Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

Tefal said:
But it tastes nice?
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Of itself, it has no flavour.

The only reason the mass production cheapo food industry add it is that its cheaper and lasts years compared to the flavours founds naturally in the food, which obviously perishable. Classic example of something that's unnatural.
 
JBuk said:
Lots of things could be deemed as unnecessary but we still have them
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Indeed, but there's no need to add an artifical substance to food when there is plenty of natural, wholesome foods which taste just as good, some even better, and tend to make you feel better for eating them.
 
I don't personally have a problem with MSG used sparingly but then I wouldn't eat a KFC and I make most of my Chinese food myself. It's a flavour enhancer so it should only really be used if the food was a bit lacking in something.
 
To those people telling me MSG isnt a depressant I suggest you just hit google up, glutamate is one of the chemicals in your brain that leads to a depressed mood state, some anti-depressants are essentially glutamate receptor blockers...There have been trials for all this, hell the US Army have done one unintentionally by sticking MSG all over there ration packs and suddenly their suicide rates jumped through the roof.

Hawker
 
You know when you have a chinese and think 'I could eat that again'. This is one of the properties of MSG. It confuses the body into thinking its hungry when its not. Think of a food you just like to non-stop much on, and it may well have msg...eg pringles.
 
hawker1986 said:
To those people telling me MSG isnt a depressant I suggest you just hit google up, glutamate is one of the chemicals in your brain that leads to a depressed mood state, some anti-depressants are essentially glutamate receptor blockers...There have been trials for all this, hell the US Army have done one unintentionally by sticking MSG all over there ration packs and suddenly their suicide rates jumped through the roof.

Hawker
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Links?

All I can find are a few sites that don't have any conclusive proof
 
hawker1986 said:
To those people telling me MSG isnt a depressant I suggest you just hit google up, glutamate is one of the chemicals in your brain that leads to a depressed mood state, some anti-depressants are essentially glutamate receptor blockers...There have been trials for all this, hell the US Army have done one unintentionally by sticking MSG all over there ration packs and suddenly their suicide rates jumped through the roof.

Hawker
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evidence?
MSG is motablised and the body produces it's own Glutamate which is found in the body.
glutamate is found naturally in a lot of food sources including human milk and is produced by our own bodies.

In 1959, FDA classified MSG as a "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS, substance, along with many other common food ingredients, such as salt, vinegar, and baking powder. This action stemmed from the 1958 Food Additives Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which required premarket approval for new food additives and led FDA to promulgate regulations listing substances, such as MSG, which have a history of safe use or are otherwise GRAS.

Since 1970, FDA has sponsored extensive reviews on the safety of MSG, other glutamates and hydrolyzed proteins, as part of an ongoing review of safety data on GRAS substances used in processed foods.

One such review was by the FASEB Select Committee on GRAS Substances. In 1980, the committee concluded that MSG was safe at current levels of use but recommended additional evaluation to determine MSG's safety at significantly higher levels of consumption. Additional reports attempted to look at this.

In 1986, FDA's Advisory Committee on Hypersensitivity to Food Constituents concluded that MSG poses no threat to the general public but that reactions of brief duration might occur in some people.

Other reports gave similar findings. A 1991 report by the European Communities' (EC) Scientific Committee for Foods reaffirmed MSG's safety and classified its "acceptable daily intake" as "not specified," the most favorable designation for a food ingredient. In addition, the EC Committee said, "Infants, including prematures, have been shown to metabolize glutamate as efficiently as adults and therefore do not display any special susceptibility to elevated oral intakes of glutamate."

A 1992 report from the Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association stated that glutamate in any form has not been shown to be a "significant health hazard."

Also, the 1987 Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization have placed MSG in the safest category of food ingredients.

Scientific knowledge about how the body metabolizes glutamate developed rapidly during the 1980s. Studies showed that glutamate in the body plays an important role in normal functioning of the nervous system. Questions then arose on the role glutamate in food plays in these functions and whether or not glutamate in food contributes to certain neurological diseases.
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FASEB completed the final report, over 350 pages long, and delivered it to FDA on July 31, 1995. While not a new study, the report offers a new safety assessment based on the most comprehensive existing evaluation to date of glutamate safety.

Among the report's key findings:

* An unknown percentage of the population may react to MSG and develop MSG symptom complex, a condition characterized by one or more of the following symptoms:
* burning sensation in the back of the neck, forearms and chest
* numbness in the back of the neck, radiating to the arms and back
* tingling, warmth and weakness in the face, temples, upper back, neck and arms
* facial pressure or tightness
* chest pain
* headache
* nausea
* rapid heartbeat
* bronchospasm (difficulty breathing) in MSG-intolerant people with asthma
* drowsiness
* weakness.

* In otherwise healthy MSG-intolerant people, the MSG symptom complex tends to occur within one hour after eating 3 grams or more of MSG on an empty stomach or without other food. A typical serving of glutamate-treated food contains less than 0.5 grams of MSG. A reaction is most likely if the MSG is eaten in a large quantity or in a liquid, such as a clear soup.

* Severe, poorly controlled asthma may be a predisposing medical condition for MSG symptom complex.

* No evidence exists to suggest that dietary MSG or glutamate contributes to Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's chorea, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, AIDS dementia complex, or any other long-term or chronic diseases.

* No evidence exists to suggest that dietary MSG causes brain lesions or damages nerve cells in humans.

* The level of vitamin B6 in a person's body plays a role in glutamate metabolism, and the possible impact of marginal B6 intake should be considered in future research.

* There is no scientific evidence that the levels of glutamate in hydrolyzed proteins causes adverse effects or that other manufactured glutamate has effects different from glutamate normally found in foods.
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Look at the word MAY even that has not been proven.
 
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http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/63/8/856

Basically that gives some credit to the theory that high levels of free glutamic acid (which is the metabolite of MSG) affects depression.

Im not in the hospital ATM and ive not got my account set up yet to let me onto the medical trial databases etc so I cant do a proper search, but simply theoretically knowing that glutamic acid levels affect dopamine and prolactin levels directly you should be able to see there will be a depressant affect, amongst others.

Hawker
 
if this caused suicide rates to jump through the roof in teh army china should have an absolutely massive suicide rate shouldn't it?
 
Tefal said:
if this caused suicide rates to jump through the roof in teh army china should have an absolutely massive suicide rate shouldn't it?
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If its been in their diets for so long then theyll be used to those levels and over time their metabolisms will have adapted...
 
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