MSG Exposed (Monosodium Glutamate)

In 1968 Dr. John Olney started conducting experiments on mice using MSG. (Mice are frequently used as test animals because they react most like humans to MSG.) Obsessed with the microscopic changes in the brains of the mice he overlooked something quite dramatic first noticed by his assistant. She pointed out to him that all of the mice were grossly obese. At first he thought it was just a fluke, but as the experiment progressed he noticed that indeed all the mice fed MSG became grossly obese.

MSG fed rodent

Since his early observation, other studies have confirmed that MSG causes gross obesity in animals. At an international neuroscience meeting, Dr. Olney was asked if he thought the reason AMericans were so obese was, inf act, due to their high consumption of MSG additives. The question was never answered, but since that conference in the 1970′s, America has undergone this virtual epidemic of gross obesity, especially among its youth.

While most will attribute the problem to children’s couch-potato lifestyles or diets high in sugar and other forms of carbohydrate and fat, other research has been conducted that sheds further light on the theory of MSG-induced obestity. One study discovered that animals fed MSG soon after birth preferred foods that were high in carbohydrates and low in nutritional value. They also ate less, but ate rapidly. In other words, they were eating like teenagers.

Researchers also found that this fat could not be exercised off and was extremely difficult to remove through dieting, no matter how astringent. Again, this is reminiscent of the problem in our population. Today, most processed foods contain signifcant amounts of glutamate, enough to produce injuries to our children’s brains similar to those seen in experiemental animals. This is extremely important when you consider that, of all the mammals, humans are the most susceptible to physical damage from ingested MSG. We possess a sensitivity five times greater than the mouse and twenty times greater than the rhesus monkey.

With this enormous consumption of foods laced with MSG additives, it is no wonder that we have an obesity problem in this country, especially when you combine the hyptothalamic lesion caused by MSG to the high-fat and carbohydrate diets of young people. Of particular concern is the suggestion that MSG ingested by pregnant women may actually cuase this lesion in children while they are still in the womb.

One of the worst offenders is pizza, especially commercial pizza. The tomato sauce is high in naturally derived free glutamate alone. When you add this to a liberal helping of MSG additive, you have a very neurotoxic mix. Add to that a twenty-once diet drink and you can see why we are having problems with obesity. Our children have become lab rats.

Excerpts from: Russell Blaylock M.D., Health and Nutrition Secrets that can save your life.

Sources:

1. Bunyan J, Elspeth A, Murrell A, Shah PP. The induction of obesity in rodents by means of monosodium glutamate.   British Journal of Nutrition 35(1976): 25-39.
2. Kanarek RB, Marks-Kaufman R. Increased carbohydrate consumption induced by neonatal administration of monosodium glutamate to rats. Neurobehavioral Toxicology Teratology 3(1981): 343-350
3. Nikoletseas MM. Obesity in exercising, hypophagic rats treated with monosodium glutamate. Physiology & Behavior 19(1977): 767-773.