MSG: The Taste That Can Make You Stupid

When I was younger, I remember such fond memories (or should I say now “nightmares”) of literally pigging out on Chef Boyardee’s Ravioli’s. At the time I was so addicted to them that I would eat them right out of the can despite the ridicule from others for not heating them up. Another addiction I had was with Nissin’s Cup of Noodles. This cheap, yet tasty treat, was always a great stand-by for a quick snack. What was it that kept me, as well as millions of other people, coming back for more of these products? Why is it that when most people eat take-out Chinese food, they can feel hungry again soon after just pigging out on the stuff? The answer is excitotoxins such as MSG. MSG is a flavor enhancer which literally makes whatever it is added to taste better. It can make bland and poor quality foods taste better. MSG is commonly associated with Chinese food and you will see in some restaurants “No MSG” signs upon request. Just because you request no MSG does not guarantee it. Unless your order was made from fresh ingredients, there will already be MSG in it some how. This is true in the ready-made sauces and marinated meats. The majority of processed foods contain MSG in some form or another. By checking out the ingredients and reading labels you will find MSG and its many aliases, “hydrolyzed vegetable protein”, “yeast extract”, and “autolyzed yeast” to name a few (see complete list at the end of this article).

Before I discuss the effects of MSG on your health, you will need to know a little bit of its history in order to understand why it is such a problem. In 1908, a Japanese chemist discovered MSG while trying to isolate the chemical that was responsible for the taste enhancing properties of the seaweed called kombu. Kombu was used by the Japanese as a flavor-enhancer in recipes for thousands of years. This chemist then started the Ajinomoto Company to specifically manufacture MSG. And the rest as they say was history. During World War II, American soldiers discovered that the food rations of Japanese prisoners actually tasted good. This prompted the United States military to investigate why this was so. In 1948, a meeting was held by the Armed Forces in conjunction with some of the largest food manufacturing giants in the U.S. regarding how MSG would be used in this country. It was since then that MSG and its derivatives had been added to most processed foods such as soups, chips, fast foods, frozen foods, ready-made dinners, and canned goods. It was a boom for the diet food industry since most low-fat foods were lacking in taste.

MSG is a modified form of glutamic acid, or glutamate, which is an excitatory amino acid neurotransmitter in the brain. In MSG, the modified glutamate is combined with a sodium molecule. Neurotransmitters are a class of chemicals that allow neurons (nerve cells) to communicate with one another. Excitatory amino acids are amino acids that literally “excite” neurons. Some examples are cysteine, aspartate, and glutamate. Nutrasweet is another excitotoxin composed of aspartame, a modified form of aspartate. It is normal for the brain to have these excitatory neurotransmitters. The problem arises when there is an excess. Neurons are literally “excited” to death where at first they fire their impulses to the point of exhaustion before they die. Fortunately, the brain, just like the rest of the body, has safety measures to prevent this from happening, . . . to a point. Infants and children are more vulnerable than adults due to their developing nervous systems. Although there are no acute apparent effects on mental capacity of ingesting significant amounts of MSG, studies are suggesting long term effects. If you can understand how the human body works to function at all costs and how each and every one of our cells want to live, you can easily see that our body is a system of systems. If one system is operating less than par, another system will pick up the pace. Eventually, something has to give in and this is how disease progresses. Going back to the topic of MSG, since kids are more vulnerable to its effects, doesn’t it make sense that their hundreds of billions of neurons in their brains will make up for the bunch of neurons killed by the MSG (which is predominant in most processed foods). Symptoms may not appear until later when increased cognitive demands are experienced as one gets older. Theoretically, this can lead to conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, and other learning disabilities. In adults, conditions such as Parkinson’s , Alzheimer’s, and Lou Gehrig’s diseases may be linked to excitotoxin damage.

When I explain the damaging effects of MSG and other excitotoxins such as NutraSweet, to others, a common response is, “If excitotoxins are so dangerous, than why does the government allow them?” The federal government regulatory agency is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA currently labels MSG and aspartame as GRAS – generally regarded as safe. This means that the government sees the substances as not causing any specific, acute damage; but it does not rule out the possibility that it may have long term harmful effects. Another thing many people are not aware of is that there are a lot of politics involved between the FDA and the major food manufacturing companies. If you are still not convinced that these politics do exist, just look at the recent news of the whole Vioxx scare in September, 2004. Information was leaked out that Vioxx, a popular arthritis medication, may lead to heart attacks and strokes. This was information that the FDA was aware of for years but still failed to pull Vioxx off the market. With close relationships with the money-powerful pharmaceutical companies, don’t you think the FDA has similar ties with the just as rich food manufacturing companies?

In summary, MSG can literally kill brain cells and although no acute effects are apparent, research is growing linking it to chronic neurodegenerative diseases. MSG, like other additives, preservatives, and junk added to processed foods, are toxic to our bodies. What won’t kill you now will probably hurt you later. Below is a list taken from Dr. Blaylock’s book of hidden sources of MSG. This is a partial list of common MSG aliases that the food manufacturing companies use to disguise its presence.