MSG is the common abbreviation for monosodium glutamate. It is a man-made derivative of glutamic acid (or glutamate), which is an amino acid found in all complete proteins. Glutamate occurs naturally in many plant and animal tissues, from mushrooms to milk.
Because the “free” glutamates of MSG enter the blood stream 8-10 times faster than normal or “bound” glutamates, they are more likely to cause problems. They readily pass through the blood-brain barrier (the membrane that keeps toxins out of the brain).
Unfortunately, glutamate is also one of the neurotransmitters involved in migraines.
It activates the brains’s neurons, further heightening their sensitivity and making them more susceptible to the chain of events that leads to migraines. Symptoms usually appear within an hour.
Some other symptoms associated with MSG-triggered headaches, particularly when large amounts of MSG are eaten, on an empty stomach, are a burning sensation in the back of the neck, forearms and chest; tingling warmth and weakness in the face, temples, upper back, neck and arms; rapid heart beat; drowsiness; nausea; and tightness in the face, chest and difficulty breathing. (National Headache Foundation Newsletter, Headlines, March/April 2005, No. 143).
What you may not know is that MSG is hidden in the ingredients of an astonishing variety of store-bought and commercially prepared foods that we consume every day!
These unsuspecting ingredient names “ natural flavorings” and “hydrolyzed vegetable Proteins”… are manufactuers way of disguising the additions of MSG in their products. This may have profound effects on you and your families health and weight!
It is common practice for scientist, world- wide, to create obese mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes studies. Since no strain or rat or mice is naturally obese, scientists must create them. They create these morbidly obese rodents by injecting them with MSG when they are newborns.
“Acquired obesity can be produced by chemically lesioning the hypothalamus with either monosodium glutamate (MSG) in neonates or gold thioglucose (GTG) in adult mice” Endocrinology Vol. 139, No. 11 4483-4488
MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing the rats, mice (and humans?) to become obese.
If you look in your pantry you will find that MSG is in almost everything! Top Ramen, Swanson and many other prepared meals, Lays flavored potato chips, Hostess Doritos, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Kraft salad dressings…the list is never ending. The healthy “low fat” products are particularly suspect.
Restaurants are also major offenders! Some add MSG directly into their food, especially Chinese food restaurants. (You can request that they hold the MSG). What you cannot control are those food products that are pre-packed or pre-prepared for the restaurant, Surprisingly, this represents a large portion of the food products of many restaurants, particularly chain and fast-food restaurants.
You may ask the manager or the waiter if any of their dishes contain MSG, and they will tell you no, because as far as they are concerned none has been added. However, if you were to ask for the ingredient lists of their menu items you would find that MSG, natural flavors and hydrolyzed vegetable proteins where in everything that was not a fresh ingredient.
McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Taco Bell and Burger King all abuse MSG. Even sit down restaurants such as Applebee’s, Chili’s, TGIF and Denny’s use MSG in abundance. The WORST offender however, seems to be Kentucky Fried Chicken. MSG is in every chicken dish, salad dressing, and gravy. You always wanted to know what the Colonel’s secret spice was…now you know, it is MSG!
The National Headache Foundation’s Newsletter NHF Headlines (March/April 2005, No. 143) states that “the average American has gone from eating approximately 12 grams of MSG per year in the 1950’s, to 400-500 grams per year at the beginning of the 21st
century.” The newsletter also states that “Many food additives are hidden sources of MSG… You may want to consider avoiding the following”:
- Autolyzed Yeast
- Hydrolyzed Vegetable, Milk or Plant Protein (or Hydrolyzed “Anything”)
- Natural Flavors/Flavoring
- Flavor Enhancer
- Sodium or Calcium Caseinate
- Carrageenan
- Yeast Extract or Nutrient
- Seasonings
- Bouillon/Broth/Stock
- Malt Flavoring
- Textured Protein
So, why is MSG in so many of the foods that we eat? What is its purpose? Is it a preservative, stabilizer or a vitamin? No, it is a food additive with the addictive powers similar to a drug. In John Erb’s book “The Slow Poisoning of America, he states that “MSG is added to food for the addictive effects it has on the human body.” Even the 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.
It should make you think twice the next time you swing into a fast food restaurant to pick up the family a quick dinner!
A study of elderly people showed that people eat more of the foods that MSG is added to. The Glutamate Association lobby group says eating more benefits the elderly, but what does it do to the rest of us?
The snack food pitch…’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 was not 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 everyday.
The FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food. They claim
it is safe to eat in any amount. How can they claim it is safe when there are
hundreds of scientific studies with titles like these?
The monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese rat as a model for the study of
exercise in obesity. Gobatto CA, Mello MA, Souza CT, Ribeiro IA. Res Commun
Mol Pathol Pharmacol. 2002
Adrenalectomy abolishes the food-induced hypothalamic serotonin release in both normal and monosodium glutamate-obese rats. Guimaraes RB, Telles MM, Coelho VB, Mori RC, Nascimento CM, RibeiroBrain Res Bull. 2002 Aug
Obesity induced by neonatal monosodium glutamate treatment in spontaneously
hypertensive rats: an animal model of multiple risk factors. Iwase M,
Yamamoto M, Iino K, Ichikawa K, Shinohara N, Yoshinari Fujishima Hypertens
Res. 1998 Mar
Hypothalamic lesion induced by injection of monosodium glutamate in suckling
period and subsequent development of obesity. Tanaka K, Shimada M, Nakao K,
Kusunoki Exp Neurol. 1978 Oct
The last study was written in 1978! Both the medical research community and food “manufacturers” have known MSG’s side effects for decades! Many more studies have linked MSG to diabetes, migraines and headaches, autism, ADHD and even Alzheimer’s. What can we do to stop the food manufactures from dumping fattening and addictive MSG into our food supply and causing the obesity epidemic we now see?
In the United States, corruption of governmental and scientific committees by the food industry was disclosed in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
In an article in the journal Science (1972), it was revealed that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Food Protection Committee was being funded by the food, chemical and packaging industries. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was relying on the NAS Committee for “independent” information. The Chairman of the NAS Subcommittee investigating monosodium glutamate (MSG) had recently taken part in research partially funded by the MSG manufacturer. Another member of the Subcommittee became a spokesperson for the MSG industry. (Science 1972). Other members of the Subcommittee had ties to the MSG industry.
Since that time numerous governmental committees have been corrupted by the placement of food industry-funded consultants on these committees (Samuels 1999, Collins 2000).
In March 2004, the House of Representatives passed the “Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act” also known as the “Cheeseburger Bill”, this sweeping law bans anyone from suing food manufacturers, sellers and distributors. Even if it comes out that they purposely added an addictive chemical to their foods. Read about it for yourself at: www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8458081.htm The bill still has to be approved by the Senate.
The bill was also created to protect the food service industry, America’s largest private-sector employer, from the job-stifling costs of beefing up liability insurance and legal funds due to lawsuits. www.majorityleader.gov/news.asp?FormMode=Detail&ID=242
“In April 2004 McDonald’s announced that it launched an anti-obesity education campaign to promote exercise and a balanced diet. The world’s largest fast-food chain will offer a “Go Active” Happy Meal for adults that includes a salad, water and a pedometer. The move followed a number of lawsuits against the company from people who blame their obesity on McDonald’s food. It’s the latest of many restaurants that have begun offering more healthy choices in reaction to lawsuits…” www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8458081.htm
The “Cheeseburger bill” sends a clear signal to the food industry that it does not have to worry about the public health. “That’s the wrong message,” said Democrat Representative James McGovern.
Friday, 12 March, 2004, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3500388.stm
Consumer rights groups say more is at stake with the cheeseburger bill than a wake-up call for Americans to take control of poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles. Jennifer Keller, a nutritionist on the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine, said: “The unfortunate thing is that without the threat of litigation and lawsuits, the food industry is not going to take any steps to provide healthy options.” (www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-11-2004-51578.asp Guardian Newspapers, 3/11/2004)
“Both consumer and health groups argue that a ban on lawsuits would relieve the pressure on the fast-food industry to meet concerns about health and obesity. They say class-action lawsuits, the focus of the cheeseburger bill, played a crucial role in making the tobacco industry more accountable. Lawsuits highlighted for Americans the link between smoking and cancer and the way tobacco firms try to make cigarettes yet more addictive. “We are only just now discovering that the food industry does work to manipulate people’s food choices,” Ms Keller said.”
(www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-11-2004-51578.asp Guardian Newspapers, 3/11/2004)
This manipulation includes the addition of addictive and obesity promoting ingredients such as MSG.
In 2004, author John Erb took his concerns about MSG to one of Canada’s highest government health officials. While he was sitting in the official’s government office the official to told him “ Sure I know how bad MSG is, I wouldn’t touch the stuff!” However, this top-level government official refused to tell the public what he knew. The corporate media giants do not want to inform the public either, fearing legal issues with their advertisers. The fallout with the fast food industry would hurt their profit margins. (http://www.healthy-communications.com/04MSGCover-Up2.html).
So what do we do? The food producers and restaurants have been addicting us to their products for years, and now we are paying the price for it. Our children should not be cursed with obesity caused by an addictive food additive.
You and your family can start eating more unprocessed, whole foods.
Stop patronizing chain restaurants that use prepackaged and preprepared foods. When you go to a restaurant request that they do not add MSG.
Most importantly, blow the whistle on MSG. Call your Senator and let them know that you do not want to be a rat in one giant experiment. You do not approve of food that makes the people of our nation obese, lethargic and addicted sheep.
You must log in to post a comment.