The dirty secret of MSG - it's everywhere

A great big thank you for one who, like yourself, was sensitive to MSG for a long time without understanding that it was MSG that brought on his problems.

I can't believe that manufacturers are not required to indicate the presence of MSG on their food labeling. For people susceptible to MSG-induced migraines, that disclosuire could make all the difference between, say, enjoying a nice 4th of July weekend, and sitting in a darkened room with cold compresses to ease the pain. Putting it on the label is not a lot to ask.

To the Editor:

Thank you for printing the article entitled “The Dirty Secret of MSG -- It's Everywhere” in your July 4 edition. It is an article that should appear in every newspaper in this country.

The ever increasing use of MSG (monosodium glutamate or its reactive component), most often hidden in ingredients that have ingredient names that give no clue to its presence, is contributing greatly to a number of health problems that are increasing in incidence in our country. The literature clearly indicates that some people suffer from migraine headaches, asthma, seizures, heart irregularities, obesity, rashes or hives, and more from ingesting an amount of MSG that exceeds their tolerance for this toxin, and more recently have been implicated in the epidemic levels of diabetes.

The glutamate industry will likely submit a release in the near future to promote their claim that MSG is safe, and to refute the article you published. It will present industry directed studies that, among other things, include aspartame and other neurotoxic substances in placebos.

Especially with the current efforts to reduce health care costs, the time has come for our government to fully disclose the presence of MSG on processed food labels, and to take action against food companies that market products that state “No MSG” or “No MSG added” on the labels of prodcuts that include hidden sources of MSG .

Jack Samuels
President
Truth in Labeling Campaign
www.truthinlabeling.org

Bravo! Bravo! Thank you for posting your MSG experience. Sometimes I think I'm the only one around having to peruse labels of even a box of cookies someone generously brings to the office. The MSG eye headaches and blurry vision always show up either later that day or by the next morning and make it a miserable day. Well-meaning friends will tell me that, "Oh, this doesn't have MSG in it. I checked the ingredients label." At the risk of acting like I don't trust them, I look at the label, sometimes waiting until they aren't looking, realizing that MSG also hides in modified food starches, autolyzed yeast, and various other weird ingredients besides that now dreaded "natural flavors".

I hate having to tell the McDonald's counter-person, "no ketchup, no mustard, and no mayonnaise, please." I like ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise! But watch out for McDonald's mayonnaise. That stuffs laced with MSG. I gripe to my family, but I usually don't bother anyone else about it. I just wish there more public awareness that we are all being poisoned and that your headaches or your new eye-glasses might be due to your friendly food-makers' heavy usage of MSG!

At last! Responsible parties are taking charge to protect the public from toxic chemical additives. It's too bad, though, that the FDA isn't watching out for consumers. Still, this looks like an excellent and pro-active response to a bad situation that is sure to help many -- especially children -- and, importantly, reduce health care costs. I wish they'd even take it a step further and require it for pet foods, too.

Excellent article. Thanks to the Daily News for publishing it!

As Upton Sinclair said: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it." That is why this brilliantly researched article is merely the first blast of the trumpet against the dangers of MSG. Because MSG is a highly useful additive. It makes processed junk food taste edible, it perks up wilted vegetables, it has a vital place in the constant struggle of food manufacturers to make foodstuff taste like actual food. And yes, sorry, it causes damaging side effects in a great many people, which is why we have the term "collateral damage." Because MSG is so useful, the fight must focus on misleading labeling, so that those millions of people for whom the ingestion of MSG means real trouble can have some way to stay away from it.

Excellent, informative article. I had no idea MSG masqueraded under so many different names.

I didn’t realize that msg was so prevalent in many different kinds of foods. I too was one that thought it was only in Chinese foods. But, as in many other aspects of my life as I age, I am relaying more on myself studies as apposed as to what the government is telling me is good for me and my family. Thank you for educating me (public) on this very important subject as I will pass this article onto my all networks and especially my new www.fitatforty.ning.com .(a health site for women over forty) The laws do need to change and away with the curse of the MSG dirty little secret. Here is to a healthy life and healthier Americans ! Cheers to you Charlotte Laws please keep up the great work!

It was great to read this article about the many ways MSG is deliberately hidden in our foods. It took me years of record keeping to isolate my migraine problem -- and I have lost faith in our Food and Drug Administration because they are in a state of denial about this matter. The fresh unprocessed food alternative is now being threatened if growers are allowed to spray everything witrh MSG. Please keep reporting on it -- and help us get this poison out of the foods and the market place -- and also out of our hair products and makeup as well.

I thought this was about Madison Square Garden. Have any secrets about Madison Square Garden? I need tix to the Knicks in the fall.

Bravo on your recent article in the Daily News...here's hoping the news will spread and accurate labeling be widely fought for...I particularly hope that the motion to fully disclose the presence however minute of MSG in our foods etc...specifically states that only the phrase "glutamic acid" or "MSG" be used and not the 43 other "innocent sounding" names.
To be really effective this should be made a federal FDA type law and not just a regional enactment..one small step for man..as they say

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Topix robot scores 0 out of 10 for putting this in homeopathy discussion !

Gotta love the ambulance chaser lawyer post for the dude in L.A.... the post claims to be outsourced from New Dehli, India

scummy on top of scummy !

MSG causes none of these problems. In fact your body produces Glutamine. The Mono-Sodium is just salt. Maybe you should reduce your salt intake.

Hey LOL. Under what circumstances does our body release glutamine? Trauma! Also, glutamate is not a problem when it's bound, but when unbound it is an excitotoxin that kills neurons. This is not a guess. It's a fact.

As for you assinine comment, "MSG is just salt." It has salt, but is not just salt. You expect people to believe that glutamate is a form of salt?

Let me ask you another question, Shill? How much did the food industry pay you to post that comment?

Props to snabser !

It is well known that the $pharma industry pays out in excess of $30Billion annual to bloggers and unethical journalistas for spreading lies on demand; no doubt some MSG lobby has LOL hanging on thier leg..

snabser wrote:
>Hey LOL. Under what circumstances does our body >release glutamine? Trauma! Also, glutamate is not >a problem when it's bound, but when unbound it is >an excitotoxin that kills neurons. This is not a >guess. It's a fact.
>As for you assinine comment, "MSG is just salt." >It has salt, but is not just salt. You expect >people to believe that glutamate is a form of >salt?
>Let me ask you another question, Shill? How much >did the food industry pay you to post that >comment?

It should be a dead give away when you look at the ingredients on the side of a package of food. Does it concern anyone else that you can't even pronounce half of those items, much less find them in nature? I've been convinced for years that the FDA is in on it with the drug companies. Allow small amounts of poison into the body over a span of many years, causing all kinds of problems that no doctor ever cures, because we all know there's no money in the cure but plenty of money in the treatment.
Look at aspartame. Aspartame is safe when it's kept below 80 degrees. Well, no human's body temperature is below 80 degrees unless they're dead. When aspartame goes above 80 degrees it turns more or less into formaldahyde in your system. That's got to be great for the body!
And before you say it, YES, I'm paranoid, with good reason.

watch the video with Dr Russell Blaylock, Nutrition and Behavior MSG
also read Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills By Blaylock

August, you are not paranoid, you are just concerned about your health and what goes into your body. I wish more people would do the same.

How about the arguement that mercury is not dangerous, for example as tooth fillings and in vaccines. How crazy is that? Actually the word quack came from Europe and was initially used to describe dentists that wanted to used mercury for fillings.

David Hartley, where can you get info about spharma paying the big bucks for lying bloggers? It would be cool to know, as I see so many anti natural medicine people blogging lie after lie. It would help expose these nuts