I 
found some interesting articles years ago linking the consumption of the food additive MSG (monosodium glutamate) to obesity. At the time, I had a difficult time finding reference articles to back up the research and theories, but recently I have stumbled across numerous articles about this very thing…. Must finally be catching on!
MSG is a food additive that creates a powerful taste sensation, and it resides in most processed foods… from potato chips to boxed rice mixes to canned soups. You know how it’s difficult to eat just one of those sour cream and onions potato chips… MSG is one reason why. MSG is an excitotoxin (in the same class as aspartame) which means that it overexcites neurons to the point of cell damage and eventually cell death. The big problem comes in becomes there is no blood-brain barrier in the hypothalamus and the excitotoxins can get straight to the brain. Research has found that MSG causes lesions in the hypothalamus, leading to obesity, short stature and reproductive problems (hello all you ladies with PCOS). It has also been found to increase the amount of insulin released by the body (ya know… the fat storage hormone) to 3x it’s normal amount!
Years ago when I first found out about this link, I was shocked to discover that not only did doctors and researchers know that MSG led to obesity, but they also used it to induce obesity! I went to the site
http://newenglandjournalofmedicine.com and put one little phrase in the search box…. “MSG obese rats” Article after article came pouring forth showing the use of MSG to induce obesity in the test subjects. Interestingly enough I just went back to the site and can no longer get the same results from the search. I’ll be checking it out more closely later on. You see, rats and mice are not obese in nature, but in order to research different aspects of obesity, diabetes and whatever else they were researching that required fat rats… they used MSG to induce obesity! Food manufacturers have known for years that they are in fact Making Us Fat… and so instead of removing the additive (which is addictive in nature, thus causing us to continue buying their crap)… they just market “diet” foods to us instead… it just makes my blood boil thinking about it! Also, because MSG raises insulin levels sharply, which drops blood sugar levels, it leads to you being hungrier than you would have been, and sooner than you would have been… thus causing the consumer to essentially consume more… hhhmmmm…. Yeah. That’s not on purpose, right?
This is just one more reason why eating clean, natural foods makes so much sense. The truth is, manufactures add so many additives, preservatives and chemicals to our foods that we have no way of really knowing what it is doing to us or our families. Also, these additives change our taste buds, the very way we taste foods. I have been so surprised at how wonderful REAL foods like fruits, vegetables and grains taste all on their own. It’s hard to taste just how very sweet a bell pepper is when you are used to consuming processed white sugar.
Now a homework assignment… if you are brave enough… take the list of MSG names below and go through your pantry right now and see just how many products contain them. Go be brave… you can’t act until you know! And if you are interested in learning more on this subject there is a book called The Slow Poisoning of America by John Erb. I have not read the book yet and so cannot vouch for it personally, but know that this man has done extensive research on the subject.
These are names manufacturers use to disguise MSG:
The following substances contain the highest percentage of factory created free glutamate, with MSG containing 78%:
- MSG Gelatin
- Calcium Caseinate
- Monosodium glutamate
- Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP)
- Textured Protein
- Monopotassium glutamate
- Hydrolyzed Plant Protein (HPP)
- Yeast Extract
- Glutamate
- Autolyzed Plant Protein
- Yeast food or nutrient
- Glutamic Acid
- Sodium Caseinate
- Autolyzed Yeast
- Vegetable Protein Extract
- Senomyx (wheat extract labeled as artificial flavor)
