Posted by Larry Hoover on May 17, 2006, at 7:43:07
In reply to Maoi diet: Soy sauce, posted by strugglingsteve on May 16, 2006, at 17:05:44
> On Dr. Bob's site, he lists soy sauce as use with caution. Univ of Pittsburgh Med Ctr says up to 2 ozs is ok. Other sites say no soy sauce at all. I am up to 9mg emsam now and have to observer the diet so am wondering what others on the diet do because I like chinese and japanese food. Please advise asap......
There are so many different variants of soy sauce, and so many different individual reactions to it, I cannot see that there is a simple unconditional answer to your query.
Soy sauce also has another substance in it that can mimic many of the adverse effects of tyramine, specifically monosodium glutamate, as free glutamate.
The culinary use of MSG (the chemical food additive) arises directly from a Japanese chemist's research into just what in particular afforded soy sauce its taste-enhancing effect (particularly that one called umami), as the parent soy itself did not have that characteristic. It turned out that it was due to a high concentration of free glutamate, which when dried out of a salty solution, crystallizes as the salt known as monosodium glutamate.
Many people are sensitive to MSG. I know I am. If that is the case, for anyone, simply consuming taurine abolishes the reaction entirely. Taurine antagonizes glutamate. End.
So, if you can separate out the confounding effect of MSG, you can do an exposure trial. The tyramine pressor effect is linear, i.e. dose-proportional, with a lower bound threshold. I.e. if you stay below your threshold intake, you will feel no effects, despite the known consumption of tyramine.
If you take the trouble to do exposure trials, gradually increasing the dose of tyramine, you can calibrate your own response curve. I mean, intuitively. Not on paper.
Considering your fondness for this sort of food, I would suggest that it is worth your trouble to conduct such an experiment. Unfortunately, you're going to have to do it over a number of meals, as the tyramine response can be delayed. So, perhaps add one teaspoon of soy sauce to meal number one, two to the second, etc. There is insufficient tyramine in a single teaspoon of soy sauce to cause such a large increase in blood pressure as to make this experimental protocal dangerous. You may become uncomfortable once you exceed your minimum threshold, but not be in any real danger.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:644852
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060515/msgs/645073.html