Too Much Coffee Man Gets a Sidekick
March 1st, 2009MSG Boy Makes his Debut
Yesterday I was exposed to four substances: aspartame, MSG, malathion, and caffeine. Last night I heard blood pounding in my ears, and during much of the night, I was too alert to sleep. It’s not stress. What stress could I possibly have? I’m wondering what caused the problem.
I don’t think it was the caffeine. I had a cup of coffee, a quart glass of tea, and part of a Diet Coke. That’s not a big load.
Malathion is supposed to be one of the safest bug killers there is. They send trucks up and down the streets here at night, blasting it into the air to keep the mosquitoes down. If it were a real problem, I think the liberal freaks who live here would be spasming and screeching and rending their hemp diapers in front of TV cameras every week. Also, malathion effects only last a few hours.
That leaves aspartame and MSG.
Lately I have tried to cut down on artificial sweeteners. I know they’ve been tested, but there is something that just doesn’t smell right about having your cake and eating it, too. The older I get, the less I believe in free lunch. And these days, the FDA admits that some people have reactions to aspartame. I don’t drink or eat all that much sweetened stuff, so I’m not afraid to use real sugar. But yesterday I had to have Mickey D’s, and that meant Diet Coke. And I had some sugarless yoghurt on hand, which I ordinarily would not eat, and I had a couple of cups.
Once a week, I go to breakfast with my dad, and I use Splenda in my coffee because I’m too lazy to stir sugar until it dissolves.
Maybe I should lay off this stuff completely. I don’t really need it.
The MSG came from takeout Chinese. I had to have some extra spicy shredded chicken extravaganza. I just had to. I’ve heard people complain about MSG, but I figured they were just whiners.
Whatever it was, I can’t wait for it to get out of my system. I felt wonderfully relaxed when I went to bed; I watched my Doug Stowe box-making video for a few minutes, and if you can watch this guy make boxes without passing out, you are abnormal. He talks slowly and takes his time with the work, and it puts me in a trance. Five hours later, I found myself wide awake, and when I tried to sleep, I had nightmares. And I had nasal congestion. And I still don’t feel right.
Maybe it’s time to line the walls with foil and start wearing a respirator.
March 1st, 2009 at 11:30 AM
MSG allergies generally result in hives and swelling. And get worse as you get older. My allergic reactions started in college, and 10 years later, even a small amount will give me what appears to be bad acne.
Aspartame works in a way similar to saccharine, which gave me headaches as a kid.
I’d recommend dropping the fake sweeteners (even the corn-based syrup) and using plain cane sugar.
Speaking of which: is there a place I can order Kosher Coca-Cola year round? I’d love to get some Coca-Cola made with cane sugar…. but there aren’t many Jews in Japan.
March 1st, 2009 at 11:39 AM
I just finished catching up reading some older posts and read one where you mentioned Lignum Vitae wood. It reminded me of a web site I hadn’t been to for a while.
http://www.gilmerwood.com/index.html
If you have not seen this site before maybe it would be safer to keep it that way. If you do decide to risk it, hide the credit card and prepare to admire some of the most beautiful pieces of wood I have ever seen.
TomG
March 1st, 2009 at 12:30 PM
I can’t stand any artificial sweetener. I don’t care how much they say they taste “exactly like sugar” — I can tell the difference. I don’t know if they have any adverse health effects on me because I don’t ingest them. I was trying to cut down on regular sugar but I just can’t drink unsweetened tea. Maybe green tea occasionally. Coffee I can sometimes drink without sugar but I must in that case have cream — half-and-half or real cream, not milk.
I get the same problems you have — can’t sleep, stuffy head, nightmares. I thought my problem was too much caffeine, so I tried not drinking any coffee or tea after 2pm, but that didn’t seem to have much effect. I’m wondering now if my problems were not msg, but some other chemical thing they put in certain foods. I don’t do organic unless I’m in a store where that’s all they have, but I’ve cut down on things like pre-packaged macaroni and cheese. My bowels thanked me — that stuff used to go through me like ex-lax. But that hasn’t stopped all my problems.
I’m surprised no one is freaking out about the malathion. Back in the Seventies? Eighties? wasn’t there a major freakout in California about malathion spraying? Well, that’s California… but it just goes to show you that pesticide hysteria is subject to fads.
What I was doing was having a glass (or two) of wine with dinner. But I have to be careful with that — alcohol stuffs up my head. So I can’t drink too late, or I go to bed with a stuffy head. And of course I can’t drink too much. Good thing I don’t like getting smashed. But I didn’t seem to sleep any better. I have always had trouble with insomnia, ever since I could remember. The only time that changed was when I was in high school — I could sleep through an entire weekend. I think I was going through some hormonal thing.
March 1st, 2009 at 2:05 PM
We used to ride our bkies behind the trucks spraying the Malation (so thick it was like heavy fog) and look how we turned out. OK – so maybe that isn’t the best case for it being harmless.
March 1st, 2009 at 4:49 PM
Do you remember Accent? I was making this recipe: http://www.fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/recipe.cgi?r=191265.
It turns out the only ingredient in Accent is msg.
March 1st, 2009 at 5:25 PM
I’ve heard that if you drink a diet coke, it’ll cancel out whatever calories are in the candybar your eating at the moment.
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If you want to get that food out of your system quick, how ’bout you try eating a pack of mentos and THEN guzzling as much diet coke as you can. Besides closing your mouth and pinching your nose, you may need to plug your ears as it might come squirting out from that orifice too…
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You’re welcome.
March 1st, 2009 at 5:36 PM
I find that wearing a colander is especially helpful in dealing with episodes like these.
March 1st, 2009 at 5:58 PM
Those are precisely the symptoms my wife gets from Splenda. She’s diabetic and consumes a lot of aspartame, and it doesn’t seem to cause problems.
Regards,
Ric
March 1st, 2009 at 7:16 PM
Too much caffeine. You must be getting older. I can’t have tea or coffee after lunch because I won’t sleep if I do. MSG and aspartame are not good for you. The msg could cause a rise in blood pressure that would make your ears ring, and that Chinese food could have had too much salt. I’ve heard, but not researched, that tea and coke have more caffeine than coffee. I figure it really depends on how strong any of them are.
March 1st, 2009 at 8:31 PM
The caffeine levels of most sodas are really pathetic. I can’t even feel the caffeine when I drink a Coke.
March 1st, 2009 at 9:25 PM
Probably just time for a good check up. Pay your money and let your doctor tell you to lay off all the good stuff and live an austere life of quiet reflection puncutated by periods of exercise while eating uninspiring food with little seasoning or taste.
I always feel better after ignoring such self righteouss critisicm of my lifestyle. My several brushes with certain death make even more interesting stories after listening to that kind of stuff.
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:40 AM
I use a mortar & pestle, grind up a No-Doz, and add that to my Diet Coke.
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I don’t sleep much.
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:22 PM
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8373935
Abstract: This study was designed to ascertain whether individuals with mood disorders are particularly vulnerable to adverse effects of aspartame. Although the protocol required the recruitment of 40 patients with unipolar depression and a similar number of individuals without a psychiatric history, the project was halted by the Institutional Review Board after a total of 13 individuals had completed the study because of the severity of reactions within the group of patients with a history of depression. In a crossover design, subjects received aspartame 30 mg/kg/day or placebo for 7 days. Despite the small n, there was a significant difference between aspartame and placebo in number and severity of symptoms for patients with a history of depression, whereas for individuals without such a history there was not. We conclude that individuals with mood disorders are particularly sensitive to this artificial sweetener and its use in this population should be discouraged.
Someone had access to the NIH site and posted a more complete version of the article:
http://www.mindfully.org/Health/Aspartame-Adverse-Reactions-1993.htm
NB: They halted the study because of the severity of the symptoms.
You don’t want to be near me for about 3 days after I ingest aspartame. I’ve had it twice in the last decade, both by accident. For me, there are unique and unmistakable symptoms.
March 2nd, 2009 at 9:35 PM
I decided to go off all artificial sweeteners when I decided to start my family. Up until that time I think I pretty much lived on aspartame. I had heard about withdrawal before . . . I lost 4 days of my life and prayed for sweet relief (no pun intended). After that, I decided if it could that to me that there was no way on this earth that I would ever knowingly let it pass my lips nor that of my children. Oh, and magically all the pregnancy weight came off even with sugar in my coffee.
March 3rd, 2009 at 2:00 AM
Another nasty thing about artificial sweeteners is that even though they have no calories they cause your body to think sugar is coming and you exude a bunch of insulin to handle it and tend to gain weight because of that. May as well have a bit of real sugar. At least your body knows what to do with it.
Aspartame is also insanely addictive.