Monosodium Glutamate

MSG or '2-phenoxy-ethanol' is an excitotoxin. It has been found to contribute to obesity, glaucoma, headaches, and will definitely cause my wife to have a serious asthma attack.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate. Ignore the old findings. It is the later findings that make a difference. Ignore FDA as there are in bed with the Drug industry. In fact most FDA employees are from the drug industry.

Here is some interesting reading

http://www.truthinlabeling.org

http://www.msgmyth.com/

Some people are allergic to it. Many Chinese restaurants have quit using it, and many more will leave it out on request. Unless you are allergic, or eat Chinese take out every day, you should be OK. (If you're eating Chinese (or any other) take out every day, you'll probably have lots of health problems.)

I think It makes a difference how much they use. There is some restaurants here in Ottawa that use so much, you can smell it as you enter.. OOOOh instant headache. We don't go there any more. One restaurant owner told us even though you may ask for no MSG, the spring rolls and egg rolls will still have some since they are pre-made by other sources.

I like our local Mongolian BBQ - everything's fresh, and they guarantee no MSG.

My problem is nitrites and sulfites. If I go to a restaurant with a salad bar, I'm almost guaranteed to have my hands break out in tiny blisters - they soak the salad fixin's in nitrites and sulfites to keep them looking fresh. Same for sulfur dioxide, used to keep dried fruit looking fruity.

Mongolian, Thanks I will have to try that.

Sounds like the restaurant owners are using more then allowed by regulation. From http://www.nettally.com/prusty/foodpres.htm "A
food manufacturer wanting to use sodium nitrites must show that
nitrosamines will not form in hazardous amounts in the product
under the additive's intended conditions of use. For example,
regulations specify that sodium nitrite, used as an antimicrobial
against the formation of botulinum toxin in smoked fish, must be
present in 100 to 200 parts per million."

Might want to report them to FDA. Even though nothing may be done immediately, as they may be within the current regulations; it requires many reports of adverse effects to lower the amount allowed.

I'm just allergic to it. I discovered it years ago when I used a sulfur based flea shampoo on my dog. The next day my hands were covered with thousands of blisters - it was nasty. And the only thing that helped was to pop all the blisters and dip my hands in alcohol! (Actually, I didn't make the correlation to the sulfur shampoo until a month later when I did it again - because I'm not bright like that.)

Mongolian BBQ is great. You get a bowl and fill it buffet style with raw meats, veggies, etc. Then you give it to a guy who throws it onto a giant (6 foot) flatten wok-like contraption to cook it. Best fast food ever.

Techno, I think you mean a maximum of 100 - 200 ppm. For example, if the produce had 50 ppm, it would be outside of your spec. The other major source for nitrites is on bacon and similar.

True, true, true, Let no error go unpunished !

I just copied a Quote. I guess I could have picked a better written one.

For the unread, all these fall under a common name - preservatives.They put them on just about all processed food.

With all the preservatives in our food, according to the local funeral home operator, a DB will not start to hum until about 5 days. Before preservatives it used to be less the 48hrs

What's a DB then? and by hum do you mean stink?

Al

By the way, thankyou all for the info.

Dead Body,

Yes

My pleasure, Think nothing of it. I really do like to help

I think it provides one of the basic flavours, the taste of protein called "Umami". Wiki as usual will have lots of good info. Since it's common in foods such as tomatoes, it must be completely "natural". The main problem seems to be when Cooks use to much (but this is also the case for salt, sugar, fat, spices and just about everything else). As usual there will be lots of unsupported nonsense against it, but this is true for just about everything these days. The net is a great thing but it does allow crackpots to spread their views widely. My Mum's advice "Eating a little bit of everything wont hurt you" still seems to hold. Jeff

Unless you are allergic to peanuts, then it will.

"Eating a little bit of everything wont hurt you",sounds like good advice at first blush, however, in light of the fact that we know that MSG kills brain cells, and is used routinely on lab animals to ablate portions of the brain, what amount would your mum recommend to be the collective lethal dose of the stuff. And what ingested amount is sufficient to produce one of the unique outward signs or symptoms, that most people ignore or attribute to other factors? And more importantly, how would mum recommend quantifying the amount of all free amino acids ingested in previous meals, that are still in the gastrointestinal tract, and calculate the dose in the "little bit of everything", one is contemplating ingesting acutely. One certainly cannot quantify this by looking at the current USA food labeling system. Try ooconsultants@consultant.com to run this by peeps who resolve free glutamate and other manufactured amino acid problems in pro athletes and others who don't have a clue about how this stuff affects us, and do this for a living. Skraper

It is a high test salt is the best way to discribe it.

Hi Alan, If its got an E-number then do not eat it,

As with any food ingredient, eating too much may lead to adverse health effect. Just like salt, eating too much salt may lead to high blood pressure, too much sugar may lead to diabetes etc. etc..

If you feel very thirsty after eating, it is mostly caused by MSG. It makes you feel you are longing for an ice cold beer after eating spicy chinese food.