Why is “No MSG” Food Important for You and Your Baby?

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is made up of two components namely, sodium and glutamate.

Glutamate is produced by our body in abundance indicating that there is no need for additional consumption of glutamate. MSG is commonly used as a flavour enhancer in soup, canned food and processed meat. Even though it is classified as being safe for consumption, there may be some adverse reactions to food that contains MSG.  Due to this, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that MSG is listed on the label when it is being used in the food.

Adverse reaction to MSG in the short run include:

• Headache
• Burning and numbing sensations at the mouth, head and neck
• Hives
• Stomach upset
• Weakness

Consumption of MSG in the long run is found to overly stimulate our nervous system causing inflammation, nervous disorders and destruction of brain cells (Blaycock, 1997; Choi, 1988).

Furthermore, a study done on rats where MSG was given at (1.0, 2.0, 4.0 g/kg body weight, ig) simultaneously at 17–19 days of pregnancy shows that MSG affects the fetal’s brain development (Yu et al, 2006) such as “abnormal learning, seizures risk, impaired learning, addiction risk, and behavioral, emotional control, and endocrine problems later in the baby’s life” (Blaycock, 2007).

Given that humans are 5 times more sensitive than rats and infants are 4 times more sensitive to MSG than adults, consumption of MSG during pregnancy is largely discouraged (Blaycock, 2007).

Additionally, it is proven that MSG causes destruction in retinal vision cells (Atlasz et al, 2008), thus impairs vision.

Even when the food claims that there is “No MSG” or there is “No added MSG”, this information could be misleading as there is no way to ensure that there is no MSG in your food even if it has been advertised that way. There are over 50 ingredients regarded by the FDA as either with “No MSG” or with “No added MSG”, which contains traces of MSG.

Claims such as ‘No MSG’ or ‘No added MSG,’ could potentially be considered false or misleading on foods that contain sources of MSG. In fact, MSG is masked in more than 50 FDA-approved ingredients where manufacturers can claim that there is no MSG simply but not adding monosodium glutamate on the labelling.

Always AVOID ingredients such as:

• Glutamic acid and/or Glutamate (E 620)
• Monosodium Glutamate (E 621)
• Monopotassium Glutamate (E 622)
• Calcium Glutamate (E 623)
• Monoammonium Glutamate (E 624)
• Magnesium Glutamate (E 625)
• Natrium Glutamate
• Yeast extract, yeast food, yeast nutrient
• Anything that is “hydrolyzed” or any “hydrolyzed protein”
• Calcium caseinate
• Sodium caseinate
• Brewers’ yeast
• Autolyzed yeast
• Textured protein
• Vetsin
• Soy protein
• Soy protein isolate
• Whey
• Whey protein isolate
• Disodium 5’­guanylate (E 627)
• Disodium 5’­inosinate (E­631)

Superlife Co’s products are MSG free. View them here

References

• Atlasz, T., Szabadfi, K., Kiss, P., Babai, N., Koszegi, Z., Tamas, A., & Gabriel, R. (2008). PACAP-mediated neuroprotection of neurochemically identified cell types in MSG-induced retinal degeneration. Journal of molecular neuroscience, 36(1-3), 97-104.
• Blaycock, R. (1997). Excitotoxins–The Taste That Kills. Sante Fe, New Mexico: Health p, 8.
• Blaylock, R. (2007). Food Additives: What you eat can kill you. The Blaylock Wellness Report, 4, 3-4.
• Choi, D. W. (1988). Glutamate neurotoxicity and diseases of the nervous system. Neuron, 1(8), 623-634.
• Yu, L., Zhang, Y., Ma, R., Bao, L., Fang, J., & Yu, T. (2006). Potent protection of ferulic acid against excitotoxic effects of maternal intragastric administration of monosodium glutamate at a late stage of pregnancy on developing mouse fetal brain. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 16(3), 170-177.