MSG free?

[HollyDay]

My new doc has advised me to live MSG free.  That is proving not be as easy as it sounds.  I'm finding quick and easy lunches and snacks to be the most problem at the moment.  Any lists or advice? Due to current health problems, lots of cooking, shopping, baking, freezing, etc. is just not an option.  Right now, I need quick and easy and healthy meals with a minimum of prep time......

[73349]

If you can't do more prep time, your other options are

• eating apples, etc., which don't need preparation. You can make a big bowl of spinach salad and an oil and vinegar dressing (or a store-bought natural dressing) and make it lunch for a few days. If making a salad is too much, consider buying from a salad bar.

or

• you'll probably have to spend a little more money for your processed products. Look for items that are certified organic or marked All Natural, or shop at a store that does not carry products with MSG, such as Whole Foods or EarthFare.

 

[HollyDay]

We do not have a Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, or EarthFare in the area unfortunately.....

[dbmamaz]

I would look in to slow cooker meals and just eat sandwiches for lunch - there should be some all-natural cold cuts somewhere in the store, no?  PB and jelly?  Smoothies . . . and snacks can be nuts, dried fruit, chips, celery and carrot sticks

[ElizabethB]

Anything with an ingredient that says "spice" or "spices" is usually MSG.

[bolt.]

If you can do "some" pre-prep, just not lots -- I'd focus on pre-cooking various forms of plain meat. Cold chicken breasts, steak, ground beef, pork chops, turkey patties and-the-like are a very good start for hundreds of meals, and also are delicious by themselves.

[Karen in CO]

What do you currently heat for lunch and snacks?  

 

MSG gives me migraines.  I've been off of it for a long time.  Here is a decent list that has helped me eliminate it.

 

For lunch, I usually eat either a salad made with one of those baby lettuce mixes, feta cheese, beans, carrots and some fruit or sunflower butter with apples or a burger patty with salad mix or some bean chips with cheese and salsa, or leftovers.

 

I snack on bean chips, cheese, fruit, or olives.

[Dandelion]

MSG is really difficult to avoid.  If I had to cut out MSG, I'd likely move to a paleo-type diet.

 

You may already be aware of this, but MSG can be found in more than 40 different ingredients.  Just avoiding foods with "MSG" or "monosodium glutamate" on the label is not enough.  Even many organic foods contain MSG, as an additive to ingredients like "yeast extract", "natural flavoring", "seasonings", etc.   

 

I actually did a research paper on MSG a few years ago (as part of a health coach training/certification program) and was surprised to learn about the loopholes in FDA regulations that allow MSG to not be listed as an ingredient if it's added to another ingredient and constitutes less than a certain % of the primary ingredient (it's been a few years, so I don't recall the exact %).  Even if a product says "No MSG added", that doesn't mean that it doesn't contain MSG.  You really have to read the actual ingredients and compare them to a list of MSG-containing (or potential MSG-containing) ingredients like the list I linked above. 

 

 

[Slartibartfast]

I generally avoid MSG. 

 

It is easy once you get the hang of it, not buying anything in a box is a good start.

 

I make my own salad dressing and sauces.

[Tammyla]

Quiche...my answer to quick little leftover meals lately.  I make a crustless quiche with lots of different frozen veggies, but spinach and broccoli are my favorite two.  I bake mine in a rectangle glass dish that has a plastic lid; it pops into the refrigerator and I love it with homemade bread for just about any meal.

 

I also love egg, or tuna salad.   They pop into a green pepper or tomato and I feel like it's a fancy lunch with crackers or fresh bread.

 

Regular old salads are good, but winter here leaves us with slim pickings.

 

Bake sweet potatoes or russet are pretty quick and easy.  Just top them to suit and you have a healthy meal in minutes.  I prefer the russets baked in the oven and just reheat them in the microwave, but I don't notice a difference with the sweet potatoes.

 

I hope you feel better soon.  MSG isn't easy to avoid.

[Rachel]

You may want to check out 100 Days of Real Food, there is a blog and Facebook page. While not strictly about avoiding MSG, she is about avoiding processed foods. She posts what her kids eat for lunch daily and also frequently posts what her family eats at meals. There are a couple weeks worth of menu ideas too.

 

In general I think completely avoiding processed foods takes more time either in shopping or preparation, but it does eventually become second nature.

[J-rap]

We stay away from it as much as we can due to migraines.  We have learned that we can quite easily find sandwich meat that is MSG -free.  Often grocery delis offer it as an option.  There is also a well-known sandwich meat chain (I can't remember which one!) that sells all natural sandwich meat as well as their packages of regular sandwich meats.

 

One of the best and quickest snacks/meals that we've had over the years is black beans.  We cook up big pots in the slow cooker and almost always have them on hand.  They can be made into burritos, mixed in with scrambled eggs, made into soups.  But putting them into a tortilla along with a slice of cheese and salsa is our favorite.  :)

[sbgrace]

We have to avoid most processed foods because of other food allergies, a plus is that we avoid MSG too. It's a migraine trigger for one child and myself.

 

Plain/nothing added dairy, nuts, eggs, beans, and meats are all MSG free protein sources. You should be able to do most of those with very minimal to no cooking. For some things, like meats, we batch cook ahead and freeze in serving sizes. My freezer has lots of baggies of cooked meat in it!  I believe AppleGate farms lunch meats, sausages, etc. are entirely MSG free, even hidden MSG. Rotate through for variety.

 

Of course your fresh, single ingredient frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables are MSG free. Most of those require little or no prep. You can mix your own or purchase MSG free salad dressings.

 

Hot breakfast cereals that you add the flavor to will be safe. For my breakfast, I often use quick oats with a bit of honey and whole milk for the liquid-it cooks up in the microwave just as easily and quickly as the packets that have the junk in them. It's really no more trouble. I want to say there are safe cold cereals too, but we don't have them for allergy reasons. Kashi maybe? I'm not sure.

 

Single grains like pasta will be safe, but the sauces might take some looking. Quinoa, rice, etc. will be ok. Potatoes act like bread in my mind! Our bread eaters eat Berlin Natural Bakery spelt products, ordered online. This is due to other allergies here that make finding safe breads impossible, but none of their stuff has MSG. I'm sure there other bread choices for you. You should be able to find grains for yourself.

 

Basically, just think whole foods eating. It's ok to make something for the family and eat something different yourself if you have to go that direction. We've got varying food allergies here (husband and both kids, not me). We don't all eat the same thing at every meal. It's ok if the prep isn't obnoxious.

[MomsintheGarden]

Dh gets terrible headaches from Msg, and we go to great measures to avoid it. The Truth in Labeling site is a big help. Watch out for natural flavors, most prepackaged foods, and any kind of broth. Most tuna has soy broth in it and gives him trouble.

 

Avoiding Msg can be done but it takes commitment. We buy plain or carefully chosen meat, cook all beans from dried, have a garden, and cook from scratch. We. Buy salted butter because unsalted has natural flavors. We also grind our own ww flour and buy special white flour that doesn't have malted barley four.

 

It's been a pain but worth it. I really wish so much c@@@ wasn't added to processed food. :(

[ElizabethB]

Dh gets terrible headaches from Msg, and we go to great measures to avoid it. The Truth in Labeling site is a big help. Watch out for natural flavors, most prepackaged foods, and any kind of broth. Most tuna has soy broth in it and gives him trouble.

 

Avoiding Msg can be done but it takes commitment. We buy plain or carefully chosen meat, cook all beans from dried, have a garden, and cook from scratch. We. Buy salted butter because unsalted has natural flavors. We also grind our own ww flour and buy special white flour that doesn't have malted barley four.

 

It's been a pain but worth it. I really wish so much c@@@ wasn't added to processed food. :(

 

I agree that they add to much junk.  I am allergic to barley but not wheat, they started adding barley to flour without mentioning it and I got quite sick, now I go out of my way to get 100% flour.  I use a mixture of white and wheat and they keep changing the brands and labels on the flour that I can eat, it is annoying.  

 

I have a bunch of food allergies and used to be able to buy a few packaged things but now I cook everything from scratch, they add too much to everything.  I used to be able to eat a few organic packaged items, they generally have less ingredients and more natural ingredients.

[bettyandbob]

You do not have to prep a lot before every meal, but if you want some variety you will need to prep a few things every few days or weekly.

 

List what you know is quick that you can eat now. My lists are not conclusive, but are examples to get you started

 

Zero prep : Apples, baby carrots, baby peppers, celery.

 

Minimal prep: chicken breasts (you can microwave those plan individually frozen breasts sold in 10lb bags)' boiled eggs, cucumber spears (peel scrape seeds slice) , bags of plain frozen veggies (you can steam an put a serving in a little ziplock container), hamburger (cook an extra at dinner and save for lunch next day) , bag salad with purchased MSG free dressing (read labels)

 

More prep: extra servings from dinner, home made humus, rice or corn salad (made ahead, refrigerate, dish I yo individual servings to take for lunch.

 

If you want little or no prep and want to be careful of ingredients, you need plan ahead and have some prep time blocked to help.

 

There is no easy grocer's freezer solution for people with diet restrictions.

[Jane Elliot]

We've been MSG-free for many years because it gives dh and several of our dc terrible migraines (and I mean truly horrific migraines.) The other posters have pretty much covered it. I just wanted to caution that slow cooking meats in liquid is problematic for some people allergic to MSG. I'm not a chemist, but somehow the slow cooking process releases glutamates (or something like that.)

 

This is especially a problem with lamb and beef. We raise sheep and until recently beef, so I have a lot of different cuts in my freezer. I absolutely cannot slow cook the lamb in liquid at all, and the beef only for short amounts of time. We've begun to ask the butcher to grind all tougher cuts of meat for this reason, so that I can just pan-fry it as homemade sausage or burgers.

 

(edited) We typically just eat food cooked from scratch, but here are some things we've had unexpected trouble from: sour cream (buy the kind with only 2 ingredients), tuna, nuts (some are unexpectedly seasoned), and whole turkey (it's usually injected with broth), herbal teas (this one is major! If it says "natural flavor" on it, avoid it like the plague.)

[HollyDay]

Basically, everything is bad is some form or some variety? 

 

It is so confusing!!!  We do not use pre-packaged foods and I avoid canned foods as much as possible.  Tuna, tomatoes, and some beans are the exception.  If I can't get fresh fruits and veggies, I get frozen.  I make my own salad dressings and have for years. 

 

I didn't know about tea....

[Jane Elliot]

Basically, everything is bad is some form or some variety? 

 

It is so confusing!!!  We do not use pre-packaged foods and I avoid canned foods as much as possible.  Tuna, tomatoes, and some beans are the exception.  If I can't get fresh fruits and veggies, I get frozen.  I make my own salad dressings and have for years. 

 

I didn't know about tea....

 

Do you have Costco? We do fine with Kirkland tuna and tomatoes. On the tuna, look for labels that say just "tuna" and "water" and NO broth.

 

For tea, we drink just white, green, or black (PG Tips or English Breakfast), or use dried mint.

 

We eat a lot of eggs, fresh fruits and vegetables, rolled oats, homemade granola, pan-fried, broiled, or grilled meat, rice, beans, popcorn.

 

Some prepared foods we've been fine with in small amounts are Baby Ray's BBQ sauce and Heinz ketchup.

 

ETA: I am gluten free and, along with dd, dairy free, too. A few of my kids have to be nut free and/or sulfite free as well. I have to say that going MSG free has been far more difficult than any of those. Eventually you will get used to it though. Just keep it really simple for a while.