Monosodium Glutamate (MSG): A Neurotoxin Or A Harmless Food Flavor Enhancer?
Posted: Monday, September 03, 2007
by Brenda Skidmore
http://www.mywater4life.com
MSGs safety for human consumption has been widely debated for well over 50 years. Some people are highly sensitive to it, while others appear not to be, and still yet, others may be and not even know they are.
Manufactured/processed monosodium glutamate is the substance in question that causes the most reactions in MSG sensitive people. So what is MSG exactly?
When it is found in its natural unbound (unprocessed) form, and is not subjected to some sort of manufactured or fermented process, is not harmful for human or animal consumption. All forms of manufactured /processed glutamic acid contains contaminants, while the naturally occurring substance in nature does not.
Although most people connect MSG with Chinese food, few people realize how massively it is used in the processed food industry. It is present in nearly every food that is manufactured. Considering how cheap and convenient it is, food manufacturers love it because they can get away with reducing the amount of real food substances by substituting with cheap fillers, add some MSG to get a 'morphine like' taste punch to the food product. It also intensifies the eating experience in not only enhancing the flavor of the food, but it alters color and odor of the food as well.
The bottom line, it saves them a lot of money, it allows them to sell you an inferior food product.
MSG has no nutritional value whatsoever. Like sugar, it stimulates your taste buds, making you desire the taste so much you will keep on buying the product and keep eating it. MSG changes your perception of how a food tastes. Many experts in the field of studying its harmful effects claim that it stimulates parts of the brain to produce an addiction in much the same way as alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs do.
In other words, MSG is addictive. So, even if you do not drink alcohol or smoke, eating a lot of processed food is just as addictive as drugs, in essence your trading the pleasure of drugs for this addictive substance in the food you eat.
Food manufacturers are no dummies, they know they have the FDA on their side, and they know using MSG will ensure repeat customers for them.
So, what is all the fuss about when it comes to the over use of MSG, and another closely related substance called Apartame (NutriSweet)?
In literally hundreds of diet studies done around the world, scientists can create, and replicate the inducing of obesity in laboratory animals. Mice and rats can be made obese, without increasing their food intake by giving them MSG. According to John Erb, author of The Slow Poisoning of America , there currently may actually be a chemical responsible for America's obesity and diabetic epidemic, and that chemical might just be MSG.
It has been scientifically linked to obesity over and over, and has been linked to irregular and rapid heartbeat, stomach problems, depression, fatigue, and brain problems. This is only a short list, there are many others to numerous to mention in this article.
Even knowing that most people, if given a choice, do not want MSG added to their food will not stop them from putting it in anyway. Manufacturers are on to the fact that consumers are scrutinizing food labels. They have taken on great deception practices to continue its use in food products by not directly labeling MSG as MSG. It is often hidden in names such as gelatin, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, yeast extract, malted barley, and rice or brown rice syrup.
The list of names is rather long and extensive. You can find out more by reading John Erb's book, or type in the search terms 'neurotoxin-MSG' on a search engine to learn more hidden names on labels disguised as MSG.
I really do not believe this is a conspiracy by corporate food companies to keep us sick, although some may argue with that way of thinking. I believe it is more connected to corporate greed than anything else. Greed in keeping millions of dollars flowing through corporate bank accounts. Can you envision a long and complicated moneytrail that benefits several industries besides the manufactured food business?
Another expert in the the health damaging effects of MSG saga, is Dr. Russell Blaylock. He is the author of Exitotoxins: The Taste That Kills. Dr. Blaylock says, MSG basically overexcites your body cells, it over stimulates them to the point of damaging them., acting as a poison.
Avoiding MSG altogether is going to be real hard to do, but not impossible. It could take up quite a bit of your time if you let it, and until it is banned or taken out of our food supply what can you do to avoid its harmful effects?
Cooking from scratch and starting with whole foods is one way of cutting down on getting too much of this unhealthy substance. Another way to keep manufactured/ processed free glutamic acid from binding to cell receptors, is to eat a diet high in raw (or lightly cooked) dark colored fruits and vegetables. They are loaded with antioxidants and are one of your best defenses against a build up of this toxic poison in your body.
And, even though I have not read this specifically, I think I would be rather safe in recommending it, an an increased water intake would be highly effective also. By drinking your body's daily requirement of water will help you immensely in the flushing out process of MSG in your system.
Not to mention also, that the combination of increasing your fruit, vegetable, and water intake will go a long way in reducing many other major or minor health complaints you may currently have.
This solution is really beneficial in so many ways, you may just find it nothing short of incredible! You can also refuse to buy a lot of foods that contain MSG. That is only the real message food manufacturers will understand in the long run.
Brenda Skidmore has spent the last four plus years actively researching natural health care alternatives. She can attest to the many positive results natural practical cures and preventive strategies bring to human health. Along with the many medical professionals whose public works she has studied, it is her sincere desire to empower others by sharing this important information. To improve your health today visit:
http://www.mywater4life.com mywater4life
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Your speculative analyzations and shady numbers without reference lead me to doubt this articles legitamacy. How about some facts?Please log in to respond to this comment.I agree. No sources mean that it must be taken with a pinch of salt (or msg). There are some wild assertions made here.Please log in to respond to this comment.When I write an article, I do not just grab some information out of nowhere and throw it all together to satisfy a 'want' to have my article published. Unless I'm mistaken, I believe I did list a couple of references in the article.
I feel passionately dedicated to what I do in my spare time, and that is help a small but growing army of individuals relate information, who feel processed foods in America has more to do about the 'money' it pads bank accounts with than anything else. Your health, or your choosing to eat what you want and like, is of no concern to the manufactured food industry to act any differently, but to try and sell you a product. No one is responsible for the nutritionally empty food and drink that you put into your body but you.
Dr. Russell Blaylock, M.D. is a respected authority on this subject, as well as John and Michelle Erb .
Have you read more about the harmful effects of MSG and Aspartame in your spare time, before you posted a comment that raises doubt about someone's credibility?
There are as many different views on any one subject as you wish to ponder, as there are so many people thinking in different ways about it. Each individual is going to have a slightly different twist on it. You are either going to allow yourself to be open to learning something new, or you are not going to allow it. It's your choice, it's either going to be a 'yes' or a 'no'.
Funny thing, no one seems to dispute the addictiveness, and unhealthiness, of using tobacco and alcohol to excess. But, when you talk or write about the excessive use of processed food and beverages possibly producing the same type of results, some people get real defensive about that. Could it be they do not like to think of themselves as a substance abuse addict too? They really don't want to give any of it up, it just tastes too darned good.
Maybe if our new president leaned more towards this way of looking at health care, he would try 'taxing' several other industry's products as well. There would, then, be more than enough money to help pay for the inadequate funding of health care in America for the sick, poor, and uninsured. Sadly, the same sector of the population is going to be targeted, again, to shoulder all of the burden.
The bulk of the alcohol and tobacco product users are usually the poorest sector of the population, and it is not going to be enough money to make the inadequate funding for health care problem go away. This has already been proven before. But, more people will quit using these products because of the excessive taxes on them, and that will ultimately be a good thing.
Then what will they think of next to tax to raise money for it?
Sooner or later, someone will think of taxing junk foods, so just get ready for it!
Brenda SkidmorePlease log in to respond to this comment.
Ms. Skidmore, If you opt to re-publish this article or write similar articles, please consider mentioning the fact that many autism spectrum families are encouraged to eliminate MSG from their AS child's diet. In our case, I do believe it has been helpful for everyone in our family!Please log in to respond to this comment.Thanks for suggesting that topic, I will look into it. I believe it warrants the writing of a separate article.
The bottom line is this, MSG, Aspartame, and quite possibly Sucrolose are brain neurotransmitter toxins. They excite brain chemicals to death. Some people may be able to tolerate more of the stuff in their system than others.
Go to 'YouTube' and type in "chemical dumbing down of America" to view Dr. Blaylock's 10 minute video on the subject. Who are you going to believe? The manufactured food industry, or a educated professional who has dedicated a good part of his life investigating the stuff?
Enough said. Naysayers will always find something to back up what they don't want to hear.
BrendaPlease log in to respond to this comment.
Assertions like the one Skidmore makes that naturally occuring Glutamate never has contaminants while artificial forms do are absurd on their surface. This tripe is the substance of naturalism dressed in pseudo-scientific garb - but unlike science, the conclusion is drawn - then the naturalist gathers any evidence that supports her hypothesis.The fact that there is circumstantial evidence linking MSG to autism and headaches IN SOME PEOPLE, doesn't mean that it is bad for all people - no more than suggesting that because some kids have deadly allergies to peanuts, that peanuts are bad for all people, or that because artificial sweetners can kill a phenylketonuric, that artificial sweetners are bad for all!The fact that one person's physiology has difficulty metabolizing a substance doesn't imply that all persons' physiology are adversely affected by that substance. That kind of inferential logic is vastly different that the deductive logic that governs valid scientific investigation.While there is some interesting correlation between MSG and triggering pathologies in unhealthy individuals (and even then, I must caveat that, scientifically, correlation does not imply causation), there is no, none, zilch, zero scientific evidence that MSG causes measurably adverse effects in healthy individuals. NONE!Naturally occuring substances are free of contaminants my eye: maybe in the butterfly, unicorn, fluffly cloud world in your imagination, but certainly not in any NATURAL reality.Please log in to respond to this comment.It is true that consuming small amounts of MSG, or anything that is considered bad for us for that matter, is not going to be the 'death of us all'. The trouble with MSG is it is in nearly every single manufactured food item. It is disguised on food labels under a wide variety of names. Rarely do food processors list MSG as just plain MSG on the label.Now consider this, a lot of folks eat out of a bag, can or a box every single day, seven days a week. Food manufacturers will claim that their product only contains less than 2% of such food flavor enhancers in one serving, but think of how much is in each serving of a whole bunch of different processed foods.The bottom line is, as humans I don't think we were meant to eat this stuff in huge amounts every day. This substance affects each person differently, with emotional disturbances being one of the fastest growing segments in medical health care. And, how would a person know for sure how MSG affects them, unless they would be motivated enough to experiment in not ingesting it for a week or two?Please log in to respond to this comment.Sounds like an MSG pusher. What's your gig?Please log in to respond to this comment.
The baiting title alone shows it is not a serious article. "MSG changes your perception of how a food tastes". Really? is'nt that a fancy,scary way of saying it changes how food tastes? "All forms of manufactured /processed glutamic acid contains contaminants, while the naturally occurring substance in nature does not." This is pure non-scientific bunk.Please log in to respond to this comment.
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