Are you still waiting for the FDA to remove MSG and MfG — manufactured free glutamate — from the FDA’s GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list? So are we. But it won’t happen. The FDA is on record as not doing anything that the Glutes don’t want them to do. So the chances that the FDA will ever respond to Citizen Petition FDA-2021-P-0035 are next to none.
There is a great deal of evidence that attests to the fact that MSG and its MfG component cause brain damage as well as adverse reactions like heart irregularities, asthma, and seizures. And there is absolutely no evidence that either MSG or MfG is harmless.
It’s all there for you to read on the pages of The Truth In Labeling Campaign Website (www.truthinlabeling.org). But to save you time here are a number of resources for easy access.
Review of animal studies done in the 1970s that have demonstrated the toxicity of MSG and MfG: evidence that the glutamate in MSG and other flavor enhancers and protein substitutes becomes excitotoxic – brain damaging – when present in amounts that exceed what a healthy subject needs for normal body function: https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/seven_lines/Seven_Lines_Lines2.pdf
Probably the most effective weapon in the arsenal of glutamate industry claims that monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a “safe” food additive is the often-repeated statement that “FDA considers the addition of MSG to foods to be ‘generally recognized as safe’ (GRAS).”
According to The Glutamate Association:
Over the years, there have been numerous reports or complaints from people claiming they had side effects from foods that have MSG. Those include stomach upset, heart palpitations or headaches. In the 60s and 70s, some used the derogatory term “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” because they believed that people experienced these side effects after eating Chinese food.
However, researchers have done numerous studies, and there’s been no concrete evidence that MSG causes these ill effects unless consumed in large quantities — 3 grams or more. Typically, an average food serving has 0.5 grams or less of MSG.
Because of this research, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classified MSG as GRAS or “generally recognized as safe.”
The flaw in industry’s argument lies in the fact that there actually is no research that demonstrates that MSG is “safe.”
There are several dozen studies that demonstrate that MSG, which contains an excitotoxic – brain damaging – amino acid, kills brain cells in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus causing gross obesity, infertility, behavior disorders and more.
There are a handful of human studies and a myriad of reports that MSG causes migraine headache, asthma, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, nausea, vomiting, seizures and more.
There are a dozen or so badly flawed double-blind studies wherein, among other irregularities, the placebo used was not of some inert material, but triggered reactions identical to those caused by MSG.
Moreover, by the FDA’s own admission, there are no studies that demonstrate the safety of MSG. Or, to say it more precisely, the FDA has not identified even one study that they have used to back their claim that MSG is “safe.”
According to law, to be designated FDA GRAS (generally recognized as safe), an ingredient must be tested for safety using scientific procedures (with the same evidence as required for food additive approval), unless it is known to be safe through common use in food prior to January 1958.
Since the MSG in use today only entered the market in 1957, no claim can be made that it was known to be safe through common use in food prior to January 1958. That leaves the requirement that ingredient must be tested for safety using scientific procedures. A requirement that has not been met.
How do we know? We asked the FDA to point to the studies they used in making the claim that MSG is GRAS. And guess what? They haven’t responded with a single study.
We also asked the FDA to removed MSG and its manufactured free glutamate toxic component (MfG) from the GRAS “list.” And guess what? They haven’t responded to that either.
So how does the FDA get away with declaring that MSG is GRAS when doing so puts them in violation of the law? Who is the glutamate industry operative at the FDA in charge of making it happen?
An interesting tidbit. When we last visited, restaurants in Washington DC that cater to legislators used little, if any, MSG. We know because Jack never ate anywhere without asking.
Dr. Stephanie Seneff’s new book Toxic Legacy: How the Weedkiller Glyphosate Is Destroying Our Health and the Environment, dissects the truth about glyphosate, a toxic chemical incorporated into hundreds of weed-killing formulations – the most widely known being Roundup.
Seneff, a senior research scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, documents the case against glyphosate, that she describes as a chemical that can deliver the “slow kill” as it gradually accumulates in your tissues and over time becomes the catalyst for some “horrible diseases.”
Seneff connects use of the herbicide with a long list of illnesses and conditions including kidney and liver disease, diabetes, multiple types of cancers, urinary tract infections, antibiotic resistance, mineral deficiencies, and the destruction of our beneficial gut bacteria leading to immune-system malfunctions.
If you follow the Truth in Labeling Campaign blogs or have visited our website, you know that we have lots of information on glutamate: How protein (meat, chicken, fish, milk, etc.) contains bound glutamate along with other amino acids that, when normally digested, are vital for normal body function. How manufactured “free” glutamate (MfG) which is found in monosodium glutamate (MSG) and dozens of other food additives, differs from the glutamate found in nature. And how, when glutamate is present in the body in excess, it causes brain damage.
Seneff, however, describes a new dimension of danger.
She links glyphosate exposure to glutamate neurotoxicity, noting that the weedkiller interferes with the mechanisms that prevent excess – brain damaging — glutamate from accumulating. As told in Toxic Legacy, “Roundup increased the amount of glutamate released into the synapse (the point of communication) by neurons. It also interfered with the ability of brain cells to clear glutamate from the synapses by converting glutamate to glutamine.”
Seneff describes the normal cycle of glutamate production and clearance, an amazingly complex system that depends on the trace mineral manganese to prevent the accumulation of excess – brain damaging — glutamate. And manganese “can be chelated by glyphosate, making it unavailable.”
As Seneff says, “There is no question that glyphosate disrupts glutamate.”
Seneff also makes it clear that excess glutamate “is a known factor in several neurological disorders, including depression. Abnormally high levels of glutamate lead to excessive oxidative stress in the brain, causing neuronal damage, particularly in the hippocampus.”
But avoiding glyphosate, like avoiding MfG, is a challenge.
Glyphosate-based herbicides, which are totally unregulated and available just about anywhere, are sprayed in back yards, driveways and parks. They are also doused on hundreds of millions of acres of genetically modified crops, such as corn, cotton and soy, and are sprayed on non-organic wheat, barley and oats to speed up drying. Despite the fact that glyphosate is considered a “probable” human carcinogen by the World Health Organization and currently the subject of thousands of lawsuits over its role in causing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other cancers, it sells like water in the desert.
MfG found in MSG, yeast extract, hydrolyzed proteins and dozens of other flavor enhancers as well as protein substitutes, shows up in processed foods from soup to nuts. In addition, the latest big sellers, plant-based protein foods, are typically loaded with MfG. The Impossible Burger, for example, contains six potentially brain-damaging ingredients that include soy-protein concentrate, natural flavors and yeast extract.
Despite the pervasive nature of both glyphosate and free glutamate, there are still some steps you can take to avoid these toxins as much as possible.
Glyphosate:
If you can’t implement a totally organic lifestyle, always shop organic for the Big Five GMO foods: Corn, canola, sugar beets, soy and cotton (cottonseed oil is used in conventional nuts and chips, while canola is used in just about everything, as is corn and soy);
Buy organic dairy as well, since genetically modified alfalfa is extensively fed to dairy cows;
Whenever possible, buy organic versions of any products containing oats, wheat and beans, which don’t have to be genetically modified to be sprayed with glyphosate as a drying agent shortly before harvest.
When outside, steer clear of areas that have had pesticides applied, sometimes indicated by a white flag.
Manufactured free glutamate (MfG):
Make it a habit to avoid processed foods, especially ones that say “No MSG added” on the label;
Even without the helping hand of glyphosate, MfG is associated with Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, MS, stroke, ALS, autism, schizophrenia, depression and many other neurological conditions. Remember, the brain you save may be your own.
The Truth about Gelatin originally appeared in Earth Clinic a top-rated alternative health website that features in-depth information and videos about holistic treatments (for both people and pets), home remedies and effective health-boosting uses for numerous everyday products ranging from coconut oil to hydrogen peroxide.
By Adrienne Samuels
You’re likely to run into gelatin in some surprising places. While it’s commonly found in foods such as gelatin desserts (think Jell-O), aspic, marshmallows, gummy candies, vitamins, and other supplements (including pill capsules), it can also turn up used as a binder in yogurt, ice cream, cream cheese and anywhere a food manufacturer wants to create a good “mouthfeel” for their product.
But like sausages, nobody wants to see how gelatin is made.
Most of the gelatin found in food and supplements comes from heat-degraded collagen derived from pigs and cows. It’s an ugly process that completes the cruel loop of factory farming by taking bone, stripped skin, and connective tissue from slaughterhouses and processing them (through acid, heat, and grinding) into an innocuous-looking, tasteless powder.
There’s nothing in that bouncy gelatin dessert or a smiling gummy bear that will give a hint of the cruelty involved in its creation. But ethical concerns aside, there’s much more not to like about gelatin.
The Gelatin – MSG Connection
Although it might seem that a marshmallow Peep has nothing in common with a shaker of the MSG flavor-enhancer Accent, they are actually related as both contain manufactured free glutamate.
Just as drugs have side effects, manufactured free glutamate has side effects such as irritable bowel, headache, heart irregularities, and skin rash. In addition, manufactured free glutamate is an excitotoxin: a neurologically active compound that in high concentrations has detrimental excitatory effects on the central nervous system and may cause injury to nerve cells.
Manufactured free glutamate is created in food ingredients when protein is broken down into its constituent amino acids. One of those amino acids will always be free glutamate. It is also mass-produced using genetically modified bacteria that excrete glutamate through their cell walls.
In the case of gelatin, the Encyclopedia of Food Science and Technology states that glutamic acid (a.k.a. glutamate) which makes up around 10 percent of gelatin, isn’t the only neurotoxic component released during the manufacturing process. Aspartic acid, another brain-damaging amino acid is also present at a level of around 6 percent. Both sources will cause the same adverse reactions in people, and according to experts like Dr. John Olney, both glutamic and aspartic acid will combine to produce a toxic double-whammy.
Might you have a noticeable reaction to a gelatin product? That would depend on your individual sensitivity as well as the amount of manufactured free glutamate you consume in foods along with the gelatin. And your sensitivity is something that can change with age, illness, if you suffer a head injury, or consume a large amount of manufactured free glutamate.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Look at any gelatin-containing product in the store and you won’t see any mention whatsoever of glutamic acid, aspartic acid (or pigskin and tendons being bathed in acid for that matter). But beyond packaging, which fails to disclose important information about the possible toxic effects of gelatin, are the lies circulated by Big Food to convince you to buy their products.
You’ll hear that manufactured free glutamate is “naturally occurring,” has been extensively studied and found to be “safe,” and the biggest whopper of all — that the glutamate in the human body is exactly the same as what you’ll find in foods such as gelatin. The real story is that all manufactured free glutamate contains impurities that are unavoidable by-products of the manufacturing process.
But what about “kosher” or even “vegetarian” gelatin, are those better choices?
A Fishy Proposition
Kosher gelatin can be derived from either fish or cows certified as kosher and killed in a specific manner. Since kosher rules prohibit the combining of meat and dairy, if you notice kosher gelatin in a dairy product, it’s probably fish-derived.
Fish byproducts such as skin, scales and bones contain high amounts of collagen, and the processing will release neurotoxic free glutamate just as with gelatin from cows or pigs. Published research out of Indonesia has found free glutamic acid amounts in fishbone gelatin ranging from a low of over seven percent to a high of over 10 percent, with aspartic acid going from a low of close to five percent to a high of 6.5 percent, depending on the type of fish.
Vegetable Gelatin
As far as veggie gelatin goes, it too has issues.
Produced from processed algae and seaweed (a marine algae), vegetarian gelatins are derived from rich sources of certain amino acids that will also contain significant amounts of free glutamate and aspartic acid after processing.
If gelatin is something you’ve decided to avoid, it pays to read the ingredient labels of all processed foods and supplements thoroughly, as well as pharmaceuticals (including OTC drugs). And while you won’t be able to determine if the gelatin came from pigs, cows, or fish, the name gelatin is required to be listed on the packaging.
Last December we revealed a remarkable finding, a 2010 press release issued by Ajinomoto telling about the company’s cozy partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study MSG.
At that time, we tracked down and sent some questions to the scientist named in the release, Dr. Kevin Laugero, who is still affiliated with the USDA/ARS (Agricultural Research Service). When we didn’t hear back from him, we took the next step, a Freedom of Information Act request with the USDA.
We recently received a response from the USDA. Here’s what we learned in a 53-page release of documents, many of them invoices from the USDA to Ajinomoto.
Ajinomoto, possibly the world’s largest manufacturer of MSG, paid the USDA a total of $674,000 to conduct a three-year “study” on the “effects of ingesting MSG on energy balance and eating behavior.” The hypothesis proposed was that daily consumption of MSG will “reduce body weight rebound.”
Ajinomoto, known as “the cooperator” in the official “statement of work” filled out by the USDA, was given a wire routing number to zip those funds into an account at Citibank.
The original budget of $598,653 was increased twice to “expand subject recruitment efforts,” hire a staff recruiter, project manager and up the stipend paid to volunteers, which was originally $580 per person for a 25-week commitment.
Although Dr. Laugero finally did reply, he would only say that the Ajinomoto glutamate research project was completed and that scientists have analyzed the data, which have not been published. “I can’t really comment on the results.” he said.
But by far the most interesting part of the documents we received has to do with the “research plan,” a study to be produced by three USDA researchers – including Dr. Laugero. The outline describes a six-month scheme for psychological and metabolic evaluations, cognitive testing, multiple blood draws, saliva samples, “snack food buffets,” mental stress tests, and MRI brain scans that collected data on the subject’s “neural responses to food cues,” none of which appear to be relevant to energy balance and eating behavior. Volunteers were sent questionnaires, and for the MSG test group there would be consumption of MSG (supplied as a broth powder) prior to their breakfast, lunch and dinner – called the “intervention phase.”
But evidently something went wrong, as the study was never published. Since we know the Glutes never publish anything that might suggest that MSG is toxic, and since the USDA was not even pretending to do an independent study, apparently when the results didn’t come out as desired the report of the study vanished. If not for the twelve-year-old press release we found online that tipped us off, no one outside of the USDA would know about this “partnership” payout.
One might ask why this study was done in the first place? And why done by the USDA?
We think we may know at least part of the answer.
Two years before the USDA/Ajinomoto joint venture, a study from the University of North Carolina clearly linked MSG consumption in people to weight gain. According to epidemiologist Dr. Ka He, those who consume large amounts of MSG increase their risk of being overweight by a whopping 175 percent.
To counter that, Ajinomoto jumped in with a rodent study that was published in the journal Physiology & Behavior, concluding that rats who drank MSG spiked water were lean and healthy. But perhaps comparing their lab rats to humans didn’t seem as effective – at least publicity wise.
So, why not collect a group of human lab animals to study, and have the good name of the USDA associated with Ajinomoto and the safety of MSG? Ajinomoto found the USDA more than willing to play along.
As we said last year, this is a stunning example of how closely connected industry is with our so-called watchdog federal agencies.
MSG is a flavor-enhancing additive used in so many processed foods you probably couldn’t count them all.
No doubt you’ve read that it is perfectly “safe,” only causing transient adverse reactions in a small set of people sensitive to it.
The Truth in Labeling Campaign, independent scientists and journalists (not on the glutamate payroll) will tell you a different story, how MSG and other sources of free glutamate can trigger adverse reactions ranging from simple skin rash to migraine headache, heart irregularities, seizures and anaphylactic shock.
However, no one — even those in the glutamate industry — can say that ingestion of MSG doesn’t cause adverse reactions. Despite that, there is no restriction imposed by the FDA on use of either MSG or its toxic free glutamic acid component in foods or beverages.
But here’s the really interesting part — food scientists and neuroscientists are turning out study after study exploring the “protective effects” of various chemicals, dietary supplements and even foods to shield against monosodium glutamate-induced abnormalities. On January 30, 2022, there were 377 such studies listed by the National Library of Medicine. And all this research is going on while the FDA, along with those who profit from the manufacture and sale of MSG, claim that MSG is totally safe for use in food.
There are laws that specify just what the FDA must do to proclaim an ingredient GRAS (generally recognized as safe), which is how it lists MSG. And in claiming that monosodium glutamate is GRAS, the FDA violates its own rules.
That little fact was revealed in a citizen petition filed by TLC co-founder Adrienne Samuels in January of 2021, requesting that monosodium glutamate and its toxic component have its GRAS status withdrawn. The FDA has yet to respond.
Adrienne also filed two other petitions related to MSG last year. Check out this page link to learn the details of them all. Even better, click on the link there that says “vote,” and leave your own comment at the FDA docket.
I wonder if it’s a conspiracy that’s behind keeping the truth about the obesity epidemic from the public, or if it’s just one immensely powerful person pulling the strings. There has always been propaganda by the boatload, even carried in distinguished publications such as the New York Times and Washington Post. Sometimes as an advertisement. Sometimes dressed up as news. But ever present.
From the time that neuroscientist Dr. John W. Olney discovered that free glutamic acid (a.k.a. glutamate) given to animals killed brain cells in the part of the brain responsible for controlling weight, one rich and powerful manufacturer of glutamate (also the manufacturer of monosodium glutamate – MSG), set out to convince the American public that MSG is a harmless food additive.
The campaign began by pretending to replicate Olney’s studies. That didn’t work out, because they were quickly exposed for what they were, and by 1980 researchers were using MSG to kill neurons and produce obesity in experimental animals to facilitate their research on a whole variety of abnormalities, all with ties to glutamate.
Then, as people began to realize that ingestion of MSG was followed by adverse reactions ranging from simple skin rash to asthma, migraine headache, tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, anaphylaxis and seizures, the Glutes turned to producing double-blind studies that failed to find more reactions to MSG than reactions to a placebo, claiming they now had what amounted to proof that MSG is harmless. But since the placebos all contained excitotoxic amino acids that cause reactions identical to the reactions caused by MSG, they only demonstrated that they were not above doing something that might qualify as scientific fraud.
Now the idea of conspiracy has come back to haunt me. You see, I’ve uncovered the fact that the root of the obesity epidemic lies in damage done to the vulnerable brains of unborn children. I studied the 1970s studies done by Olney and others, thinking that if obesity could be caused by feeding glutamate to infant animals, it could be caused by feeding glutamate to infant humans – or even more effectively to fetuses.
These are the facts:
Olney began with infant animals. Newborn humans and fetuses would be comparable.
Olney began with animals whose brains could be damaged by excitotoxic glutamate. Newborn humans and fetuses would be comparable.
Olney fed exceedingly large amount of glutamate to those animals. Since 1957, exceedingly large amounts of free glutamate have been available, accessible and consumed by humans.
In 1957:
1) the method for producing glutamate (found in MSG) was changed to facilitate virtually unlimited production of free glutamate and MSG, and
2) ultra-processed foods — all of which contain flavor-enhancing free glutamate in ingredients such as autolyzed yeast extract, sodium caseinate, maltodextrin, glutamic acid, and hydrolyzed proteins as well as MSG – became readily available, accessible, and increasingly more popular.
It is true that any one ingredient will contain a limited amount of free glutamate. But glutamate in amounts needed to produce brain damage in vulnerable humans is readily available to those who consume a number of processed and ultra-processed foods during the course of a day.
The glutamate delivered to Olney’s neonatal animals was delivered in food fed to them. The glutamate delivered to humans with vulnerable brains is delivered by their pregnant mothers.
Newborn humans could only receive glutamate in mothers’ milk or infant formula. But fetuses are “fed” through the umbilical cord, through the placenta. And if a pregnant woman ingested large quantities of free glutamate, as she might if her diet included processed and ultra-processed food, the excitotoxic free glutamate would cause damage to the brain of her fetus just as it caused damage to the brains of Olney’s animals. And in humans that brain damage would be followed by intractable obesity just as it was in Olney’s animals.
(And isn’t it interesting that the obesity epidemic has hit hardest in low- income areas — locations with limited access to real food, and a dependence on processed and ultra-processed food).
Journal after journal has refused to publish the information that I have just shared with you. The latest was Obesity, the prestigious journal of The Obesity Society. It is common knowledge among the well informed that medical journals are now controlled by Big Pharma. But that hardly qualifies as a “conspiracy.” It’s just the way things are in the world of power and greed.
But when access to my account in LinkedIndisappeared along with all mention of the Safe Food group that I had established, the word “conspiracy” appeared brightly before me and will not go away.
Also finding its way into my consciousness are the assurances that 1) my description of how the obesity epidemic happened is accurate, and 2) that the Glutes have no way to defend against the truth that manufactured free glutamate consumed by pregnant women lies at the root of the obesity epidemic – except to bury that truth – which their assault on my LinkedIn account demonstrates.
On the one hand, they’re absolutely necessary for human health.
On the other hand, they turn toxic/poisonous when more are eaten than needed.
What damage do they do?
They damage the brains of vulnerable people.
People who have had head injuries,
People whose brains are not yet mature,
A newborn child,
A child in the womb: a fetus.
How can excitotoxins get to the immature brains of newborns and fetuses?
Excitotoxins are eaten by pregnant women.
Pregnant women pass what they eat to their unborn offspring (fetuses) through the umbilical cord and the placenta.
Nursing mothers pass what they eat to their babies through mother’s milk.
Exactly what damage do these excitotoxins do to the brains of fetuses and newborns that brings about obesity?
They obliterate (wipe out) the neurons (nerve cells) in that part of the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus that would have played a role in weight control, had they not been destroyed.
And although the empty space left in the brain when the neurons are destroyed is filled in with other cells, the neurons are not replaced.
What excitotoxins do this?
The one known best from research done in the 1970s is glutamic acid (a.k.a. glutamate).
Glutamate is essential for normal body function. There has always been glutamate in food. Why haven’t more people always been obese?
Until 1957, the glutamate in food (and there is glutamate in essentially all food) was almost always part of something larger than itself. It was a part of protein. Scientists who wanted to examine glutamate had to break the protein apart before they could examine it. (They speak of glutamate being “bound up” in protein: tied to other amino acids in long chains. That’s still true.)
Glutamate bound in protein is not excitotoxic. Only glutamate outside of protein causes brain damage.
In 1957, the U.S. manufacturer of excitotoxic glutamate (for use in monosodium glutamate) revised its manufacturing process, and from that point on, virtually unlimited amounts of excitotoxic manufactured free glutamate (MfG) were produced. After 1957, there was sufficient MfG in ultra-processed food (at least in the U.S.) to provide the “excess” amounts of MfG needed to cause brain damage.
Then why didn’t the “obesity epidemic” happen in 1957?
1957 was the year that the new and improved method for fabricating virtually unlimited amounts of the excitotoxic – brain damaging – MfG was put into production. But 1960 was the year that increased obesity began to be noticed. 1960-62 saw the first statistics kept on numbers of overweight people.
Type 2 Obesity is the intractable, unyielding obesity that follows when excessive amounts of a toxic chemical:
1. Are ingested by pregnant women,
2. Are “fed” through the placenta to their fetuses,
3. Destroy brain cells in the fetus that would have played a role in weight control.
Check it out. The data are published.
The obesity epidemic was set in motion when virtually unlimited amounts of brain damaging flavor enhancers were added to practically every processed food and snack.
History paints a clear picture of the obesity epidemic timeline.
Prior to 1957, there had been no reports of food-induced adverse reactions to flavor-enhancers, no studies demonstrating food-induced brain damage, no obesity epidemic, no infertility crisis, and the incidence of glutamate-induced abnormalities had not yet begun to skyrocket.
1957 was the year that a new and improved method for producing virtually unlimited amounts of the excitotoxic – brain damaging – (manufactured) free glutamate (MfG) was put into production.
1960 was the year that increased obesity began to be noticed. 1960-62 saw the first statistics kept on numbers of overweight people.
In 1969, the first studies documented the fact that brain cells were destroyed following intake of substantial amounts of MfG. In that year, the first of many animal studies were published demonstrating that MfG causes brain lesions in the area of the brain responsible for appetite and satiety (i.e. weight control). Those studies documented the fact that brain cells were destroyed following intake of substantial amounts of MfG, that ablated brain cells were not replaced with neurons, and that the obesity manifested by those animals became evident as they reached maturity.
By the mid-1970s, obesity had reached epidemic proportions.
And that’s the evolution of the obesity epidemic: Excessive amounts of free glutamate ingested by pregnant women are passed to their fetuses where it causes brain lesions in the arcuate nucleus followed by gross obesity.
Review of animal studies done in the 1970s that have demonstrated the toxicity of MSG and MfG: evidence that the glutamate in MSG and other flavor enhancers and protein substitutes becomes excitotoxic – brain damaging – when present in amounts that exceed what a healthy subject needs for normal body function. https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/seven_lines/Seven_Lines_Lines2.pdf
