Truth in Labeling Campaign Blog
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about MSG and manufactured free glutamate
In case you didn’t know, excitotoxic – brain damaging — free glutamate is an essential ingredient in all ultra-processed food. You may recognize it as the essential ingredient in monosodium glutamate (MSG) – which is itself an ultra-processed food.
Although the typical U.S. supermarket contains a wide variety of packaged foods, that assortment emanates from 10 giant conglomerates.
These multinationals, such as Unilever, Coca-Cola and Mondelez, have their imprints on practically everything you eat. And more and more of these products are “ultra-processed.”
It used to be that food technologists designed processed foods. Those would be whole foods that were canned, freeze-dried, or fermented, for example. But in the 1980s ultra-processed food — products manufactured with substances extracted from foods or synthesized in laboratories — started to line supermarket shelves.
Ultra-processed foods are fractionated-recombined foods consisting of an extensive number of additives and ingredients, but little actual whole food. They can be identified by the remarkably long list of ingredients – including many unpronounceable ones — found on their labels. According to a recent study, Canadians are taking in practically half of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods.
Not mentioned in any study of ultra-processed foods, however, are the toxic ingredients added for color, flavor, shelf life (preservatives), and protein, along with low-calorie sweeteners. Free glutamate, the toxic component of monosodium glutamate, and all of the ingredients in the following list are found in both flavor enhancers and protein enhancers. And some say because they mask the taste of old or rancid food, free glutamate is used as a preservative as well.
Names of ingredients that always contain free glutamate:
Names of ingredients that often contain or produce free glutamate during processing:
The following are ingredients suspected of containing or creating sufficient processed free glutamate to serve as reaction triggers in HIGHLY SENSITIVE people:
Convenient, relatively inexpensive and heavily advertised, the future of ultra-processed foods seems to be assured (1). And why not? The FDA lets the people who manufacture ultra-processed foods declare that they are GRAS (generally recognized as safe), and the general public seems unaware that the fox is guarding the hen house.
Reference
1. Open PR Worldwide Public Relations. Press release. 7/3/2019. “What’s driving the Flavor Enhancers Market Growth? Cargill, Synergy Flavors, Tate & Lyle, Associated British Foods pic, Corbion …” https://www.openpr.com/news/1794737/what-s-driving-the-flavor-enhancers-market-growth-cargill. Accessed 7/31/2019.
There’s a “switch” in your brain that’s supposed to turn off your desire to eat when you’ve had enough. Is yours broken?
If you were born after 1957 and your mom ate a fair amount of processed or ultra-processed food, there’s a good chance you suffer from Type 2 Obesity — obesity that is:
◼ produced in a fetus by something a pregnant woman “feeds” to her fetus before birth,
◼ not caused by lack of willpower, laziness, or genetic deficiency,
◼ something you — and your health care provider – are probably not aware of.
L-glutamate, the major neurotransmitter in humans, becomes excitotoxic when present outside of protein in excess of what the healthy human was designed to accommodate. That excess is readily available to consumers who ingest multiple free-glutamate-containing ingredients during the course of a day. They will be found in all ultra-processed food, meat and poultry substitutes, protein drinks, supplements, pharmaceuticals, and even Infant formula.
The “Dose dependent toxicity of glutamic acid” tells the story.
Reference
Samuels, A. (2020) Dose dependent toxicity of glutamic acid: a review, International Journal of Food Properties, 23:1,412-419, DOI: 10.1080/10942912.2020.1733016
In case you didn’t know, excitotoxic – brain damaging — free glutamate is an essential ingredient in all ultra-processed food. You may recognize it as the essential ingredient in monosodium glutamate (MSG) – which is itself an ultra-processed food.
The Washington Post published an interesting article recently about ultra-processed foods: “What are ultra-processed foods? What should I eat instead?” by Anahad O’Connor September 27, 2022.
According to O’Connor, “Ultra-processed foods are extra tasty concoctions that we eat every day. They are also linked with chronic diseases and a higher risk of early death.”
What O’Connor doesn’t seem to know however, is that ultra-processed foods also contribute to the obesity crisis that followed the 1957 introduction of the mass-produced excitotoxic – brain damaging – free glutamate component of MSG developed specifically for use in food, see: http://truthinlabeling.org/blog/2023/02/14/a-short-explanation-of-the-obesity-epidemic/