Tell me about MSG

[sheryl]

Recently I learned that MSG is unhealthy. I know, I know, I should have known about this. True, we grow summer veggies, I buy at the health food stores and I expressed an interest in joining Halcyon's raw diet thread....have yet to start, b/c I have so much to learn in "how" to accomplish this new eating style.

 

Why is MSG so bad? I understand it's a flavor enhancer. So, does it make cheese popcorn taste cheesier for an example?

 

Now, I'd like to not buy products with msg in them and would like to know how to do so since so many foods contain msg. Is MSG in about everything?

 

On that same note: nitrates, nitrites etc are bad.

 

Please list the next bad ingredient here, I'd like a list.

 

1. MSG

2. Nitrites

3. Nitrates

4. Sweeteners (sucralose, aspartame)

5.

 

Thanks.

[sbgrace]

In researching MSG you might look into excitotoxin affects on brain and nervous system including implications of excess glutamate in particular neurological diseases (like ALS). I've seen treatments of some interesting things (OCD) for example by blocking or reducing glutamate receptivity and links in some other things like autism.

 

My son has a metabolic condition affecting mitochondrial function and is to avoid MSG to prevent further damage. Since aging and many disease processes are related to mitochondrial destruction and damage it makes me wonder about the link to glutamate in many disease processes.

 

This pdf seems to cover the excitotoxin and mitochondrial links to glutamate and talks about how to avoid it too. Avoid prepared foods and make them whole yourself and you'll go a long way--avoiding stuff you can add to your food (yeast extract, flavorings, bullions, etc.) that have MSG in them. Some foods naturally have free glutamate of course. I figure they are still a long way from the amounts of MSG added to prepared/packaged stuff. I do mostly avoid tomato sauce though because of my son.

 

I can't help you on the other list but, again, your way to avoid the nasty stuff you list is mostly to just make your own food.

[Catwoman]

All I know is that I get NASTY headaches from MSG!

[tmulcahy]

In researching MSG you might look into excitotoxin affects on brain and nervous system including implications of excess glutamate in particular neurological diseases (like ALS). I've seen treatments of some interesting things (OCD) for example by blocking or reducing glutamate receptivity and links in some other things like autism.

 

My son has a metabolic condition affecting mitochondrial function and is to avoid MSG to prevent further damage. Since aging and many disease processes are related to mitochondrial destruction and damage it makes me wonder about the link to glutamate in many disease processes.

 

This pdf seems to cover the excitotoxin and mitochondrial links to glutamate and talks about how to avoid it too. Avoid prepared foods and make them whole yourself and you'll go a long way--avoiding stuff you can add to your food (yeast extract, flavorings, bullions, etc.) that have MSG in them. Some foods naturally have free glutamate of course. I figure they are still a long way from the amounts of MSG added to prepared/packaged stuff. I do mostly avoid tomato sauce though because of my son.

 

I can't help you on the other list but, again, your way to avoid the nasty stuff you list is mostly to just make your own food.

 

I know bullion contains MSG, but why tomato sauce? Is it hidden in there too?

[sbgrace]

I know bullion contains MSG, but why tomato sauce? Is it hidden in there too?

Tomato is a naturally high glutamate food (hence they add so much savory type flavor to dishes). When you eat tomato sauce you're eating a large quantity of tomatoes--so a large quantity of free glutamic acid. Still, the contribution from direct MSG is worse surely. People do well to avoid the additives (ie make your own seasoned salt rather than purchasing). We are careful with tomato because of my son's underlying health issue. FWIW, we were told to avoid MSG (including yeast extract and all the names it hides under) but no one mentioned foods like tomato and Parmesan. That's my own caution.

[tmulcahy]

Tomato is a naturally high glutamate food (hence they add so much savory type flavor to dishes). When you eat tomato sauce you're eating a large quantity of tomatoes--so a large quantity of free glutamic acid. Still, the contribution from direct MSG is worse surely. People do well to avoid the additives (ie make your own seasoned salt rather than purchasing). We are careful with tomato because of my son's underlying health issue. FWIW, we were told to avoid MSG (including yeast extract and all the names it hides under) but no one mentioned foods like tomato and Parmesan. That's my own caution.

 

OK. That makes sense. I have heard that people with migraine headaches often avoid tomato products.

[CalicoKat]

All I know is that I get NASTY headaches from MSG!

 

Both my dh and ds get these awful headaches. We make sure it's not in our food!

[angela in ohio]

MSG makes me feel like I'm dying. I actually went to the hospital once after eating Rice-a-Roni (we don't make Rice-a-Roni, so I had no idea what was in it - we googled and found that MSG is one of the first few ingredietns listed.) And I have trouble at many Italian and Mexican restaurants. It makes me lose my balance, have a terrible headache, and makes the world spin round and round.

[Negin]

Here's all the info I have on MSG. Rather hard to completely avoid it, unless you cook all your own food or something.

 

A diet high in MSG can triple a person’s odds of being overweight.

Can also lead to:

Cravings

Weight gain

Stress

Headaches

Fatigue

Brain Fog

 

WHAT TO DO:

Flavoring a dish or two every day with fresh ginger, rosemary, or oregano can armor the body

Enjoy 4 daily servings of fruit like papaya or veggies like carrots, peppers, and broccoli.

More magnesium – 400 mg twice daily

Try your best to avoid MSG. It’s often disguised on product labels:

• Monopotassium glutamate

• Yeast Extract

• Hydrolyzed Protein

• Calcium Caseinate

• Sodium Caseinate

• Yeast Nutrient

• Autolyzed Yeast

• Gelatin

• Textured Protein

• Hydrolyzed Corn Gluten

• Natrium Glutmate

• Vague Words like ‘flavoring†or “spicesâ€

 

Read this somewhere - sorry can't remember where.

 

MSG: A Silent Enemy

I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive obesity epidemic, so did John Erb, a friend of mine. He was a research assistant at the University of Waterloo, and spent years working for the government. He made an amazing discovery while going through scientific journals for a book he was writing called The Slow Poisoning of America. In hundreds of studies around the world, scientists were creating obese mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes test studies. No strain of rat or mice is naturally obese, so the scientists have to create them. They make these morbidly obese creatures by injecting them with MSG when they are first born. The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing rats (and humans?) to become obese. They even have a title for the race of fat rodents they create: "MSG-Treated Rats"

MSG? I was shocked too. For a long time now, many Chinese restaurants have stopped using MSG because of the negative health effects reported. But out of curiosity, I went to my kitchen, checking the cupboards and the fridge. MSG was in everything! The Campbell's soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays flavored potato chips, Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen prepared meals, Kraft salad dressings, especially the 'healthy low fat' ones. The items that didn't have MSG had something called Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, which is just another name for Monosodium Glutamate. It was shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our children everyday are filled with this stuff. They hide MSG under many different names in order to fool those who catch on.

But it didn't stop there. When our family went out to eat, we started asking at the restaurants what menu items had MSG. Many employees, even the managers, swore they didn't use MSG. But when we ask for the ingredient list, which they grudgingly provided, sure enough MSG and Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein were everywhere. Burger King, McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, every restaurant, even the sit down ones like TGIF, Chili's', Applebee's and Denny's use MSG in abundance. Kentucky Fried Chicken seemed to be the WORST offender: MSG was in every chicken dish, salad dressing and gravy. No wonder I loved to eat that coating on the skin, their secret spice is MSG!

Why is MSG in so many of the foods we eat? Is it a preservative or maybe a vitamin? Not according to my friend John. In the book he wrote, an expose of the food additive industry called The Slow Poisoning of America, he said that MSG is added to food for the addictive effect it has on the human body.

Even the propaganda website sponsored by the food manufacturers lobby group supporting MSG explains that the reason they add it to food is to make people eat more. A study of elderly people showed that people eat more of the foods that it is added to. The Glutamate Association lobby group says eating more benefits the elderly, but what does it do to the rest of us? "Betcha can't eat just one", takes on a whole new meaning where MSG is concerned! And we wonder why the nation is overweight? The MSG manufacturers themselves admit that it addicts people to their products. It makes people choose their product over others, and makes people eat more of it than they would if MSG wasn't added. Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity, it is an addictive substance!

Since its introduction into the American food supply fifty years ago, MSG has been added in larger and larger doses to the prepackaged meals, soups, snacks and fast foods we are tempted to eat every day. The FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food. They claim it's safe to eat in any amount. How can they claim it is safe when there are hundreds of scientific studies that suggest otherwise? Both the medical research community and food manufacturers have known MSG's side effects for decades!

If you believe that MSG is okay for us to consume, and you don't believe what John Erb has to say, see for yourself. Go to the National Library of Medicine, at http://www.pubmed.com Type in the words "MSG Obese", and read a few of the 115 medical studies that appear. Many studies mentioned in John Erb's book link MSG to diabetes, migraines and other headaches, autism, ADD-HD and even Alzheimer's.

 

MSG is one of the worst food additives on the market and is used in canned soups, crackers, meats, salad dressings, frozen dinners and much more.

One of the best overviews of the very real dangers of MSG comes from Dr. Russell Blaylock, a board-certified neurosurgeon and author of "Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills." In it he explains that MSG is an excitotoxin, which means it overexcites your cells to the point of damage or death, causing brain damage to varying degrees -- and potentially even triggering or worsening learning disabilities, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease and more.

Part of the problem also is that free glutamic acid is the same neurotransmitter that your brain, nervous system, eyes, pancreas and other organs use to initiate certain processes in your body.Even the FDA states:

"Studies have shown that the body uses glutamate, an amino acid, as a nerve impulse transmitter in the brain and that there are glutamate-responsive tissues in other parts of the body, as well.

Abnormal function of glutamate receptors has been linked with certain neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's chorea. Injections of glutamate in laboratory animals have resulted in damage to nerve cells in the brain."

Although the FDA continues to claim that consuming MSG in food does not cause these ill effects, many other experts say otherwise.

According to Dr. Blaylock, numerous glutamate receptors have been found both within your heart's electrical conduction system and the heart muscle itself. This can be damaging to your heart, and may even explain the sudden deaths sometimes seen among young athletes.

He says:

"When an excess of food-borne excitotoxins, such as MSG, hydrolyzed protein soy protein isolate and concentrate, natural flavoring, sodium caseinate and aspartate from aspartame, are consumed, these glutamate receptors are over-stimulated, producing cardiac arrhythmias.

When magnesium stores are low, as we see in athletes, the glutamate receptors are so sensitive that even low levels of these excitotoxins can result in cardiac arrhythmias and death."

Many other adverse effects have also been linked to regular consumption of MSG, including:

Obesity

Eye damage

Headaches

Fatigue and disorientation

Depression

 

Further, even the FDA admits that "short-term reactions" known as MSG Symptom Complex can occur in certain groups of people, namely those who have eaten "large doses" of MSG or those who have asthma.

According to the FDA, MSG Symptom Complex can involve symptoms such as:

Numbness

Burning sensation

Tingling

Facial pressure or tightness

Chest pain or difficulty breathing

Headache

Nausea

Rapid heartbeat

Drowsiness

Weakness

[Negin]

No one knows for sure just how many people may be "sensitive" to MSG, but studies from the 1970s suggested that 25 percent to 30 percent of the U.S. population was intolerant of MSG -- at levels then found in food. Since the use of MSG has expanded dramatically since that time, it's been estimated that up to 40 percent of the population may be impacted.[8]

 

How to Determine if MSG is in Your Food

Food manufacturers are not stupid, and they've caught on to the fact that people like you want to avoid eating this nasty food additive. As a result, do you think they responded by removing MSG from their products? Well, a few may have, but most of them just tried to "clean" their labels. In other words, they tried to hide the fact that MSG is an ingredient.

How do they do this? By using names that you would never associate with MSG.

You see, it's required by the FDA that food manufacturers list the ingredient "monosodium glutamate" on food labels, but they do not have to label ingredients that contain free glutamic acid, even though it's the main component of MSG.

There are over 40 labeled ingredients that contain glutamic acid,[9] but you'd never know it just from their names alone. Further, in some foods glutamic acid is formed during processing and, again, food labels give you no way of knowing for sure.

 

Tips for Keeping MSG Out of Your Diet

In general, if a food is processed you can assume it contains MSG (or one of its pseudo-ingredients). So if you stick to a whole, fresh foods diet, you can pretty much guarantee that you'll avoid this toxin.

The other place where you'll need to watch out for MSG is in restaurants. You can ask your server which menu items are MSG-free, and request that no MSG be added to your meal, but of course the only place where you can be entirely sure of what's added to your food is in your own kitchen.

To be on the safe side, you should also know what ingredients to watch out for on packaged foods. Here is a list of ingredients that ALWAYS contain MSG:

• Autolyzed Yeast Calcium Caseinate Gelatin

• Glutamate Glutamic Acid Hydrolyzed Protein

• Monopotassium Glutamate Monosodium Glutamate Sodium Caseinate

• Textured Protein Yeast Extract Yeast Food

• Yeast Nutrient

These ingredients OFTEN contain MSG or create MSG during processing:

• Flavors and Flavorings Seasonings Natural Flavors and Flavorings Natural Pork Flavoring Natural Beef Flavoring

• Natural Chicken Flavoring Soy Sauce Soy Protein Isolate Soy Protein Bouillon

• Stock Broth Malt Extract Malt Flavoring Barley Malt

• Anything Enzyme Modified Carrageenan Maltodextrin Pectin Enzymes

• Protease Corn Starch Citric Acid Powdered Milk Anything Protein Fortified

• Anything Ultra-Pasteurized

 

So if you do eat processed foods, please remember to be on the lookout for these many hidden names for MSG.

 

Choosing to be MSG-Free

Making a decision to avoid MSG in your diet as much as possible is a wise choice for nearly everyone. Admittedly, it does take a bit more planning and time in the kitchen to prepare food at home, using fresh, locally grown ingredients. But knowing that your food is pure and free of toxic additives like MSG will make it well worth it.

 

Plus, choosing whole foods will ultimately give you better flavor and more health value than any MSG-laden processed food you could buy at your supermarket.

 

When reading labels, look for the new cloak for MSG, "Natural Flavors". Believe it or not, a company can legally say "There is no MSG in our product" as long as the MSG is a CONSTITUENT of an INGREDIENT such as the ingredient "Natural Flavors". This is extremely deceptive on the part of the government to allow this. I ask, if MSG truly isn’t harmful, why is it hidden this way? A processed Chinese food is higher in MSG than American processed food. A BBC article stated that between 1985 and 2000, overweight and obesity in China's children increased an extremely alarming 28 fold.

 

You have to be on the lookout for many, many names. For the most part, try to avoid the following ingredients as much as humanly possible:

Autolyzed yeast

Calcium caseinate

Glutamate

Glutamic acid

Gelatin

Hydrolyzed corn gluten

Hydrolyzed protein (any protein that is hydrolyzed)

Monopotassium glutamate

Monosodium glutamate

MSG

Natrium glutamate (natrium is Latin for sodium)

Sodium caseinate

Textured protein

Yeast extract

Yeast food

Yeast nutrient

 

If you are in Europe, MSG is referred to on labels as E621 and it’s not very intuitive to figure out that E621 means MSG.

 

And then we have the processed food ingredients that quite often will create MSG while being prepared:

Anything enzyme modified

Anything fermented

Anything protein fortified

Barley malt

Bouillon and Broth

Carrageenan

Citric acid

Enzymes anything

Flavors(s) and Flavoring(s)

Malt extract

Malt flavoring

Maltodextrin

Natural beef flavoring

Natural chicken flavoring

Natural flavor(s) and flavoring(s)

Natural pork flavoring

Pectin

Protease

Protease enzymes

Seasonings (the actual word "seasonings")

Soy protein

Soy protein concentrate

Soy protein isolate

Soy sauce

Soy sauce extract

Stock

Ultra-pasteurized

Whey protein

Whey protein concentrate

Whey protein isolate

 

If you see either disodium guanylate or disodium inosinate in a list of ingredients, the product probably also contains MSG. These are expensive food additives that work synergistically with inexpensive MSG. Their use suggests that the product has MSG in it. They would probably not be used as food additives if there were no MSG present

 

Low fat and no fat dairy products often include milk solids that contain MSG, which is yet another reason to avoid those fake foods.

 

Drinks, candy, and chewing gum are potential sources of hidden MSG and of aspartame and neotame.

Aspartic acid, found in neotame and aspartame (NutraSweet), ordinarily causes MSG type reactions in MSG sensitive people. Aspartame is found in some medications, including children's medications. Neotame is relatively new and I have not yet seen it used widely.

Binders and fillers for medications, nutrients, and supplements, both prescription and non-prescription, enteral feeding materials, and some fluids administered intravenously in hospitals, may contain MSG.

[sheryl]

WOW!! Thanks a bunch! for the 2 reply posts. I will peruse them shortly....very detailed and I LOVE that!

[Negin]

You're most welcome. Sorry it's not very organized. On my to-do list to organize later. :)

[regentrude]

All I know is that I get NASTY headaches from MSG!

 

:iagree:Same here.

 

I can easily avoid it in my groceries, I simply do not buy prepared stuff.

Restaurants are a problem, especially Chinese.