MSG or monosodium glutamate has been blamed for many ills over the years. If MSG causes you to feel bad, here are the reasons why.
MSG is used in processed foods, fast foods, restaurants, baby food and almost everything else. Monosodium glutamate (free glutamates) is a flavor enhancer that has been found safe to eat by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). MSG is the salt of glutamic acid. Glutamic acid is one of the non-essential amino acids that our bodies produce. Many of the arguments about MSG state that since MSG is simply one of the amino acids that our bodies already produce, then how can it be bad for us.
Glutamic acid is considered the culprit in MSG and is known as an excitotoxin. An excitotoxin is something that excites the brain cells. They cause the brain cell to fire their impulses rapidly until they are exhausted and sometimes killing the cells. Glutamate is absorbed into the gastrointestinal track rapidly, which then spikes the levels of glutamate in blood levels. As you eat more food throughout the day that contains MSG, the glutamate continues to build up in your body.
Why Use MSG
MSG is a flavor enhancer and is reported to actually make you want more of the food you ate that had MSG in it. Maybe the phrase “you can’t just eat one” is because of this. MSG as a flavor enhancer makes cheap food taste better, so a company can use less real food to make a product by adding more MSG flavor enhancing additives.
Is MSG Safe
There have been many reports from individuals concerning how eating foods with MSG affect their health in a negative way. In 1995, the FDA reaffirmed the safety of MSG and found no evidence that it causes long-term health problems. The FDA did admit that some people could have short-term reactions to MSG. The negative symptoms to eating MSG include:
· Headaches
· The feeling of swelling in the face
· Flushing and or sweating
· Rapid fluttering of heartbeats or heart palpitations
· Nausea
· Chest pain
· Shortness of breath
· Numbness, burning or tingling around the mouth area
· Weakness
If you ate enough foods all day that contained MSG, it could build up in your body. This could lead to some of these symptoms later at night including the heart palpitations. As people are now growing up eating more MSG containing foods, we could be getting more sensitive to it, which makes its reactions in our body worse when we eat it.
Does MSG Cause Obesity
The old joke about eating Chinese food and being hungry an hour later is no joke when it comes to MSG and our health. Studies have shown that MSG does cause obesity in mice. It does this by downregulating our body’s appetite suppression, in other words, it makes us feel hungry sooner. MSG could be considered the anti-appetite suppressant since it does make you feel hungrier sooner. MSG stimulates the pancreas, which in turn causes it to produce insulin, even when there is no reason to produce it. Blood sugar then drops and you are hungry again sooner.
Dr. John Olney, a neuroscientist and expert on the effects of aspartame and glutamic acid on the brain, found that MSG caused obesity in lab animal tests in the 1960s. The fat that MSG causes to accumulate is the more dangerous type of fat that gathers around the waist, which is more dangerous for the heart. In 1969, Dr. Olney published a study using mice, where he found MSG given to mice caused obesity and other neuroendocrine disorders due to lesions of the hypothalamus portion of the brain [1]. Among its many important functions, the hypothalamus controls body temperature, hunger, thirst and sleep cycles.
When scientists do obesity and diabetes studies using mice, they first have to make them obese since there aren’t any obese mice to begin with. To make them obese they give them MSG when they are first born.
MSG and Disease
Since large amounts of glutamate are dumped into the brain during a stroke causing brain damage, some believe that MSG has contributed to the rise in many diseases that occur within the brain. Scientists now believe that they have found a link to increased levels of glutamate in the brain to multiple sclerosis and there are studies that claim MSG can cause autism in children. The effects of MSG can be worse in children, where an adult might just get a headache, a child could get behavioral problems, autism or ADD (Attention deficit disorder) [2].
Currently, pharmaceutical companies are coming out with glutamate blocking drugs to help with Alzheimer’s disease. Glutamic acid is associated with Parkinson’s disease, MS, Huntington’s disease, ADHD, Alzheimer’s, ALS and migraines.
It is ironic that the FDA approves glutamate blocking drugs to help certain diseases, and also approves the use of MSG.
Who’s Studies Can You Believe
Many studies the FDA and other groups look at have been conducted by the industries that use MSG the most. Dr. Olney reported that a study done to test MSG on monkeys was useless since monkeys are much less sensitive to MSG than humans are.
In studies using humans, the placebo that was used in the control group, was aspartame (NutaSweet®). Aspartame or aspartic acid causes the same toxic effects as glutamate does. Which made the tests appear that there was no difference in the MSG using group as there was in the placebo group [3].
The Glutamate Association has a web site with their studies that state it is safe to use.
How To Avoid MSG
MSG is hidden among various names listed in the ingredients. The following are additives that are MSG.
Glutamate, monosodium glutamate, MSG, calcium caseinate, autolyzed yeast extract, hydrolyzed protein, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, hydrolyzed plant protein, yeast extract, plant protein extract, textured protein, hydrolyzed oat flour and sodium caseinate, monopotassium glutamate, glutamic acid, gelatin and Ajinomoto.
The following additives often contain or create MSG during processing.
Flavor(s) & flavoring(s), natural flavor(s) & flavoring(s), natural pork flavoring, bouillon, natural beef flavoring, stock, natural chicken flavoring, broth, malt flavoring, barley malt, malt extract, (the word "seasonings"), carrageenan, soy sauce, soy sauce extract, soy protein, soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate, pectin, maltodextrin, whey protein, whey protein isolate, whey protein concentrate, natural beef or chicken flavoring, anything protein fortified, protease, protease enzymes, anything enzyme modified, enzymes, anything ultra-pasteurized, anything fermented [4].
There are so many additives it is impossible to keep track, you practically have to be a chemist to know exactly what is in your food today. If MSG concerns you, the best rule of thumb is to avoid foods that have ingredients you can’t pronounce and or don’t know what they are.
© 2009 Sam Montana
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Sources
[1] Olney JW. Brain Lesions, Obesity, and Other Disturbances in Mice Treated With Monosodium Glutamate. Science, 1969, 164: 719-21.
[2] YouTube video about MSG and disease
Over 100 studies on MSG and obesity: Type "MSG Obese" in the search box
The Slow Poisoning of America by John Erb
