From the time they began revving up their propaganda until Kate Bratskeir’s article appeared in GoodRx (June 23, 2021), the Glutes had proclaimed that the glutamate in MSG was identical to the glutamate in plants, animals, and the human body. It’s one of their favorite things to say.
But now we find that the story has changed. Indeed, Kate Bratskeir informed us that “The glutamate in MSG is chemically different from glutamate present in food proteins.” And that, she said was “according to the FDA.”
This reminds me of the Glutes’ mantra about MSG having been safely used in food for over 2,000 years. That changed shortly after The Truth in Labeling Campaign began pointing out, repeatedly, that MSG was invented in 1908. Looks like now someone in one of Ajinomoto’s public relations firms read ‘Seven lines of evidence leading to the conclusion that manufactured free glutamate, no matter where it is found, is excitotoxic,’ or read one of Adrienne Samuels’ Citizen Petitions providing data to support the request that the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status of monosodium glutamate be revoked.
You may not be paying a great deal of attention to the warnings of the Truth in Labeling Campaign but the Glutes certainly are. They seem to be extremely careful about being caught in a lie. And while one way to avoid that is to cautiously not respond to allegations (just like they never responded when it was pointed out that the placebos used in their double-blind studies cause reactions identical to those caused by MSG), a second way is to change out the lie they’ve been telling for a lie less likely to be discovered.
In this case, the Glutes have moved their emphasis from “the glutamate in MSG is identical to the glutamate in plants, animals, and the human body,” to “Our bodies metabolize both [the glutamate in MSG and the glutamate present in food proteins] in the same way.”
Why bother? What’s the big deal? The big deal is that while the Glutes have insisted that the two glutamates are identical, Adrienne Samuels has explained how the two forms of glutamate differ. And rather than take the chance that some media source slips out from behind the veil of silence that the Glutes have had in place since the 1991 60 Minutes program on MSG, and actually broadcasts the truth about the toxicity of MSG, they’ll change out one lie for another one that won’t be as easily invalidated.
The fallback to the metabolism of glutamate is a no-brainer, for there’s no research on the subject. Certainly there are studies of the metabolism of glutamic acid (on November 28, 2021, 8,223 such studies were cited on pubmed.gov). But there’s been no study of the metabolism of MSG. While “metabolism” of MSG has been mentioned many times, often by Glutes saying that the metabolism of the glutamate in MSG and the metabolism of glutamate from plant and animal proteins do not differ, there has been no study of the metabolism of MSG.
Another way to avoid being caught in a lie about the safety of MSG would be to simply stop lying about the safety of MSG.
Resources
Seven lines of evidence leading to the conclusion that manufactured free glutamate, no matter where it is found, is excitotoxic. https://7lines.org and https://bit.ly/3vkZ6Cl
Citizen Petition #1
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FDA-2021-P-0035-0001
Citizen Petition #2
https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2021-P-0267-0001
Citizen Petition #3