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Savory snackfoods without MSG?


Kajikit

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It really irks me that almost every savoury snack manufacturer dumps MSG into their product in lieu of adding actual flavour. Usually the only potato chips I can eat are the plain ones, and they're nothing to write home about!

I love the Pirates Booty line of cheese puffs...

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Agreed, completely. I get headaches from MSG...although MSG lovers (yes, there are a lot out there) will say that there is no link....I can tell you there is. MSG consumption for me equals migraine...I try so hard to stay away from MSG, I read labels when I can...but often times its in foods that I eat without labels.

Boo to MSG

"One Hundred Years From Now It Will Not Matter What My Bank Account Was, What Kind of House I lived in, or What Kind of Car I Drove, But the World May Be A Better Place Because I Was Important in the Life of A Child."

LIFES PHILOSOPHY: Love, Live, Laugh

hmmm - as it appears if you are eating good food with the ones you love you will be living life to its fullest, surely laughing and smiling throughout!!!

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One other thing, I love beef jerky...most notably the kinds that are similar to slim jims (versus the tough thin types). Buffalo Bills has some great varieties on their website, you can order there...many without MSG, you can call the company to see if a certain type has MSG...no stupid waiting on hold forever either...they pick right up. Love this company, love them!

Link http://www.ccrsnacks.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi

"One Hundred Years From Now It Will Not Matter What My Bank Account Was, What Kind of House I lived in, or What Kind of Car I Drove, But the World May Be A Better Place Because I Was Important in the Life of A Child."

LIFES PHILOSOPHY: Love, Live, Laugh

hmmm - as it appears if you are eating good food with the ones you love you will be living life to its fullest, surely laughing and smiling throughout!!!

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If I remember, Utz barbecue potatoe chips may not have MSG. However, I don't know if they have other glutamate sources, like the hydrolized vegetable protein, etc. Interestingly, they are quite tasty, but don't have that "intensity" that MSG barbecue chips have.

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If I remember, Utz barbecue potatoe chips may not have MSG.  However, I don't know if they have other glutamate sources, like the hydrolized vegetable protein, etc.  Interestingly, they are quite tasty, but don't have that "intensity" that MSG barbecue chips have.

I don't think I've seen them... I've had the Kettle chip 'naturals' from the health food store and they're VERY GOOD, especially the yoghurt and chive. I really don't eat this stuff very much, because I know it's terrible for you however 'natural' they may claim it is, but sometimes you just want a quick nibble without doing any work...

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I also get migraines from MSG. I've found the greatest selection of snacks without MSG is found at Trader Joes markets.

TJ's has a nice selection of plain and flavored chips made from lots of familiar substances (corn & potato) as well as more un-usual substances (vegetables, papadums, won ton wrappers), soy sauce flavored rice crackers (some with seaweed), South American corn nuts, and other assorted crunchy and salty snack-ish type food. They have lots of snack-ish crackers and even carry beef jerky & turkey jerky - without MSG.

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I assume by snackfoods you mean crunchy snacks like chips, puffs and crisps, as opposed to cheese, pickles and salami. If so, I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't know when I say that pretzels are typically free not only of MSG but also of fat.

A more general observation: I do enjoy various flavored crispy-crunchy snackfoods on occasion, but they really do seem to cause palate fatigue and desensitization, if not physically than at least psychologically. Meanwhile, unadorned (except for salt) potato chips, pretzels and popcorn are so delicious.

And pretty much any powdered artificial flavor that's added to a chip is going to taste much better in its natural form as part of a dip. You can make your own sour cream and onion dip, for example, and it will taste approximately forty-million times better than the flavored dust on sour cream and onion chips.

Oh yes, also corn chips and salsa.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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I don't really eat a lot of snack foods, but I can't resist terra chips. My absolute favorite are the spiced taro chips, which I would eat constantly if I could ever find them. This topic prompted me to check out their ingredient list on their website, and turns out they have no MSG. Actually, none of the flavors of chips that I looked at did. Man, I really want some now :sad:

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I also get migraines from MSG.

I was just wondering, do you (and LindseyAnn/and others) also get headaches/etc when eating products with high glutamic acid values?

See list @ http://www.umamiinfo.com/umami-rich_food/

The only one I eat regularly is Parmesan cheese. I would have a migraine every day if the cheese would be causing it.

It took me a long time to figure out the MSG-migraine connection, but at least for me, it is undeniable.

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The only one I eat regularly is Parmesan cheese. I would have a migraine every day if the cheese would be causing it.

It took me a long time to figure out the MSG-migraine connection, but at least for me, it is undeniable.

Ok. I already thought this would be the case. Strangely enough I've seen a message on a Dutch forum where someone stated he got allergic reactions from Vetsin, but not from Ajinomoto, which are both made of MSG.

Dunno what that means then.

Tom

Een dag niet gekookt is een dag niet geleefd.

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I too am not sure - I looked at your link, I do not eat most of those foods on a day to day basis (other than cheese...well it lists parmesan cheese - I eat that type but most often eat other cow/goat/sheep milks cheese varieties (I eat cheese daily, tons of it....honestly a plate of various cheeses for lunch every day almost - usually 8-10 types....I must be eating 150 fat grams in cheese a day yikes!), so it cant be cheese b.c then I would have headaches daily. I figure since I love cheese so very much I might as well indulge (ok over indulge) while I am young with low cholestorel/blood preasure levels!

I find if I mistakenly eat something with MSG I usually get a headache...I am pretty sure its the cause - pretty sure as in 95% sure!

"One Hundred Years From Now It Will Not Matter What My Bank Account Was, What Kind of House I lived in, or What Kind of Car I Drove, But the World May Be A Better Place Because I Was Important in the Life of A Child."

LIFES PHILOSOPHY: Love, Live, Laugh

hmmm - as it appears if you are eating good food with the ones you love you will be living life to its fullest, surely laughing and smiling throughout!!!

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I also get migraines from MSG.

I was just wondering, do you (and LindseyAnn/and others) also get headaches/etc when eating products with high glutamic acid values?

See list @ http://www.umamiinfo.com/umami-rich_food/

Thank you for your thoughtful question. I can only speak about my own migraine food triggers as they vary from person to person.

To answer your question, yes some of these foods will trigger a migraine headache, but only if eaten in excess, or if I'm eating several servings of these foods in one meal or over the course of the day.

I've got other food migraine triggers that aren't umami foods. Some always give me a headache no matter what (chocolate :sad:)and others I can eat a bite or two of every now and then. So if I'm having some miso soup (made with dashi) for lunch I don't have avocado (one of my other triggers) in a salad for dinner that night.

But you know - added MSG whether it's processed into the food or added in the form of Ajinomoto or Accent always gives me a migraine.

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Thank you all for your kind replys to my question. I consider myself to be very lucky not having any food-allergy (yet). I recently bought MSG to use @ home and I quite like it. For instance in pasta dough and risotto.

Only downfall of having this at home is the fact that I don't know whether my family and other guests are allergic, so I probably won't be using it a lot with friends etc. Don't want to trouble them.

The alternative will be then to use umami rich food. For instance, I use a lot of ansjovis in braised food (braised beef, tomatoe sauces). This, of course is, no bad alternative.

Tom

Een dag niet gekookt is een dag niet geleefd.

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I also get migraines from MSG.

I was just wondering, do you (and LindseyAnn/and others) also get headaches/etc when eating products with high glutamic acid values?

See list @ http://www.umamiinfo.com/umami-rich_food/

Thank you for your thoughtful question. I can only speak about my own migraine food triggers as they vary from person to person.

To answer your question, yes some of these foods will trigger a migraine headache, but only if eaten in excess, or if I'm eating several servings of these foods in one meal or over the course of the day.

I've got other food migraine triggers that aren't umami foods. Some always give me a headache no matter what (chocolate :sad:)and others I can eat a bite or two of every now and then. So if I'm having some miso soup (made with dashi) for lunch I don't have avocado (one of my other triggers) in a salad for dinner that night.

But you know - added MSG whether it's processed into the food or added in the form of Ajinomoto or Accent always gives me a migraine.

I'm absolutely sure it's related to VOLUME. Glutamates are a natural substance and they're found in lots of foods, but in minute quantities. One small tomato has approximately 120mg of glutamate in it according to that chart linked to... how much glutamate is in one teaspoon of MSG? (the closest I could come to finding an answer was for salt - one level teaspoon of salt is 2400mg and I assume MSG is similar in volume...) And how many commercial foods do they put MSG in? I can eat tomato all day long and not have a problem but I'm obviously consuming much less glutamate with my meal than if I opened a can of soup and a bag of flavoured chips.

Chocolate has a definite affect on my migraines too - I can normally eat as much of it as I like with no ill-effect, but if I'm migrainish I can't have ANY or it makes it much worse :(

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I too am not sure - I looked at your link, I do not eat most of those foods on a day to day basis (other than cheese...well it lists parmesan cheese - I eat that type but most often eat other cow/goat/sheep milks cheese varieties (I eat cheese daily, tons of it....honestly a plate of various cheeses for lunch every day almost - usually 8-10 types....I must be eating 150 fat grams in cheese a day yikes!), so it cant be cheese b.c then I would have headaches daily. I figure since I love cheese so very much I might as well indulge (ok over indulge) while I am young with low cholestorel/blood preasure levels!

I find if I mistakenly eat something with MSG I usually get a headache...I am pretty sure its the cause - pretty sure as in 95% sure!

How can you eat 8-10 cheeses alone for one meal and not gain a significant amount of weight?

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I too am not sure - I looked at your link, I do not eat most of those foods on a day to day basis (other than cheese...well it lists parmesan cheese - I eat that type but most often eat other cow/goat/sheep milks cheese varieties (I eat cheese daily, tons of it....honestly a plate of various cheeses for lunch every day almost - usually 8-10 types....I must be eating 150 fat grams in cheese a day yikes!), so it cant be cheese b.c then I would have headaches daily. I figure since I love cheese so very much I might as well indulge (ok over indulge) while I am young with low cholestorel/blood preasure levels!

I find if I mistakenly eat something with MSG I usually get a headache...I am pretty sure its the cause - pretty sure as in 95% sure!

How can you eat 8-10 cheeses alone for one meal and not gain a significant amount of weight?

Haha many people (ok, some people) do the same thing, with no weight gain. I didnt say I ate 8-10 blocks of cheese...no way! But 8-10 chunks...maybe an ounce or two each, and 8 of them, yeah - almost every day unless I am not home for lunch or dinner. I usually eat a lunch OR dinner like this - not both.

Good - oh so good. Been doing it for a while now. Maybe once I get older and my metabolism slows down I wont be able to eat this way - but for now...BRING IT ON

"One Hundred Years From Now It Will Not Matter What My Bank Account Was, What Kind of House I lived in, or What Kind of Car I Drove, But the World May Be A Better Place Because I Was Important in the Life of A Child."

LIFES PHILOSOPHY: Love, Live, Laugh

hmmm - as it appears if you are eating good food with the ones you love you will be living life to its fullest, surely laughing and smiling throughout!!!

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I too am not sure - I looked at your link, I do not eat most of those foods on a day to day basis (other than cheese...well it lists parmesan cheese - I eat that type but most often eat other cow/goat/sheep milks cheese varieties (I eat cheese daily, tons of it....honestly a plate of various cheeses for lunch every day almost - usually 8-10 types....I must be eating 150 fat grams in cheese a day yikes!)

Please tell me your secret to maintaining your figure!

There are several wedges of Laughing Cow Light in my right-hand desk drawer screaming "Eat me!" as I type this.

At home, I will hear the same pleas emanating from the various spreads and blocks on the bottom shelf of my fridge, and that's likely to be after tonight's stir-fry.

I know that I must resist if I'm to have any chance of actually dropping a few pounds (I'm 5'11, 200-205), but cheese is so wonderful, it's hard to resist.

And Parmesan aside, you get the sensation with no glutamates at all! (Wonder why Parmesan alone among cheeses is high in umami/glutamates?)

Sandy Smith, Exile on Oxford Circle, Philadelphia

"95% of success in life is showing up." --Woody Allen

My foodblogs: 1 | 2 | 3

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Haha many people (ok, some people) do the same thing, with no weight gain. I didnt say I ate 8-10 blocks of cheese...no way! But 8-10 chunks...maybe an ounce or two each, and 8 of them, yeah - almost every day unless I am not home for lunch or dinner. I usually eat a lunch OR dinner like this - not both.

Good - oh so good. Been doing it for a while now. Maybe once I get older and my metabolism slows down I wont be able to eat this way - but for now...BRING IT ON

Your point about metabolism is well taken.

8-10 one-ounce cheese cubes, however, would probably mean you'd have to do water for the next day or so to make up the Weight Watchers points you blew on the cheese. :wink:

--Sandy, not on WW

Sandy Smith, Exile on Oxford Circle, Philadelphia

"95% of success in life is showing up." --Woody Allen

My foodblogs: 1 | 2 | 3

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I'm snacking on Seapoint Farms dry roasted edamame (lightly salted) right now. So I get the crunchy, not too salty taste and can feel virtuous that I'm eating a low fat, high fiber, high protein snack instead of the Nacho Cheese Doritos which I've been thinking of lately...

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast" - Oscar Wilde

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