Yeast extract might well be called the darling of the processed food industry, and the straw that breaks the camel\u2019s back for MSG-sensitive people. Like MSG it\u2019s manufactured (not \u201cnatural\u201d), and also like MSG it contains toxic manufactured free glutamic acid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yeast extract is one of those \u201cclean label\u201d ingredients, often used in products such as soups and fake proteins that state \u201cNo added MSG\u201d on the label (which is actually against FDA regulations, but enforcing that rule is no longer bothered with by the FDA).\u00a0 Also qualifying as a \u201cclean label\u201d ingredient would be any ingredient other than MSG that contains free glutamate.\u00a0 (Check out over 40 ingredient names that contain varying amounts of free glutamate here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now we\u2019re learning of a recent invention, a method for \u201clarge scale\u201d production of a yeast extract product with nearly triple the brain damaging \u201cglutamic acid content\u201d of other yeast extracts. \u00a0Its patent describes how this new and improved yeast extract \u201cpossesses more delicious flavor and improved capability for food flavor enhancement.\u201d Glutamic acid, the patent states, in free form can \u201cstrengthen the delicate flavour of food.\u201d We\u2019re being told in this official document that the more free glutamate an ingredient contains, the more flavor it will impart to any food it\u2019s added to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The patent was applied for and owned by Angel Yeast Co., which calls itself a \u201chigh-tech yeast company in China\u201d with 10 \u201cadvanced\u201d manufacturing facilities in China, Egypt and Russia. Angel provides yeast extract to food manufacturers for use in everything from soup to snacks, promising its product provides a \u201cmagic flavor explosion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a \u201cmagic flavor explosion\u201d that comes with brain-damaging \u2013 excitotoxic \u2013 glutamate.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When consumed in excess (which differs from person to person), free glutamate becomes excitotoxic, with the capacity to overstimulate glutamate receptors in the body, causing them to fire rapidly and die. In simple terms, it causes brain damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We know that the new and improved yeast extract will contribute to the accumulation of toxic free glutamate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What we don\u2019t know is how much it will take to cause an excitotoxic \u201cexplosion.\u201d<\/p>\n