Avoid the hidden fattener!....Today's post:  Thursday, 7-19-2018

Tuesday this week I got an email from the Health Sciences Institute which opens with this:

"It's the tried-and-true way to make an adult rat fat: Give it a shot of monosodium glutamate when it's a baby!

This isn't a brand-new discovery, either. It's how scientists "create" rats to fit experiments they want to conduct -- say for an obesity drug or something to do with diabetes.

This is common knowledge in the research world."

But when that insider information leaked out a number of years ago, those who profit from the use and sale of MSG were in a panic. And they've been trying to undo the damage ever since.

The latest effort is coming from a team of U.S. researchers who are attempting to tell us not only that we needn't worry about MSG-spiked foods making us fat... but that deliberately consuming this toxic food additive will result in eating less and making "wiser food choices" that will help us stay thin and healthy!

That, however, is some very dangerous advice.

Because not only is MSG still regarded as a well-known cause of obesity, but considering all of the other ways it can harm your body -- and especially your brain -- packing on the pounds may well be the least of your worries.

And that's why you need to remain as diligent as ever in eliminating every single source of this neurotoxic flavor enhancer from your diet by knowing -- and avoiding -- the names it hides behind.”

My comments:

MSG and related compounds do make many harmful but tasty semi-foods and foods sold for profit more addictive.

But MSG is so fattening it adds excess fat to you even if you do not eat more food!

That’s apparently because MSG is toxic to your mitochondria that produce all the energy all the cells of your body run on. 

A study of food in China found that people eating no or little MSG were lighter and far less fat than people eating the same food and the same number of calories where the food had lots of MSG.

This effect of MSG is a direct cause of increased aging and heart disease and heart failure.  It even makes it harder to recover from getting sick with the flu and worse diseases.

MSG is also quite harmful to you a second way.

It strongly boosts excess, chronic, inflammation which causes Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and makes type 2 diabetes and type 1 diabetes more harmful. 

High chronic inflammation also tends to cause problems for women in early menopause --including extra fat gain; and it causes some cancer and boosts most of them once they occur.

This very strong inflammation boost also helps cause AFIB where your heart beats very fast without slowing down.  This tends to cause heart failure and triggers strokes and heart attacks.

Here’s what the Health Sciences Institute also said:

“In May, I told you about a widespread media disinformation campaign that was trying to convince us that MSG is perfectly harmless.

This propaganda was all over the place, especially on Facebook. And now it's back with a vengeance.

The latest example is coming from researchers with some hefty credentials to flaunt -- Harvard Medical School and its affiliated hospital, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. 

But this kind of industry-sponsored hype is just as dangerous no matter what prestigious institutions it's coming from.

And what these researchers are telling us isn't even a half-truth... it's 100 percent wrong!

If you simply read the headlines, ones such as "Monosodium glutamate could actually be key to healthy eating," it sounds like some kind of scientific finding was made. 

But dive a little deeper, and you'll soon discover that this entire "study" really amounted to nothing at all.

The researchers followed 35 women (who were wearing special glasses that tracked their eye movements) around a buffet. Before setting them loose in the food line, however, half were given chicken soup laced with MSG. 

According to the "findings," the women in the glutamate soup group had "more focused gazes during the meal" (you can't make this stuff up!) and made better food choices -- "less saturated fats," according to these academic dimwits.

They also measured the brain activity in the MSG group as they selected foods, finding more "engagement" in certain areas of the brain in those who drank the MSG soup.

And that may be the only legitimate piece of information to come out of this drivel.

That's because MSG (along with aspartame) is a known poison for the brain, one called an excitotoxin -- meaning a substance that can literally "excite" your brain cells to death.

So, yes, they should have expected to see that brain "engagement." But what did it really mean? If we go by decades of past true scientific studies, it could have been a disastrous glutamate "storm" going on inside their heads!

This so-called research, which was funded by Ajinomoto, the leading manufacturer of MSG, won't be last you hear about turning this dangerous substance into something beneficial.

What will they say next -- MSG can make pigs fly?

As studies go, however, I'd give more credibility to people who claim to have seen Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster!

And along with its connection to obesity and neurotoxic effects, MSG has also been found to trigger asthma, eye problems, migraines, an irregular type of heartbeat called a-fib, and promote the growth of cancer cells, making it more likely that a cancer will metastasize.”

They then go on to say what to look for on the label to avoid it.

But since the makers of MSG know that some people know to avoid it and it’s not yet illegal to add to food or fail to disclose it has been added, I’ve found that it is far easier to avoid the foods it is commonly added to –

-- and to never buy a condiment or spice blend that lists “spices” or even “natural organic spices” on the label!

How common is this?  Every major brand of mustard I checked listed “spices” including Annie’s Naturals after Kraft bought them.

Health Food stores and Whole Foods sell Organicville yellow mustard.  It only lists the normal ingredients of mustard.  It does NOT add spices.  It works well as mustard too.

I’ve eaten some recently.

You also get a health and fatloss bonus by avoiding the foods MSG is almost always added to!

The rest of those foods are harmful or fattening -- and usually both -- besides having tons of MSG added!

Those foods are made out of proinflammatory refined grain hybrid wheat or contain herbicides and GMO ingredients or pro-inflammatory omega 6 oils or hydrogenated oils and excess sugar and high fructose corn syrup and the even more fattening artificial sweeteners.

Bottled salad dressing, for example, besides “spices” contain soy oil from soy that is from GMO grain and heavily sprayed with glyphosate containing herbicides.

Almost all foods in fast food restaurants and chain restaurants and even some better quality restaurants contain lots of MSG.

Most unfortunately, pizza and Thanksgiving turkeys are loaded with MSG.

You can make a good tasting pizza style food without grains and with cheeses and meats from animals fed their natural foods.  So you can still have pizza that is quite good without hybrid wheat or MSG.  But so far you have to make it at home.

I don’t yet know a work around for Thanksgiving turkey. 

Needle tenderized and slow cooked New Zealand grass fed lamb is quite good for holidays. 

But it would be nice to be able to have turkey with no MSG from turkeys fed only on unpolluted pasture.

I found out that Distel who talks a good game loads their Thanksgiving turkeys with MSG.

So, knowing why to avoid MSG, knowing why to avoid MSG; and always avoiding it is a double acting force for fat loss and avoiding fat gain!  

MSG fattens AND makes the fat harder to get rid of....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 6-17-2014

A.  MSG has been shown to increase fat gain even when the same foods without MSG do not.

To stay healthy and fully functional and look reasonably good, it’s important to avoid getting or staying fat.

If you are fat now, it’s equally or more important to permanently get rid of most or all of the excess in ways that boost your health NOT harm it.

The ideal is to eat and drink things that make this easy to do. 

For those who aren’t allergic raw, unsalted, and not oiled tree nuts do just that.  People who eat them take in more calories but are less fat and weigh less!

Green and nonstarchy vegetables allow you to eat large amounts of food, feel full, and take in very few calories and huge amounts of key nutrients of hundreds of kinds.

Three things do the exact opposite!

1.  High fructose corn syrup or high amounts of sugar or fructose in liquid form cause you to take in calories that do NOT make you less hungry.  Hello soft drinks! Then the fast blood sugar boost causes an insulin response that drives down blood sugar. THEN you get hungry for more.

Got that?  You take in fattening calories without reducing your hunger.  Then you get hungry! Bingo, the perfect fattener!

2.  Except for soft drink industry backed research, the rest show that diet soft drinks are even more fattening.  (Worse, the artificial sweeteners range from unsafe for some people to unsafe for everyone which recent research found is the case with Splenda/Sucralose.)

3.  MSG

MSG has been shown to increase fat gain even when the same foods without MSG do not.

The study of foods in multiple areas of China done many years ago when the ethnic foods were less eroded by “Western” influences found that people who used a lot of MSG were considerably fatter than people eating very similar foods who ate very little if any MSG.

Incredibly this was so even though both groups ate about the same number of calories a day.

This means that if you use quite a bit of MSG, you will be a good deal fatter even if you don’t overeat on the calories in your food.

So, the converse is true.  If you want to be trim or less fat without hassle, NEVER ingest MSG.

Where do you find it in your foods? 

To this time, although it could change, all fast food restaurants use MSG in virtually everything.  Almost all packaged dinners & snacks have MSG.   (It’s not only somewhat preservative, it’s somewhat addictive and adds an extra flavor boost to foods that would otherwise not taste very good. And, it’s cheap!)

But most unfortunately, that’s far from all.  Many people don’t want MSG in their food already.  But makers of condiments and spice blends like to use MSG because it’s cheap and gives their product an extra flavor kick.  And, there is not yet any law or rule making it mandatory to disclose MSG as MSG in all foods.

Two things happen to allow these companies to use MSG but not tell you on the label.  The use something that means MSG but doesn’t call it that or they pretend it’s spice and list it as such.

If a food has MSG on its label, don’t buy or eat any.  But also include foods that list autolyzed yeast, “natural spices” or just “spices.”  If it lists any of those as an ingredient do not buy or eat any!

For example, virtually ALL mustards and ketchups list “spices” on their labels except the 365 house brand and Whole Foods and those from Annie’s Naturals which is also sold at Whole Foods.

You really have to read the labels every single time to avoid MSG.  Even Whole Foods still carries spice blends and condiments that contain MSG.

(Note that the right amount of horseradish paste can give you a similar flavor kick in such condiments.  But you have to be careful since it is such a powerful and concentrated food. 

The much better news is that where MSG makes you fat and may also cause brain damage, horseradish is a cruciferous vegetable and very effective as a cancer preventer!)

B.  MSG has been shown to cause damage over time to the thyroid if you ingest very much of it too long. That also causes obesity by slowing metabolism.

Many women find they get fatter after menopause or even before it as they get older than 35.  But all women who have low thyroid do.  They have a bit less energy and their metabolism gets lower.  They eat the same as they used to do – maybe even good foods that normally are not fattening.  But they use fewer calories and gradually add extra fat.

We now know one cause of this is eating MSG over several years. 

So, if you don’t want this result AND that extra fat, do NOT ingest MSG.

C. The recent study we quote in this post even found evidence to suggest that MSG also causes fatty liver disease AND makes the fat it adds harder to lose than fat gained in other ways!

We list the link to that study next and quote from it some.

(Note that they say in their discussion that cutting back on calories does NOT remove fat gained from ingesting MSG.

The bolding of that section I did; but the researchers clearly thought it a serious finding.

The last thing you likely want is to eat something that not only makes you fat but the fat it adds to you is harder than normal to get rid of!)

“Monosodium glutamate, obesity and fatty liver disease   Thursday 29 May 2014

The commonly used food additive monosodium glutamate (MSG) has been linked to obesity and disorders associated with metabolic syndrome including progressive liver disease.

A new study that identifies MSG as a critical factor in the initiation of obesity

and shows that a restrictive diet cannot counteract this effect but can slow the progression of related liver disease.

   is published in Journal of Medicinal Food, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The paper is available on the Journal of Medicinal Food website.

Makoto Fujimoto and a team of international researchers from Japan, the U.S., and Italy monitored the weight gain and development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and its progression to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis in MSG-treated mice fed either a calorie-restricted or regular diet. They report their findings in the article "A Dietary Restriction Influences the Progression But Not the Initiation of MSG-Induced Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis."

"Although MSG has been deemed a safe food additive, its dosage, interaction with other drugs, effects on vulnerable populations, and effects on chronic inflammatory diseases and neurological diseases are unknown," says Co-Editor-in-Chief Sampath Parthasarathy, MBA, PhD, Florida Hospital Chair in Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Central Florida, Orlando, in the Editorial "How Safe is Monosodium Glutamate? Exploring the Link to Obesity, Metabolic Disorders, and Inflammatory Disease." The findings by Fujimoto et al. "may have far reaching implications, as childhood obesity is a major problem across the globe."

From:

Monosodium glutamate, obesity and fatty liver disease

http://mnt.to/l/4nyZ

The commonly used food additive monosodium glutamate (MSG) has been linked to

obesity and disorders associated with metabolic syndrome including progressive

liver disease.

MSG fattens and new info suggests it harms too....

Today's Post: Friday, 8-6-2010

MSG is commonly added to some kinds of spicy foods and spice blends.

It acts as a flavor enhancer by sharpening the sensation other flavors make on your tongue.

It’s other use is as a meat tenderizer.

Unfortunately, it comes with several problems that other methods to achieve these two goals do NOT have.

1. It helps make you eat enough more it will make you fat, particularly when it’s added to packaged snacks made of fattening ingredients – which is extremely common according to food writer/analyst Michael Pollan. The providing companies of course make more money if you eat more of the product and find it more addicting.

We did a post when the research came out showing that in parts of China that use a lot of MSG, people are fatter than in the parts where virtually none is used. As I remember, it was also found that adding MSG to the food people eat increased how much they ate.

2. I recently discovered that it very likely worsens bipolar disorder and its severe depression. And, it occurs to me that it may cause the disorder or cause a less severe version of it even in people not otherwise susceptible to the disorder.

It was in the online health news recently that the drug Ketamine temporarily but strongly turned off bipolar disorder. This is important as it may help doctors prevent people with bad bipolar depression from committing suicide. But I also noticed WHY it is thought to work. It seems that "Brain autopsies showed that glutamates are associated with bipolar disorder, and other studies have shown that blocking the glutamate-receptor link often rapidly lifts major depression, within two hours.

In other words if you don’t eat MSG -- or the other glutamates snack makers add to their snacks according to Michael Pollan – you may be far less likely to become severely depressed to begin with!

3. Avoiding MSG and the related glutamates in foods and spices is extremely difficult. Here are some tips to do so.

An easy way to begin is to NOT eat packaged snacks, chips, and the like. This also helps keep you from being fat since the other ingredients are things like salt, refined grains, peeled and processed potatoes, oils high in omega 6, or worse oils high in omega 6 that have been hydrogenated. Except for salt all those other ingredients tend to make you fat or sick. And, the excess salt most people get from eating these snacks is almost as bad.

But it’s NOT as easy as that unfortunately to avoid MSG.

Even without knowing that MSG fattens or may cause sever depression in some people, many people who read label already refuse to buy products with MSG listed as an ingredient. No problem! List it as autolyzed yeast or natural flavors or “spices.” The MSG of course is still there and there is just as much as there would have been if the real label had been used. But the people who read the label will still buy the product.

For example, virtually all commercial mustards list “spices” as an ingredient. So do almost all catsups and ketchups.

Ouch!

4. What to do instead:

Whole Foods Market carries at least one MSG free mustard.

Annie’s Natural brand has several versions of mustard. Their regular, yellow mustard does NOT list any ingredients except the traditional ones nor does it list “spices.” Since I don’t buy their other varieties of mustard such as honey mustard, I’ve not looked at their labels. But I think they pass on using MSG also.

There may be MSG free catsups also. Annie’s Naturals Organic is said to be MSG free as well. And, although I’ve not seen their label, if your local Whole Foods hasn’t got it in stock, I just found out you can buy a package with six 24 ounce bottles on www.amazon.com .

And, there may be other brands as well that are MSG free.

Also you can use health OK spices yourself to substitute for MSG but without its bad side effects. Cayenne or red pepper lightly used works well. Medium to heavy use of chili powder can work well. I’ve also liked the Cajun blend of paprika, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and powdered garlic. I find that those spices plus a good tomato sauce and a bit of extra virgin olive oil have a lot of flavor.

Many curry blends also work.

So, you do NOT need to use MSG to spice up food.

Tenderizing meat can also be done without MSG. There are special tenderizing hammers you can use. But slow cooking at a lower temperature in a crock pot for several hours also works and is far less labor intensive. It also helps to cut the meat into half inch cubes or so rather than larger chunks if that fits the dish you are making.