Hydrolyzed vegetable protein = MSG

The very term excitotoxin is from junk science.

Yes there are people who react badly to it and should avoid it.

I don't think that people who have no reaction should seek it out and I'm fine with avoiding it, which I do, but empty vilification is not productive nor honest.

Phil

Start googling and reading up on MSG, you'll be surprised. It isn't some Franken-chemical, but a natural deritive of the wheat family, and has been around since the late 1800's. So, naturally occuring MSG does exist, just as chocolate has naturally occuring caffeine.

If there's one stupid little saying that you should live your life by, it's: "Take everything in moderation".

MSG, in moderation won't kill you, nor will it harm your health. But to lock you up in cage and feed you nothing BUT MSG, probably will. Same goes for sacharine. Food is wierd, I remember growing up in the 80's and being bombarded by the media with it's message of margerine is good for you, it'll extend your life by at least 20 years, and butter will kill you, probably within 6mths. Bob was right, the times just keep on a'changing

Confusion reigns....

...and sometimes, moderation in moderation. :rolleyes:

But seriously, in this country we have been scared off msg big time. Preservative 621 as it's known here - people tend now to avoid it like the plague, due to bad/ill-informed? press.:confused: Gotta admit I'm confused but avoid it just in case. I've not looked into it - just wanted to share what the attitude here is to it.

OahuAmateurChef,

There is so much questioning around MSG (and the Chinese restaurant syndrom). I cover the subject in my classes.

Here are verifiable facts:
MSG is monosodium glutamate which is the salt of glutamic acid. Glutamic acid is a very common amino acid (one of 20 amino acids in total) used to manufacture proteins (tissue, muscles, enzymes, etc..)
Glutamic acid is a non-essential amino acid meaning we can manufacture it from other amino acids (proteins) in our food.
Glutamate (MSG) is essential in nerve communication in our brain (Neurotransmittor)
MSG is found in abundance in human breast milk (explaining why breast milk is salty). MSG is an appetite enhancer which coax the noursing baby to feed beyond it's satiety.
We humans are hard wired to seek the taste of MSG because it's presence is an indication that a food is high in protein hence nutritious. (an evolutionary survival trait of carnivores).
Today we humans have duped ourselves in our modern society in eating more then we should (obesity) because pure MSG (a powerful flavour and appetite enhancer) in one form or another is added to process food in exaggerated proportions that would otherwise be impossible to obtain from simple ingredients.
MSG development happens in recipes that contain protein and are cooked or fermented slowly (stew, soya sauce, miso). MSG development in a recipe is essential to making food taste good but comes with other amino acids from the brokendown proteins making stews lip smacking good. Process foods contain proportionally much more MSG versus all other amino acids hence making us eat more then we should (like breast milk for a baby). That is a big problem in a empty calorie food world like ours.

MSG is a neurotransmitter found in the heart, brain and circulation system. Some speculation have proposed that when consumed in too high amounts certain people may develop symptoms (headache, arrhythmia, high blood pressure, blurred vision, etc..)

MSG/Glutamate are found in abundance is tomatoes explaining why ketchup is so addictive (particularly to kids).

(i explain how MSG is manufactured in a simple broth recipe in this thread:
http://www.cheftalk.com/forums/food-...ful-broth.html)


Luc H.

Luc - thank you for that post -absolutely fascinating. I breast fed both my babies - they did make pigs of themselves and ended up tossing those cookies after some feeds (very pretty) - not all of it and not every time. They thrived all the same, so I guess they were gorging. Never knew that msg was in human milk.

My query would still be - is it harmful to everyone, or are only certain individuals prone to the side effects? The bad press its had here makes it anathema.

Has anyone heard any definitive research on this?

Thanks :)

DC

DC (and the others), here is a good site that, although bias against MSG, explains the science pretty well. It corresponds to what I have been reading over the years.

What exactly is MSG?

My take on MSG is that process foods contain way too much MSG compared to the other amino acids which signals to our evolved brain to overeat.
The Left-right handed argument proposed on the site is sound. (being a biochemist, I understand this argument very well and agree with it but it is difficult to explain in a post). Natural MSG is Left and chemical MSG is righthanded. Our bodies do not recognize righthanded MSG and may consider it a poison which may explain some symptoms (headaches, blurred vision, general malaise, bloating, etc) in certain people.

Interesting note: I read plenty of scientific articles to write my little column in a little community paper on a voluntary basis (one day I hope to find a way to make a living with this). An interesting observation is that it is very difficult to make rats morbidly obese. Scientists need to have obese rats to study the metabolism and how to prevent obesity in humans. The rats they use are called MSG-obese rats. They basically inject large amounts of MSG in newborn rats and feed them large quantities of HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). The result is impressive.
Coincidently, MSG and HFCS are very prominent in Western style processed foods and we are living in an obesity epidemic. Hard not to make the connection!
BUT! Like the cigarette causes cancer connection, transfats causes heart disease and carbon dioxide causes global warming, the MSG+HFCS and lifestyle causes obesity connection may take years even decades before becoming accepted as mainstream.

Luc H.