Toxic glutamate in your food?

When I filed three citizen petitions with the FDA at the beginning of this year, I wasn’t expecting the Glutamate Association to respond. It typically never acknowledges anything negative about its flagship product MSG, that is loaded with toxic free glutamate. But this time it did.

Now, inspired by those comments from the “Glutes” I have produced a website dedicated to laying out the evidence behind the requests made in those petitions — one being that manufactured free glutamate (MfG) and those ingredients that contain MfG should be removed from the FDA’s list of GRAS (generally recognized as safe) substances.

It’s no secret that disease and disability may be caused, at least in part, by toxic chemicals released into the air and added to food. But while chemicals such as lead and asbestos and hazardous air pollutants are recognized as noxious by government agencies, poisonous chemicals used in foods and beverages are rarely acknowledged as such.

The website “Seven Lines of Evidence leading to the conclusion that manufacture free glutamate is toxic,” was created to draw attention to the class of chemicals known as excitotoxins – brain damaging amino acids – recognized by neuroscientists as being toxic, but not acknowledged by the FDA as such. 

Glutamic acid (as in pea protein isolate) and aspartic acid (as in aspartame), two of the three excitotoxic amino acids used in food, are being used as flavor enhancers, protein supplements, and low calorie (diet) sweeteners, added in quantity to infant formula, enteral care products, protein powders, dietary supplements, processed foods, so-called “plant-based” products, snacks, anything that is hydrolyzed, some pesticides/fertilizers and pharmaceuticals.

The FDA, EPA, and USDA will claim that the excitotoxins used in food are perfectly safe.  The evidence says otherwise.

You’ll find Seven Lines of Evidence at https://7lines.org/.  Please use the contact form at the webpage for questions and comments.

In Health,

Adrienne Samuels, Ph.D.
Director, Truth in Labeling Campaign

7 Lines of Evidence: Line 7

If you’ve missed any of the Seven Lines posts or would like to share them with people you care about, they’ll be available for a short time at https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/seven_lines.pdf

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If you have questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you. If you have hints for others on how to avoid exposure to MfG, send them along, too, and we’ll put them up on Facebook. Or you can reach us at questionsaboutmsg@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @truthlabeling.

7 Lines of Evidence: Line 6

Watch for our Seventh Line of Evidence next Tuesday

Stay tuned for Line 7 next Tuesday. There are Seven Lines of Evidence that lead inevitably to the conclusion that manufactured free glutamate (MfG), such as that found in hydrolyzed proteins and monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a well-disguised poison – a poison that may well be hidden in your very own pantry.

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If you have questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you. If you have hints for others on how to avoid exposure to MfG, send them along, too, and we’ll put them up on Facebook. Or you can reach us at questionsaboutmsg@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @truthlabeling.

7 Lines of Evidence: Line 3

Watch for our fourth Line of Evidence on Thursday

There are an additional four Lines of Evidence that lead inevitably to the conclusion that manufactured free glutamate (MfG), such as that found in hydrolyzed proteins and monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a well-disguised poison – a poison that may well be hidden in your very own pantry.

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If you have questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you. If you have hints for others on how to avoid exposure to MfG, send them along, too, and we’ll put them up on Facebook. Or you can reach us at questionsaboutmsg@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @truthlabeling.

7 Lines of Evidence: Line 2

Watch for our third Line of Evidence

There are an additional five Lines of Evidence that lead inevitably to the conclusion that manufactured free glutamate (MfG), such as that found in hydrolyzed proteins and monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a well-disguised poison – a poison that may well be hidden in your very own pantry.

**********************************

If you have questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you. If you have hints for others on how to avoid exposure to MfG, send them along, too, and we’ll put them up on Facebook. Or you can reach us at questionsaboutmsg@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @truthlabeling.

There are seven lines of evidence leading to the conclusion that the manufactured free glutamate (MfG) in monosodium glutamate is toxic: Line 1

Watch for the next blog

Over the course of the next few blogs the Truth in Labeling Campaign will be unveiling the Seven Lines of Evidence that lead inevitably to the conclusion that manufactured free glutamate (MfG), such as that found in hydrolyzed proteins and monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a well-disguised poison – a poison that may well be hidden in your very own pantry.

**********************************

If you have questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you. If you have hints for others on how to avoid exposure to MfG, send them along, too, and we’ll put them up on Facebook. Or you can reach us at questionsaboutmsg@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @truthlabeling.

There are seven lines of evidence leading to the conclusion that the manufactured free glutamate (MfG) in monosodium glutamate is toxic

Watch for the next blog

Over the course of the next few blogs the Truth in Labeling Campaign will be unveiling the Seven Lines of Evidence that lead inevitably to the conclusion that manufactured free glutamate (MfG), such as that found in hydrolyzed proteins and monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a well-disguised poison – a poison that may well be hidden in your very own pantry.

Look for Line One on Thursday.

**********************************

If you have questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you. If you have hints for others on how to avoid exposure to MfG, send them along, too, and we’ll put them up on Facebook. Or you can reach us at questionsaboutmsg@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @truthlabeling.

Sucker?

It sure is easy to get sucked into the “MSG-is-safe” advertising.  Let’s face it, they’re very good.  They’ve hired the best.  And we all can get pulled in.

I’m embarrassed to tell you how many times I’ve looked at the sentence “MSG is the salt form of the amino acid glutamate, which occurs naturally in a wide range of protein-rich foods and vegetables, such as shrimp, seaweed, and tomato,” and wondered if the sentence is designed to mean 1) “MSG,” a manufactured flavor enhancer, occurs naturally in food, or 2) “glutamate” occurs naturally in food.

It has only just occurred to me that the reader is supposed to come away with the idea that MSG occurs naturally in foods like shrimp, seaweed, and tomatoes.  That, after all, is one of the glutamate industry’s essential lies.

The truth is that MSG is manufactured.  It doesn’t occur naturally in anything. 

Here the lie is just put more subtly than usual.  Still, I can’t believe how long it took me to recognize this as fine-tuned propaganda designed to leave you and me with the misconception in our heads that MSG occurs naturally in food.  That’s how good they are at deceptive and misleading advertising.

In case you’ve missed the glutamate industry’s list of essential inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and deceptions we’ve recapped it here.

The six big fat lies 

#1: The glutamate contained in MSG is identical to the glutamate in the human body

#2: MSG is very well researched and found to be safe.

#3: It must be safe since the FDA has said so.

#4: MSG has been used for over a century without adverse reactions.

#5: MSG is naturally made, similar to yogurt, vinegar and wine.

#6: Monosodium glutamate occurs naturally in food. 

Actually: MSG is manufactured using genetically modified bacteria that excrete glutamic acid through their cell walls. In the United States, monosodium glutamate is produced in Ajinomoto’s plant in Eddyville, Iowa. 

The Ajinomoto plant in Eddyville, Iowa

The Whopper

Humans couldn’t eat enough Manufactured free Glutamic acid (MfG) to cause the brain damage, endocrine disorders, and assorted reactions that the laboratory animals had experienced. 

In addition to out and out lies, there’s the question of the ethics of omission of facts relevant to the safety of a product. The FDA says that it is illegal to omit relevant information when describing drugs.  That’s what the drug inserts are all about.  But according to the FDA – and the legislators who fund them – telling the whole truth about poisonous ingredients doesn’t hold true for food.

A big push has been launched in Nigeria to promote sales of MSG and the Nigerian branch of the Japanese company that now manufactures it.  As always, the propaganda aimed at Nigerians is attractive, persuasive, and delivered by authorities, celebrities and other “experts.”  Following are snippets (all of them lies) taken from a July 25, 2021 article in Punch:

“The safety of AJI-NO-MOTO® has long been scientifically proven and its safety approved by authorized agencies of the United Nations.”

“An extensive body of research which has been reviewed by scientists and governments around the world, including the US FDA, the American Medical Association, experts of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, World Health Organization and the European Commission’s Scientific Committee for Food demonstrates that glutamate is safe.” 

“Umami seasoning, according to [the subject of the interview] has been safely used as food ingredient since 1908 after it was discovered by a Japanese scientist, Dr. Kikunae Ikeda.”

“MSG’s 113-years history of safety validated by health organizations across the globe,” 

“MSG is found naturally in some foods including tomatoes and cheese.” 

“MSG does not cause allergy; it does not cause asthma– no link at all; it does not cause obesity; no adverse effect on the lung. Again, no study has shown any group of people not to take glutamate.”

“Almost all seasoning contains MSG”

For more about the dangers posed by coming in contact with MfG (the poisonous ingredient in MSG) and the people who manufacture and market it, see:

There are seven lines of evidence leading to the conclusion that the manufactured free glutamate (MfG) in monosodium glutamate is toxic.

Data that demonstrate that glutamate in human tissue becomes excitotoxic – brain damaging – when present in amounts that exceed what a healthy person needs for normal body function.

Animal studies done in the 1970s that have demonstrated the toxicity of MSG and MfG.
And:
https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/Data_from_the_1960s_and_1970s_demonstrate.pdf

Animal data offered inappropriately as evidence that MSG is harmless.

Alerts from independent researchers warning of dangers posed by ingesting MSG.

Human studies that have demonstrated the toxicity of MSG.

Glutamate industry human studies rigged to produce negative results (no harm done by MSG).

Thank you letters.