Stay away from salt and the fat. Ouch…

Israel, from what i can decipher, an unknown number of otherwise healthy msg intolerable people exist in the population, they usually experience symptoms 1 hr after eating 3g or more of monosodium glutamate (msg). Foods that contain msg usually only treat food with 0.5g. The question is…how big was this bag of crisps? Was it definitely 1 bag? Did you eat anything that may have contained msg before the walk?

Consuming msg in liquid form such as soup may enhance the likelihood of a reaction. Maybe the water you drank created a soup like meal?

Some anecdotal evidence shows a link between severe asthma and the msg complex. Do you have asthma?

I don’t expect you to answer these questions publicly, i just hope they help you find the cause of the headache.

Also, a tip for the future, all monosodium glutamate used in food has to be labelled as msg but not all free forms of glutamate are monosodium. Therefore food manufacturers can label their food as msg free so long as it does not have monosodium glutamate within it. This does not guarantee that other forms of glutamate are not contained within the food.

Very interesting post.

Cheers.

I actually went blind for 2 weeks once in high school from a series of migraines, but thankfully, the headaches were only as bad as a mixed drink hangover so I was able to deal with it pretty easily. Some of the migraines I’d had when I was younger would have all of my muscles tensed for hours on end - it would take me 2 or 3 days to recover from those ones after the migraine had passed.

The two biggest catalysts were stress and caffeine - so I eliminated both. I also found a doctor who wasn’t a moron and took some drugs that helped out, but since I have low blood pressure and the side effect was to lower your blood pressure, I kept trying to wean myself away from those until I didn’t need them daily anymore to keep from getting the migraines. (Actually, I think the lower blood pressure was the primary effect for most people that took it. Heheh.)

My guess is that you have a combination of a physical reaction to something in the chips (MSG or food coloring or whatever) and that it was magnified phsychosomatically through your guilt for getting the chips. So, to avoid this problem in the future: Avoid binge eating, and reduce your stress and levels of anxiety. And next time you go for a walk, carry a bag of carrot sticks or something with you so that you can snack as you walk and won’t feel as tempted to visit the 7/11.

Kimberly - excellent reply. There are so many ways we lead ourselves into making mistakes, and you nailed them.

Hon, you made this on one easy. Hee hee!

You also said that you usually get headaches from eating junky food. Then the headache wasn’t a surprise, right?

Mentally, you have guilt. However, you ‘fessed up. And hopefully got over that wicked headache. Now…did you get the lesson?

I betcha did, Israel. Moral of your story…walk away from the 7/11. Don’t go in the 7/11 unless you have a real purpose. Maybe don’t take any money on a walk (could be risky to not but I never take any money when I go on walks). And drinking lots of water doesn’t negate eating junk. Your body was telling you very strongly that those chips are poison to your body.

But hey, I have thrown caution to the wind and eaten junk, knew it and suffered for it. We’re only human.