My food journey: MSG

Ok, I must get these posts done for you all! The food journey post, containing important nutrition things I learned last year. They are so good:)

Today’s topic is on Monosodium Glutamate, also known as MSG. Horrible stuff. Below are excerpts from Dee Mcaffrey’s  book, “The Science of Skinny”.

“It has been called the nicotine of food additives because, in addition to its harmful effects on the body, it is highly addictive. Comprised of sodium and glutamic acid, MSG is a flavor enhancer that triggers our taste buds and makes us eat more and eat faster. Nearly every fast food and chain restaurant uses MSG in some form, and it is added to thousands of prepared and processed foods. The foods that contain the most MSG are processed fat free and sugar free, mainly because when fat and sugar are absent, the food is nearly flavorless, so MSG is added to enhance its flavor.

Use of MSG has doubled every decade since it was first introduced to the United States in the 1940s and, and in 2001, 3 billion pounds were manufactured.

Most sauces, dressings, canned soups, and seasoning products such as bouillon and broth contain MSG. It is the main ingredient in additives clumped under the term seasonings on food labels.

Specifically, it affects the normal appetite mechanism that controls how much we eat. It excites and stimulates our taste buds, fooling our brain to think the food tastes better than it actually does. This allows food manufacturers to use cheaper ingredients while helping the lower-quality food seem to taste good. Because MSG affects the mechanism in our brain that tells us to stop eating, we eat far beyond our normal stopping point. The substance is also known to be toxic.

Another common MSG-related symptom is a headache that feels like a tight band around the head. But the most alarming effect of MSG is its link to obesity. Scientists have observed that animals fed glutamic acid become grotesquely obese.

When the rats eat foods containing MSG, they eat more than they need to. If the lab rats are getting grotesquely obese from eating MSG, doesn’t it make sense that humans are too?

The real scary thing about MSG is that it can be hidden in nearly forty other food additives Following is a list of other additives that contain plenty of MSG:

• “Anything” hydrolyzed
• Autolyzed yeast
• Bouillon, stocks, and broths
• Calcium caseinate
• Gelatin
• Hydrolozed soy protein
• Hydrolyzed yeast
• Isolated soy protein
• Maltodextrin
• Natural Flavorings
• Seasonings
• Sodium Caseinate
• Textured soy protein
• Yeast extract

It’s important to point out here that there is no strict regulation on the word natural, and food manufacturers use it liberally, especially on patented ingredients such as ‘natural flavorings’.”

Pages 136-138

Whew! Yup, MSG is not good. The part I found most interesting is that it tricks your mind to think that the food tastes better than it really is, and that it doesn’t tell our brain that ‘I’m full’, and we over eat. Isn’t that crazy?

So, that’s the food learning for today. Thanks for stopping by to read:)