There are zero amino acids in our genetic code. The genetic code consists of complementary "base pairs" in DNA and RNA. Each base can take four possible values, and a set of three bases specifies an amino acid. Thus there are 4 x 4 x 4, or 64 different possible codes. Why 64 codes for 20 amino acids? An accident of evolution, apparently. Many amino acids have more than one code, which is why some genetic mutations are harmless—they don't change the amino acid.

The statistics are robust.
* Even as real income stays flat to decreasing, people are spending less of their money on food.
* This is because grain-based non-foods are indeed becoming cheaper and cheaper - and we are indeed consuming more of them.
* In contrast, the price of Real Food has gone up dramatically just in the last few years. For instance, based on my local supermarkets, meat prices have jumped over 50% in the last three years. (This increase is not reflected in the official inflation "statistics", which don't count food!)

You are correct about the squeezing of both farmers and the consumer, and I've written at length about that previously, in these articles:
"You Are A Radical, and So Am I"
"Real Food Is Not Fungible"

Yes, health seems expensive -- until you compare it to the alternative. Type II diabetes costs thousands of dollars a year...dollars that most people don't realize are coming out of their own pockets, since ACA ("Obamacare")-compliant health plans usually have deductibles well into four figures.

More importantly, I am stronger, sharper, and healthier than I've ever been at an age where the average American is already on multiple prescription medications. Having experienced both chronic pain and excellent health, I can state with confidence that the value of excellent health far exceeds the amount I spend on real food.

JS

That's a good rule of thumb. As I put it long ago, "Eat anything you could pick, dig, or spear. Mostly spear."

JS

No, glutamate is glutamate.  It's a very simple molecule.

That's why I'm not on the "MSG IS EVIL" bus that became so popular a few decades ago...there are lots of natural flavorings high in free glutamate, and no one who claims to be "MSG-sensitive" has been able to actually tell the difference in blind taste tests.

That being said, if something contains MSG (or its avatars "hydrolyzed soy protein" or "hydrolyzed wheat protein"), it's probably junk food and not good to eat anyway.  And I'm sure it's possible to put so much MSG on something that it becomes harmful...so sticking to natural sources keeps you from consuming pathological amounts.  Fish sauce is extremely strong, and there's only so much soy sauce you can put on food...

Personally, I think people spend way too much time worrying about trace additives, and not enough time remembering that diet soda and microwave burritos aren't food to begin with.

JS

It's easy to forget that the purpose of life is to get enough to eat so that we can continue to live -- and only then, perhaps, reproduce.  All the other stuff is recreational inessentials -- or nerga, as the gnolls say.

pzo:

Great video!  It's heartening to see that sort of success, especially at a young age when her daughter was able to recover and catch up on her developmental schedule.

I suspect that the problem isn't just free glutamate.  Gluten (actually the gliadin fraction) causes gut permeability, and the known biological effects of restricting gluten aren't limited to decreasing glutamate intake.  Also, like food coloring and many other things, added free glutamate is generally a marker for processed, nutrient-poor junk food containing all sorts of suspicious ingredients...and they're replacing these processed foods with nutrient-rich real foods.  I think it's very likely that a diet of gluten-free, casein-free junk food wouldn't have the same beneficial effects -- nor would a diet of low-glutamate junk food, if it existed. 

I suspect the root cause is that there is substantial genetic variation in the ability to absorb, process, and use nutrients, and the ability to process and eliminate antinutrients.  Result: Dr. Reid's other daughters did OK on the SAD, but Brooke came up short on a few and in excess on some others, and requires a much more nutrient-rich, antinutrient-poor diet in order to function properly.  And I suspect that, as Brooke stays gluten-free and her gut heals, she'll be more able to tolerate foods that would otherwise set her back.

Anyway, thanks for the link.  Definitely food for thought.

JS

Video: Dr. Katherine Reid at TedX

Dr. Katherine Reid completely cures her daughter's autism by diet. You'll want to jerk a tear or two at the very end.

The result is that we all eat as much as we want and we are all healthy. My hubby and I are active people but we don't watch our weight because we simply don't need to. I think that the Paleo diet is pretty accurate. I just happen to like to use butter more than they suggest.

One of the other things I've learned is that Soy Lecithin is 50% of what is in food release sprays and shortening. So many times, for us, we can't even purchase something that doesn't contain one of our problem-foods because it has been sprayed with the problem food.

All in all, I am happy with how we eat. But it has opened my eyes to the larger reality that the culture we live in is eating horrible stuff all the time and it is amazing to me how hard it is to avoid. If we didn't have a medical reason, the cost alone would make us eat more poorly.

You have my sympathy: it's very difficult to avoid industrial ingredients in food.

Real food, made with real ingredients, tends to be perishable.  It's much cheaper to make, distribute, and stock things that don't require refrigeration and don't go bad...you can just leave them on the shelf until they sell.  Industrial ingredients also usually make perishable food less perishable, which is why they're so ubiquitous.

On the good side, your family is probably eating a much healthier diet as a result of all this.  But I understand that it would be so much more convenient to have the option of occasionally cheating!

JS

I really appreciated your article. My young daughter cannot tolerate Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, or Soy Lecithin. bHT is a no-no as well.

You are right that Soy Lecithin is a cheap emulsifier. It also has a longer shelf life than egg lecithin. And given the extent of a reaction my kiddo has to it and the fact that we've done the RAST testing for allergies, I would suggest that as a protein, it is so severely modified via these chemical processes that it no longer even register as "soy-protein."

I pretty much must cook/bake/make everything we eat. Breads, crackers, sauces, everything. I thank my lucky stars that we don't have any of the most common food allergies on top of this because, it would be a nightmare.

I feel a little like my kid is the canary in the coalmine in this scenario. There is a fundamental problem with our food and our culture and politics about food. We all should eat better. My family has to and it is significantly difficult to do so.