On MSG and Genetically Modified plants

Not everything that affects the brain is caused by something in the brain. Also, some people can be allergic to MSG, just like some people can be allergic to peanuts, or strawberries.

That's a somewhat unsatisfying answer. If its causing these symptoms I truly don't give a flip while I'm on the floor puking and willing the world to stop spinning that there even is a blood brain barrier, much less if it has been crossed

Can we agree that to the point that msg causes or helps to cause it, it isn't *good* for me? And that me trying to avoid msg doesn't make me a crackpot worthy of ridicule?

Absolutely you should avoid MSG if you feel it causes harm. You are not the only one who reacts negatively to it, and I've never suggested that someone was a 'crackpot worthy of ridicule' because they avoid it. I was simply imparting some information to the effect that, based on science, I think it very unlikely that MSG enters the brain.

The brain doesn't actually feel pain. Headaches don't come because the brain is in pain. Headaches are most often due to pain in the muscles and nerves OUTSIDE the brain (but in the head and neck surrounding the skull). So these horrible headaches you are experiencing are probably not due to MSG in your brain, but instead due to something else (possibly MSG) acting somewhere else in your body.

The reason I brought the whole MSG thing up is that there are people who assume that MSG is bad for everyone simply because some people react negatively to it. There's no evidence to support that claim. MSG is bad for people who react to it. Just like peanut butter is bad for people who react to it.

And I find it interesting that, especially in the United States, we would consume something anyway even when we don't know anything about it and we claim that it "hasn't been proven to be bad yet". And yet, with medication/drugs, there is no way we would approve something for an indication until it was proven safe, with rigorous research over several years and several studies. With food, it's "approve until someone complains or people get sick", and by then big business has enough money and power that it doesn't matter anymore. Forgive me if that sounds like fear-mongering, but it's essentially true. I have asked people if GM foods were labeled if they would still consume them. A lot of people say, "Yes, because I don't know anything about GMOs." It's sad to me that we would put things into our bodies without knowing what it is. Maybe that just comes from my knowledge of the regulatory practices in this country and how terrible they are, I don't know.

There's a big difference, in my opinion, between food-stuff and a pharmacologically active chemical. A genetically modified ear of corn looks exactly like a non-modified ear of corn once it's passed through our digestive system. That corn is broken down to its component parts- micromolecules such as sugars, amino-acids, fatty acids, and so on. The gene that carries the modification? It will be destroyed in our digestive track.

Pharmacological agents, on the other hand, are specifically designed to either survive the digestive tract intact (if it's administered orally), or those agents are administered by injection or inhalation or some other route. The active ingredient makes it into our body... and it remains active in our body until we metabolize it into an inactive substance. Hence pharmacological agents have a much higher risk of being harmful because they're designed to by-pass our protective barriers.

One possible exception to all this is if the corn was genetically engineered to produce it's own anti-biotic, anti-fungal, or anti-virus or something like that. THEN I might be concerned because that anti-biotic or whatever might be a molecular structure that can survive our GI tract and enter our system.

And I find it interesting that, especially in the United States, we would consume something anyway even when we don't know anything about it and we claim that it "hasn't been proven to be bad yet". And yet, with medication/drugs, there is no way we would approve something for an indication until it was proven safe, with rigorous research over several years and several studies. With food, it's "approve until someone complains or people get sick", and by then big business has enough money and power that it doesn't matter anymore. Forgive me if that sounds like fear-mongering, but it's essentially true. I have asked people if GM foods were labeled if they would still consume them. A lot of people say, "Yes, because I don't know anything about GMOs." It's sad to me that we would put things into our bodies without knowing what it is. Maybe that just comes from my knowledge of the regulatory practices in this country and how terrible they are, I don't know.

They have even convinced, somehow, Bill Gates that GM crops will save the world. Maybe they could some day, but they certainly don't now, and we are being very careless with our regulatory practices.