Excitotoxins are meant to enhance flavour and excite your tastebuds. They can be foud in fast food, particularly chinese takeaway foods. Low calorie sodas, highly flavoured snacks/foods and processed foods of all kinds contain substances known as excitotoxins.
Excitotoxins are a class of chemicals (usually amino acids) that overstimulate neuron receptors. Neuron receptors are responsible for allowing brain cells to communicate with each other. When they are exposed to excitotoxins in large quantities, they fire impulses at such a rate that they become depleted. When this happens, individual receptors can die. Scientists have noted that this effects the hypothalmus and temporal lobes – the parts of the brain that controls emotion, behaviour and importantly, immunity.
Excitotoxins also excite our taste buds and this is why food producing companies use them in foods that we eat every day. It’s also why fast food outlets add them to otherwise bland, unhealthy food. You see, if your taste buds are excited by what you’re munching on then you’re likely to go back time and time again to the same food.
Fast food outlets like McDonalds and other takeaway places use in Excitotoxin called MSG that masks poor quality ingredients and elevates the taste of the food. This is why we get so enticed to have a weekend takeaway or a cheeky McDonalds every now and then.
Low calorie soda making companies use aspartame and phenylalanine to artifically sweeten their drinks, making otherwise undrinkable stuff taste better. They then market these as a healthier way of drinking your favourite soda. Truth is, you’d be better off drinking the sugary version, as for unhealthy it is they doesn’t contain excitotoxins as natural sugar content is enough to excite the taste buds.
The more soda you drink, takeaway food you eat, crisps that are highly flavoured etc, the less you become aware of which foods in particular are affecting you.
Scientists are now advising that consistent, regular use of these foods can cause damage to your brain – giving you headaches, water retention, skin problems and other health complaints.
So, how do you know what you’re about to eat is full of excitotoxins? Anything that contains Aspartame, Phenylalanine, artificial sweeteners, malted barley, ‘natural flavours’, monosodium glutamate, ‘seasonings’, ‘spice’, soy sauce, yeast extract. We’d wager that a good 75% plus of foods in your cupboards at home will include foods with these ingredients. Even worse is where you eat from places with no ingredient information, such as fast food outlets.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This is an old saying but it especially rings true here. You can prevent the damage by changing what and how you eat. It all starts with detoxing.
Coming to Beechcroft will help you alkalise and remineralise your body after detoxing from foods laced with these ingredients. We can show you the right foods to eat for a healthier, happier life. It’s a new year, you should start now. Book your stay and begin the process of ridding yourself of these toxins.