Monosodium Glutamate; discuss.

[Reforged]

Trying to figure out the ins and outs of MSG. What I've concluded so far from my research via google;
- It is the sodium salt of glutamate. A common amino acid that enhances flavor. 

- Tests where subjects consumed around 3 grams without food suffered temporary and mild symptoms such as; headaches, numbness, flushing, tingling, palpitations, and drowsiness. (You usually wouldn't consume it by itself.)

- In excessive doses it can cause "neurotoxicity". Overexciting of the cells within the nervous system resulting in permanent neurological damage. It is difficult to get exacts on the dosage as the experiments that have been done have either been on mice or on humans in comparatively small doses up to around 10g. The only time adverse effects were reported from the human trials was when the msg was eaten by itself. The effects were temporary and minor.
(There is yet to be an experiment where a subject is force fed msg till they die. Lazy.)

- There is no clear linkage or evidence that msg causes cancer and all instances found would appear to be anecdotal. It would seem to have started with this publication in 1969. The MSG however was not isolated so the symptoms could be attributed to many other factors. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5764480

- One of the greatest proponents that MSG is a "killer" is Dr Joe Mercola who wrote this article. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola...91502.html (Completely unrelated fact; Joe makes a fortune by selling "natural remedies" at this site; http://www.mercola.com/)

- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8085168 An experiment on mice from pubmed that, in my opinion, uses a too high a dose considering the size and species of test subjects. The equivalent dosage for a human would be far, far more than you would realistically consume in a month.

- I wish I was a scientist.

If anyone has anything to add or wants to correct me I welcome it. Right now I'm conducting taste experiments. I try my exquisite cooking without the msg, then I try it with it. Using a small dosage so far, there is a slight difference but nothing radical. I suspect the amount in takeaways is far higher than I am using thus far but it is difficult to get exacts on how much they use.

[Silver]

People will always find ways of exploiting humanity through the gullible.

An individual publishes something in relation to how harmful something is, and health nuts eat it up without doing any proper research, and thus begins a fad whereby money can be made because gullible people want to be healthier.

[Anomalocaris]

I always thought polysodium glutamate was the way to go.

[Minimalist]

I'm still trying to figure out what "gluten" is.

[Silver]

I'm still trying to figure out what "gluten" is.

It is actually a necessary element found in wheat products. ONLY those who have celiac disease actually need gluten free products. But, as usual, the retarded health nuts think they need gluten free products too, even though they clearly do not. Those with celiac disease make up only a small portion of the population, and all those other people are merely following a fad without having done any real research. Of course, a perpetuation of the problem is labeling items gluten free that never even contained any wheat.

[Jackalope]

- In excessive doses it can cause "neurotoxicity".

Without more information, this is a wholly useless metric.

I'll note that consumed in sufficient quantity, water can kill you.

Likewise, oxygen is toxic if the partial pressure is high enough (fortunately, unless you're breathing enriched air underwater, you will never encounter a high enough partial pressure).

I'm sure that sodium, in sufficient quantity, will also do very bad things to your health.

[Reforged]

- In excessive doses it can cause "neurotoxicity".

Without more information, this is a wholly useless metric.  

I'll note that consumed in sufficient quantity, water can kill you.  

Likewise, oxygen is toxic if the partial pressure is high enough (fortunately, unless you're breathing enriched air underwater, you will never encounter a high enough partial pressure).

I'm sure that sodium, in sufficient quantity, will also do very bad things to your health.

Thats pretty much what I concluded. Alot of additives, naturally occurring and otherwise, could cause the same effect in large doses.

[Silver]

In essence, it is all about moderation.

[Jackalope]

In essence, it is all about moderation.

Usually, unless you're talking about something like polonium.

[I_am_not_mafia]

Of course, a perpetuation of the problem is labeling items gluten free that never even contained any wheat.

This isn't as stupid as you'd think. Sometimes you can look down the ingredients and not see anything wheat based in it at all and it will still cause problems. My husband is coeliac and even the slightest contamination will have him stuck on the toilet for the next few days. What often happens is that they use flour as part of the manufacturing process, for example, covering chocolate with flour on the conveyor belt so that it won't stick. Or there may be cross contamination with other products in the same factory that do contain wheat.

You would not believe how often wheat gets used in the food industry. Any sauces for example will most likely contain wheat as a thickener. Or at least the chance of them having so means that you can't take the risk. Even soy sauce, which means Asian restaurants are completely out of the question. The only place my husband can eat is at an Indian, or a steak house if he makes sure that they do not add any sauce.