What is MSG?

What is MSG? It is one amongst the worst food additives on the market and is found in canned soups, crackers, meats, dish dressings, frozen dinners and many other processed food. It is found in your native grocery stores and restaurants, in your child’s school canteen and, shockingly, even in baby food and formula.

It is a silent killer that’s worse for your health than alcohol, sugar, salt and lots of other medication.

MSG or monosodium glutamate is a flavor enhancer that’s known to be widely used in Chinese cooking. However, the truth is that MSG is found in many other foods that you and your family eat.

MSG is over simply a seasoning like salt and pepper, it truly enhances the flavor of foods. Because of its flavor-enhancing properties, MSG is popular amongst restaurants and processed food producers. If you think about it, if processed food or restaurant do not taste super delicious, how could the businesses sell more and increase profits?

But while MSG provides the food industry with an edge, the side effect of this artificial addictive maybe be slowly and quietly robbing you of your health.

How did MSG come about?

Kikunae Ikeda who isolated glutamic acid as a new taste substance from seaweed in 1908 founded MSG. He noticed that the Japanese soup has a unique taste that has not been defined at that time and was different from sour, bitter, sweet and salty.

This fifth basic taste was later named “umami”. Many foods that we consumed daily contains umami. Fish, meat, mushrooms, vegetables, fermented and aged products contain high levels of umami. On its own, MSG has very little taste, if anything at all. It is when it is mix with the food you eat that it starts doing its job by tricking your taste buds that the food you are eating is tastier and with more protein…the “umami” taste.

From this finding, Kikunae went ahead to partner Ajinomoto and together they became the world’s largest producer of flavoring. However, this ingredient became popular only after WW2 when the U.S. military realized how Japanese foods were much tastier than the U.S. versions as a result of the flavoring.

Is Ajinomoto good for health?

Although the USFDA labeled the flavoring as “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) in 1959, it has remained that ever since. The “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” entered the medical literature, citing the numerous side effects including heart palpitations and numbness that people experienced after consuming MSG.

According to Wikipedia, the “MSG symptom complex” was originally called the “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” when a man with the name Robert Ho anecdotally reported the symptoms he felt after an American-Chinese meal. Kwok suggested multiple reasons behind the symptoms, including alcohol from cooking with wine, the sodium content, or the MSG seasoning. But MSG became the focus and the symptoms have been associated with MSG ever since. The effect of wine or salt content was not studied.

Why is MSG so dangerous?

Accordingly to Dr. Russell L. Blaylock who wrote the book “Excitotoxins: The taste that Kills.” He defined excitotoxins (that can be found in MSG, aspartame etc) as substances added to foods and beverages that literally stimulate our neurons to death, causing brain damage of unpredictable degrees. Dr. Blaylock covers many studies in his book that explores the dangers aspartame, MSG, and other substances added to our food. This is an enlightening book that should be read by anyone who is concerned with his or her diet and health.

Other side effects related to consumption of MSG as reported as:

• Obesity
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Disorientation
• Headaches

So speaking about food addictive on the whole, if food is processed, you can generally assume that it contains MSG (or some of its elements). This is why you need to stick with whole, fresh foods that will give you a better assurance that you’ll avoid this toxin. Also be careful when you dine at restaurants since MSG is widely used to improve the flavor of food, especially food that may not be as fresh. As much as you can, cook your own natural food at home and I guarantee that you will be a healthier person with lots more energy. The only exception to eating in restaurants is to eat in places you know well that do not use food addictive or who will not add MSG if you tell them not to.

Reference:

Monosodium Glutamate | Psychology Wiki | Fandom Powered By .., http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Monosodium_Glutamate (accessed August 13, 2018).

Monosodium Glutamate From Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate (accessed August 13, 2018).