MSG makes people fat or fatter….

Today's post: Thursday, 8-14-2008

Health writer & expert Dr Russell Blaylock long ago began saying that in his opinion MSG & similar compounds in the class of things he calls excitoxins will tend to make you fat or fatter than you should be.

I have heard separately that others believe ingesting MSG may cause brain problems in some people but never had that confirmed in actual studies I’ve read myself.

It is well established that if you go to a Chinese restaurant that uses a lot of MSG you may feel too warm and flushed a bit after eating there. This “Chinese restaurant syndrome” can also cause headaches.

If you are sodium sensitive and have high blood pressure, it’s also important to realize that MSG is a shorthand way to write mono sodium glutamate & is a source of sodium you might better avoid for that reason.

And, Dr Blaylock also lists a very large list of names that appear in food labels that may mean that MSG is used as these misleading names are used to disguise the fact that the food actually contains MSG. Autolyzed yeast is one that I had seen before and had assumed it actually was some kind of yeast. Apparently, it is MSG instead. Even worse, if a product lists “other spices” or “other natural flavoring agents” that may mean that they include MSG but don’t desire to disclose it.

With this background, I decided to make sure we didn’t use MSG as a “meat tenderizer” in our cooking and to avoid buying products that listed MSG or autolyzed yeast. I also began to make sure to eat as few foods that listed “other spices” or “other natural flavoring agents” as possible and to not buy such foods at all unless this ingredient was listed last indicating this category was quite small.

I also prefer to eat in Chinese restaurants that have a sign or state or their menu that they do not use MSG – or I ask to have our food prepared without it.

These steps do not eliminate any MSG from my food because I do use some mustard a few times a week, which lists “other spices” as its last ingredient and because other restaurant food likely contains MSG sometimes. But it does minimize the amount I eat quite a bit.

Today, I read that researchers studied a large group of people in China some of whom used no MSG in cooking their food and some of whom used a lot.

The people who used a lot of MSG were indeed significantly fatter than the people who did not.

Did they eat more or exercise less than the people who used none? The report I read said that no they did NOT. It said that their results found that given the same amount of exercise and the same amount of calories eaten the people who used MSG, particularly a lot of MSG, were still fatter than the people who used none.

So, if you are one of the many people who are fatter than you would like or should be or you are working to prevent that from happening, this research shows you would do well to avoid MSG in your food as much as you possibly can.