Many “healthy” and vegetarian foods contain MSG in the form of yeast extract
Mike Adams
NaturalNews
There’s a great deal of deception in the labeling of food products found at your local grocery store and even at many health food stores. A disturbing trend I’ve noticed is that many vegetarian products and grocery items billed as “healthy” or “natural” are using chemical additive taste enhancers found in an ingredient listed right on the label.
The taste enhancer is MSG — monosodium glutamate — a chemical that has been associated with reproductive disorders, migraine headaches, permanent damage to the endocrine system leading to obesity and other serious disorders. MSG is a chemical compound that simply does not belong in the body in the concentrations provided by these foods. It is used by food manufacturers as a taste enhancer — something to cover up the bland tastes of these foods and make them more appealing to consumers. But food manufacturers don’t want to list MSG on the labels, especially when they know that consumers will avoid purchasing products that list MSG.
Yeast Extract contains MSG
So what do they do instead? They hide the ingredient in another ingredient called “yeast extract“, then they put yeast extract in the product and list “yeast extract” right on the label. So this is the scam: all sorts of natural health products and vegetarian products are using chemical taste enhancers in the form of yeast extract but failing to disclose to consumers that they actually contain MSG. And if you look around at the natural health products in health food stores and grocery stores, you’ll find that yeast extract is a rather prominent ingredient. It’s used in soups, in vegetarian mixes, in some tofu mixes, and even so-called natural frozen foods.
I can personally verify that yeast extract has the same effect as MSG, because I am an individual who is extremely sensitive to MSG. Upon consuming even a small amount of MSG, I experience a severe headache that lasts for 6 to 8 hours. Consuming yeast extract causes precisely the same effect as consuming MSG.
In fact, food manufacturers don’t deny that yeast extract contains MSG — it’s something that’s well-known in the food manufacturing industry. What’s going on here is a blatant deception — an attempt to mislead consumers by essentially renaming dangerous ingredients with harmless sounding names such as “yeast extract”. I believe this practice to be irresponsible and unethical, and I strongly urge you to not only avoid purchasing products made with yeast extract, but avoid products from companies that use yeast extract in any of their products. It is simply a dishonest practice, and we should not reward companies that engage in such practices by purchasing any products they manufacture.
Unfortunately, many of these food manufacturers are creating products for the so-called health foods industry. In a way that is sadly all too real, traditional grocery products and processed foods will list MSG right on the label. At the same time, so-called healthy products will use yeast extract, so they can avoid mentioning MSG on the label. Yet, both products contain MSG, and both products carry the risk of toxic side effects associated with MSG.
So, are you any safer by purchasing health foods rather than traditional grocery store foods? The answer is that you should avoid purchasing processed foods at all, regardless of what health claims are made on the label. Processed foods are unhealthy foods, period. If you want optimum nutrition, and foods for which the human body was designed, you need to purchase and consume raw ingredients, such as vegetables, fruit, nuts, whole grains, and healthy oils. It’s also a good idea, as you’ve often heard me recommend here, to supplement your diet with whole food supplements, organic vitamins, and superfoods, such as chlorella, spirulina, broccoli sprouts and sea vegetables. This is the way to achieve optimum nutrition, not by purchasing processed foods that are disguised as healthy foods, even though they contain ingredients known to induce toxic side-effects in the human body.
But don’t take my word for it — check it out yourself. Next time you go to a health food store, look at the product boxes and cans on the shelves, and see just how many you can find that contain yeast extract. It’s especially easy to find with vegetarian foods, which just goes to show you that just because a product says “vegetarian” on the label doesn’t mean it’s good for you (or that the company making it gives a hoot about your health).
http://www.naturalnews.com/001528.html
I too am sensitive to MSG, or to be more precise, the unnatural presence of high concentrations, or high doses of glutamic acids in foods. A note to author Mike: It’s important to be precise when you write about this subject. You are incorrectly referring to MSG as the stuff that is hidden by other names. Not true. MSG, is monosodium glutamate. By its name you can see that it is a compound of sodium and a glutamic chemical complex. MSG is simply a “salt” of glutamate, developed by the Ajinomoto company to make glutamic acid marketable, transportable, and storable, by turning it into a dry crystalline powder product. As soon as the MSG gets cooked into food, or into your saliva, the MS part breaks away from the G part, giving you, among other food flavors, the strong (that’s the G doing its work) salty taste. You wrote, “…a taste enhancer — something to cover up the bland tastes of these foods…” Well, not really to “cover up”. You got the first part right. The actual mechanism by which the glutamate “enhances” the flavor. It does not do anything to the food. Food processors understand that the stuff that provides flavor is expensive. If your canned soup recipe calls for 3 chickens in the pot, you can alternatively put just one chicken, and dump a spoonful of MSG (or any of its equivalent glutamic products), and you get 3 chickensworth of flavor. But how??? It is essentially a drug — yes, a drug — that alters the function of the neurons connected to your taste buds. If you read any text book on neurochemistry, probably the most common word you will find throughout, is “glutamate”. Neurotransmitters use glutamate to function. Overdose a neurotransmitter with glutamate, and your taste bud’s essentially on speed. So, what does it do to the rest of the neurons in your body? You get the picture…
Hi Dan, thank you for writing. I am guessing you probably have only read this one posting on my website and are speaking solely in relation to this post. If you you read other articles/posts on the site you will notice I “Constantly” pre-face just about every mention of the mention of MSG with “free glutamic acid” when referring to the “other names” of MSG. You are correct, MSG and the “other names” are not technically the same thing, but they are in the sense that they all contain “free glutamic acid/glutamate” which is what makes MSG what it is. The only other part of MSG is the salt, which makes no difference whatsoever when speaking strictly of the effects of MSG. Please take some time to read some of my other postings on this site, you will quickly find that you may have spoken too soon. Best.
Dan,
You also have to realize that this article you have commented on is written by Mike Adams of NaturalNews.com. It’s a different Mike.