Raw Life Coaching

For years now I have been on a mission to seek out and remove any and all sources of Monosodium Glutamate from my diet. As you likely already know, MSG is an excitotoxin that stimulates the nerves (often times to the point of damage) in order to make highly synthetic, processed, poor quality foods taste more palatable. It also stimulates the appetite so that you eat more than you would otherwise need or want to. Less known is the alarmingly common use of MSG to produce obese rats for scientific studies. Yes, MSG is used to get rats FAT FAT FAT in order to study the effect of drugs, etc on them. A quick search online will bring up research titles such as:

“The monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese rat as a model for the study of exercise in obesity”

“Insulin secretion in monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese rats submitted to aerobic exercise training”

If you are one of the few who needs to see for yourself to believe go to the National Library of Medicine at www.pubmed.com.  Type in the words “MSG Obese” and read a few of the 168+ medical studies that appear.

Most people I have talked to about MSG believe it to have been a problem in the past with Chinese food and that it has somehow been fixed.  It is true that most Chinese restaurants today put undisclosed amounts of MSG in their food, but they are not the only ones using this dangerous appetite stimulant.   As a note, unless you see “NO MSG” somewhere on the menu, they are probably adding it.   Ask for NO MSG, and watch them make a note as though you had asked them to hold the bamboo shoots.

In fact, almost everything you eat that is processed and packaged contains MSG in one form or another. The problem is the FDA only requires a manufacturer to list Monosodium Glutamate on the label if the item contains ABOVE a certain percentage per volume, and only if it is ADDED.  This is key as most of the MSG in the foods you eat is CREATED during the processing of the food and therefore does not need to be specifically disclosed.

So how is MSG created in food processing?

When certain ingredients in foods are processed (via hydrolization, autolyzation, etc) free glutamic acid is created. This free glutamic acid IS MSG, but does not need to be labeled specifically as such since it was not technically “ADDED” by the manufacturer.

So how can one avoid MSG?

Unless one is eating a diet primarily of fresh, whole fruits and vegetables that you process yourself this can be a lot more difficult than one might think.

I recommend educating yourself about the many names MSG can be hidden behind on the labels of foods.   An excellent source is available at truthinlabeling.org:

Hidden Sources of MSG / Monosodium Glutamate

The #1 thing you can do today to minimize your exposure to MSG is to stop buying processed, prepackaged foods and start eating foods your ancestors would recognize… whole fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds.   The raw food diet is an excellent way to avoid most sources of MSG and provides your body with an abundance of enzymes and energy it can use to start removing the years of built up of toxins in the body.

Other things you can do:

Talk to your health food store proprietor when you find items containing MSG on their shelves.

Spread the word and let others know about these harmful toxins hiding in their foods.