in the blender. Use some of this with washed chickpeas from a can (the only can we use apart from the tuna), olive oil and fresh lemon juice).

As a sweet alternative you have pancakes made from gram flour, egg, goat's milk a pinch of salt stevia and a little baking powder. Topped with any of the breakfast fruit, but my favourite is stewed apple - no sugar. But honey is allowed, just don't overdo it.

Homemade mayo recipe:

1 egg yolk, pinch of salt, few grains of stevia, white pepper, pinch of ground mustard seeds, fresh lemon juice.

Mix it all in a bowl and slowly drip in sun flower oil while you keep whisking the mayo until it reaches the consistency you want. You will probably use more or less 1 cup of oil. You can keep this in the fridge for a few days.

Homemade rye bread recipe:

- 150 grams of rye flour

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 tsp of soda

Mix all this together, then add

2 tbsp of olive oil, mix well

150 ml water and 2 tbsp of vinegar

Quickly mix all of this and put it in a tin that is coated with baking paper

Bake at 190C or 375F for 35 mins

You can make a bigger bread by multiplying the ingredients and baking it a little longer

Supper

Consists of

- salmon

- cod

- chicken (roasted or fried, no added spices except salt & pepper)

- poached egg

Served with jacket potato, mashed potato, boiled potato or homemade fried chips (in the pan using sunflower oil) or rice. Don't go overboard on the rice or potatoes.

The vegetables I eat with this are:

- cooked carrots

- cauliflower

- green beans

- Salad made from lettuce, cucumber, celery, parsley, coriander. Dressing: olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt & pepper

Homemade dill sauce is great on your salmon using the homemade mayonnaise and fresh dill and squeezed lemon juice and a little pepper. You can vary this by using olive oil instead of mayo if you prefer.

Fried rice with vegetables and chicken is an alternative and for a bit of a difference put a poached egg on top. Any of the following fresh herbs can be used: parsley, dill, thyme, coriander or oregano.

And of course Egg and Chips. Half cooked potatoes brushed with olive oil in the oven on 375F until they are as crisp as you like them.

Beverages

Honey & lemon tea: slice of fresh lemon with a drop of honey

Ginger tea: 2-3 slices of fresh ginger with a little honey

Carbonated water

Still water

Small glass of freshly squeezed orange juiced (one per day only)

Links

This link takes you to a list of hidden names for MSG's in processed food https://www.thekitchencoach.com/blogmain/the-hidden-names-of-msg.

This is a list of foods that we use to see if anything has high glutamate content: https://alessandraedwards.com/mental-health/foods-high-in-salicylates-amines-and-glutamates/.

As you can see all we eat now is all natural and homemade. Apart from the honey with is farmed by the beekeeper in the next village.

I hope this helps anybody out there that is looking for No MSG / Low glutamate food.

Any additions or interesting recipes please don't hesitate to send them along.

All the very best on your journey!

Oroklini

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I feel for you on this.  Glutamate does not seem to cause me issues.  Nor sugar.  But, it is a good idea to avoid these for good healthy eating regardless.

Hingie