In my last blog post I wrote about Moxxor, a dietary supplement company that states on it's website that it donates 10% of its net profits...and that got me to thinking... This company, Moxxor, offers a high quality unique supplement that not only provides a higher anti-inflammatory value than Fish Oil EPA but also a higher ORAC value than several super fruits. So this company, which offers a superb product to enrich the health of people and donates 10% of its net profits also has a foundation (MOXXOR Foundation) dedicated to humanitarian aid. (Not to mention the network marketing distribution the company uses to distribute wealth and financial independence among others.) This company appears to me to be a life generating enterprise...and this is where my thinking lead me to wonder how other companies stand compared to Moxxor. For more information about MOXXOR visit www.mymoxxor.com/health

So I did a bit of looking on some other company websites for their dedication to health and life and this is what I found:

Frito-Lay {www.fritolay.com}: Frito-Lay's products include Lay's, Doritos, Sun Chips, and Cheetos, among others. Upon entering this site I was a little surprised to see talk of helping save trees and how the company uses farm grown ingredients in its products. As far as farm grown ingredients goes, well I'd hope the ingredients in something marketed as food were at least farm grown if not wild crafted...but of course there are non-natural ingredients in Frito-Lay food products...I found the fact that they displayed this point on the site a bit humorous...but I suppose they had to let people know that some of the ingredients in the products were real. So as I see more talk of “For Your Health” and “Being Green” on the sites menus I begin to wonder what the heck is going on...why is a company that puts excitotoxins (MSG) in some of its product promoting so much supposed life through its claims of being green and all natural products. (In defense of Frito-Lay, the company recycles and has taken steps to reduce the amount of landfill space, water, gas, and electricity it uses and I will assume these actions are in an effort to actually help the planet rather than just gain good publicity and reduce expenses.) Then I realized that when you do have a product that isn't healthy and life promoting you need to do all the life promotion you can to maintain a good image.

Oh and as for the MSG in the products, don't worry...I found this little blurb on the site “Why do Frito-Lay snacks contain MSG? Monosodium glutamate (MSG), found naturally in many foods, is merely a flavor enhancer. Only very small amounts of MSG are necessary to enhance the spices and seasonings used in flavored Frito-Lay snacks. Extensive consumer testing indicates that consumers prefer the taste of chips with MSG. For a list of snacks not containing MSG, click here! ” So it's no problem it's MERELY a flavor enhancer found NATURALLY in some foods and consumers PREFER the taste of chips with MSG! Lol.

But wait let's read some more.....

Actually from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate#United_States):

“Monosodium glutamate is only one of several forms of free glutamate used in foods. Free glutamate can also be present in a wide variety of other additives, including hydrolyzed vegetable proteins, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed yeast, yeast extract, soy extracts, protein isolate, "spices" and "natural flavorings." The food additives disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate are usually used in synergy with monosodium glutamate-containing ingredients, and provide a likely indicator of the presence of monosodium glutamate in a product.[6]
For this reason, FDA considers labels such as "No MSG" or "No Added MSG" to be misleading if the food contains ingredients that are sources of free glutamate, such as hydrolyzed protein.[6]”

All of the additives listed above, hydrolyzed vegetable proteins, autolyzed yeast, yeast extract, and so on are free glutamate which are excitotoxins just as MSG is, so when you eat foods with these ingredients you are suffering the same wrath as MSG. In case you are wondering what that wrath is....excitotoxins like MSG can promote cancer, cause nervous system damage, headaches, diarrhea, irregular heartbeat, vision problems, asthma, sleep problems, ADD, ADHD, irritable bowel, pain in joints, blood pressure problems, and sudden cardiac arrest, just to name a few... As for the argument that additives like yeast extract are all natural, it is easily dismissed once you are aware that the naturally occurring glutamate is bound to amino acid groups and is not free. These forms of glutamate are engineered by man and are not bound.

Now back to Frito-Lay...remember that “click here!” to see foods with no MSG?...let's see what we find...

“Products Not Containing MSG   Last updated September 12, 2008
BAKED! LAY'S® Barbecue Flavored Potato Crisps
BAKED! LAY’S® Original Potato Crisps
BAKED! LAY’S® Sour Cream & Onion Flavored Potato Crisps
BAKED! RUFFLES® Original Potato Crisps
BAKED! TOSTITOS® Scoops! Tortilla Chips
BAKEN-ETS® Fried Pork Skins
CHEETOS® Cheddar Cheese on Golden Toast Flavored Crackers
CHEETOS® Natural White Cheddar Puffs Cheese Flavored Snacks
CRACKER JACK® Original Caramel Coated Popcorn & Peanuts
DORITOS® Toasted Corn Tortilla Chips”

I pulled the above list directly off of the Frito-Lay page, it's the first 10 products in a long list of products that the company claims to not contain MSG. If you take a look at the ingredients list of each of these products you will find that 4 of them contain excitotoxins which act in the same way as MSG.

BAKED! LAY'S® Barbecue Flavored Potato Crisps -yeast extract
BAKED! LAY’S® Original Potato Crisps -
BAKED! LAY’S® Sour Cream & Onion Flavored Potato Crisps - autolyzed yeast extract
BAKED! RUFFLES® Original Potato Crisps -
BAKED! TOSTITOS® Scoops! Tortilla Chips -
BAKEN-ETS® Fried Pork Skins -
CHEETOS® Cheddar Cheese on Golden Toast Flavored Crackers – hydrolyzed vegetable protein
CHEETOS® Natural White Cheddar Puffs Cheese Flavored Snacks – torula yeast
CRACKER JACK® Original Caramel Coated Popcorn & Peanuts -
DORITOS® Toasted Corn Tortilla Chips -

Four out of these first ten products listed contains a form of an excitotoxin, these toxins don't happen to be MSG and they are not as easily seen by consumers as being a harm....yeast extract is not nearly as scary sounding as monosodium glutamate, however it's just as harmful.

There are a few lessons to this post, first off it's very important to read food labels and to be knowledgeable about the ingredients in your food, secondly when you buy from companies like Frito-Lay you are promoting the types of practices they use to create and sell their food, thirdly when you buy from life supportive companies like Moxxor, The Amazon Herb Co., Sunfood Nutrition, and so on, you are supporting life and honest business. Finally, when you use your mind and question things, research and explore you may find yourself with a load of information and 100 miles from where you thought you wanted to be....so if you read this post because you wanted to learn about Moxxor or you just happen to click it then be smiling for the fact that what you have read here may not be what you came for, but if left you all that more knowledgeable about taking control of your own health!