My friend was recently telling me of her great health improvement as a result of her diet reform. She started having epileptic seizures about 3 years ago and was prescribed anti-seizure medication. Even on medication she would have the occasional mild absence seizure where she couldn’t talk or recall anything someone just said.

About a year ago I offered her my unsolicited opinion of some food items she was eating and the amount of free glutamates in some of her food choices. While she has not completely removed free glutamates from her diet, she has gone a long way in removing processed food, eating more vegetables and is now considering a gluten-free diet.

One of the other things she removed from her diet was her protein powder sprinkled routinely on her daily oatmeal breakfast. Recently, we were having a discussion that she hasn’t had any seizure activities for about a year and she recalled it was about a year ago she stopped using the protein powder. She sent me the dietary information on the protein powder. This protein powder is loaded with free glutamates, almost 4.3 g/serving!

Since these protein sources are from concentrates or isolates, the proteins are degraded in the processing and contain mostly peptides and free amino acids. Additionally, the natural and artificial flavors, xanthum gum, and soy lecithin ingredients also contain free glutamate. While some protein powders may not be so processed, most, because of the nature of how the proteins are isolated, contain degraded proteins and free amino acids.

Additionally, if these protein powders sit in your cupboards for a long period of time, the proteins degrade once exposed to oxygen, thereby creating more free glutamates.

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