READ ME: http://www.rense.com/general52/msg.htm

No strain of rat or mice is naturally obese, so the scientists have to create them. They make these morbidly obese creatures by injecting them with a chemical when they are first born.

That Chemical ...... MSG

The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing rats (and humans?) to become obese They even have a title for the race of fat rodents they create: "MSG-Treated Rats"

I was shocked too. I went to my kitchen, checking the cupboards and the fridge. MSG was in everything! The Campbell's soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays flavored potato chips, Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen prepared meals, Kraft salad dressings, especially the 'healthy low fat' ones. The items that didn't have MSG had something called Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, which is just another name for Monosodium Glutamate (MSG!). It was shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our children everyday are filled with this stuff. They hide MSG under many different names in order to fool those who catch on. But it didn't stop there. When our family went out to eat, we started asking at the restaurants what menu items had MSG. Many employees, even the managers, swore they didn't use MSG. But when we ask for the ingredient list, which they grudgingly provided, sure enough MSG and Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein were everywhere. Burger King, McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, every restaurant, even the sit down ones like TGIF, Chilis', Applebees and Denny's use MSG in abundance. Kentucky Fried Chicken seemed to be the WORST offender: MSG was in every chicken dish, salad dressing and gravy. No wonder I loved to eat that coating on the skin, their secret spice was MSG!

So why is MSG in so may of the foods we eat? Is it a preservative or a vitamin?

There are several reasons:

• MSG tricks your tongue into making you think a certain food is high in protein and thus nutritious. It is not a "meat tenderizer". It is not a "preservative". The food industry is trying to confuse the issue by focusing on the "fifth" taste sense they call umami. Free glutamic acid is detected by the taste buds as a simple way to signal the presence of protein in a food, just as there are fat receptors to detect fats and receptors that sense carbohydrate or sweet flavors. The purpose is to help us discern real food from inedible matter. It changes your perception of not simply taste but the nutritious qualities of what you put into your mouth. However, and here is the main problem with free glutamic acid - It is the very same neurotransmitter that your brain and many organs including your ears, eyes, nervous system and pancreas in your body use to initiate certain processes in your body.
• MSG stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin. So many diets these days are concerned about the Glycemic Index of foods and yet none of them address the fact that MSG and free glutamic acid stimulate the pancreas to release insulin when there doesn't even have to be carbohydrates in the food for that insulin to act on. The food industry has found their own "anti-appetite suppressant". It's a convenient way to keep consumers coming back for more. The blood sugar drops because of the insulin flood. And you are hungry an hour later. Sound familiar?
• The body changes excess glutamate to GABA. GABA may be addictive. It is calming and affects the same receptors in the brain as valium.
• Cost. The illusion created by adding MSG to a food product enables the food processor to add LESS real food. The illusion of more protein in a food allows the food producer to put LESS protein in it. The consumer perceives the product - say chicken soup - to have more chicken in it than is actually there. Example: A well-known brand of dehydrated chicken noodle soup. Is that chicken in there, or a piece of confetti?

• Is manufactured MSG a problem?
  According to some MSG opponents the glutamate added to foods is "bad" and the natural glutamate in our bodies is "good". MSG sellers argue that MSG is exactly like the glutamate in the human body, therefore it must always be "good". It is not so simple. There are contaminants in processed MSG. An anology that can be used is that there are right-handed amino acids and left handed ones. They are like mirror images of each other. Processed MSG contains not only the kind of amino acids the body is used to handling, but mirror image ones too. This may cause problems because it is like putting the wrong glove on your hand. It's not quite the same. We don't exactly know what problems this may cause. On the other hand (so to speak) the fact that glutamate the body is used to handling is also in MSG may present a problem because an excess of naturally occurring glutamate is well known by neuroscientists to be a problem in many disease states. Natural glutamate can cause problems we already know about. The reason food processors "free" glutamate from its bound form, is that it acts as a neurotransmitter in its free form. The food industry's claim that free glutamate is as harmless as bound glutamate is disingenuous at best. If it was exactly the same, they wouldn't need to hydrolyse vegetable protein (split the amino acids apart).

"MSG is a flavor enhancer" - Dont Think So !

http://www.google.com/search?q=MSG+bad

 

damn them for tricking us.

 

... I eat what I want for the most part... Just control how much I eat.

Everything is going to kill you at some point. Your Heart beating is wearing out your heart, we should stop it. Breathing is killing your lungs, I mean they cant last for ever... Hold your breath more!

Get over it and enjoy life.

 

interesting

 

I just happened to see a commercial touting no MSG in there product, now I've heard the no MSG thing for years but finally decided to look into it a bit. Was pretty surprized by what i found

 

McDonald's does not use MSG in any of their products. I just went through their ingredient list for mcnuggets, fries, angus burger, cheeseburger, bbq sauce....none of those items or their components include MSG. Also, MSG does not cause obesity. Eating like a frigging moron does...Refined carbohydrates and lots of fat are the fastest way to gain weight and become obese.

The only real ill effect is that it causes the body to produce more insulin....It's been around for over 100 years and I don't know that anyone has died from it (this would be at the top of the search list), and it has been tested in the USA since the 50's. Don't worry so much! Anything that has MSG in it is probably food you should avoid eating anyways. There's only three ways a human has to be healthy - eat healthy food, rest well, and exercise the body. Hygiene is also important.

This was the one of the few decent answers I found:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...sg-bad-for-you
and

 

The other one is corn syrup, they replaced all the white sugar with it and it doesn't signal the brain to stop eating like sugar would, that's where the new Coke came from and them they went back to the old recipe so you wouldn't notice the big different in taste.

The sugar gave the Coke a brighter taste, so if they just changed it over night everybody would have quit Coke, but now it's in every thing too and helping us all get fat.

 

A while back I decided not to eat any more msg. I went to the store and started reading labels. I only found a handful of things that didn't have it. I realized the only way to not eat msg was to not eat at all. I settled for not buying pre-packaged foods. I think it might be impossible to avoid it entirely though.