Is monosodium glutamate harmful to our health?

Question

There is a great controversy regarding this; so far as i think. Whats the truth?

Answer 1

it can make you dizzy and get tired easily and thirsty all the time. some Chinese restaurants, they use MSG too much and it cause CRS(Chinese restaurant syndrome)

Answer 2

The truth is anything that you over consume is bad, bear that in mind. Some people over react. In short it is more commonly known as MSG in the restaurant circle. There are many ignorant people out there who does'nt know what MSG stands for. They will claim that they are allergic to it. When question do they know what monosodium glutamate is? They go blank. That is when I explain it to them and advice them to read the back of the snacks they buy, the next time at the grocery stores. You just might want to do that if you are allergic to MSG. Which some people really are.

Answer 3

I think there is some harm in it as I have only recent discovered this when I had a reaction to some food. I had no idea what it was until recently when I stopped buying something. It took me a few weeks to find out . I now have to be more careful about it being in a cooked product at a deli etc. In fact, I feel very wary about it now even more so when I heard people using it for cooking. There is a strong truth in it.

Answer 4

I know a nurse lady who gets a bunch of health related magazines every month and there were several articles in there about that stuff. MSG are the abreviations for it.

It is suspected as a leading cause of obesity!! It might cause a change in chemicals that make people prone to be hungry more often than they need to be. There are no scientific tests as yet but there are chemists and scientists looking at it.

Why do they use chemicals in our food?
Because they couldn't patent the natural presevatives like vinegar!!!!!

Answer 5

Monosodium glutamate is only harmul to people who are allergic to it. I'm not allergic to it, so I've never had any problems with it. But for those who are, it can cause excessive thirst, dizziness, and possibly nausea and vomiting. If you're not allergic to it, then you'll have no problem with it.

Answer 6

seriously, it isnt... dont believe the hype. a very small percentage of people are allergic and to them, yes, it can cause an allergic reaction, just like any other food allergies like milk or nuts, etc.

---- read what wikipedia says:
In 1959, the FDA classified MSG as a "generally recognized as safe", or GRAS, substance. This action stemmed from the 1958 Food Additives Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which required premarket approval for new food additives and led FDA to promulgate regulations listing substances, such as MSG, which have a history of safe use or are otherwise GRAS. Since 1970, FDA has sponsored extensive reviews on the safety of MSG, other glutamates and hydrolyzed proteins, as part of an ongoing review of safety data on GRAS substances used in processed foods. One such review was by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Select Committee on GRAS Substances. In 1980, the committee concluded that MSG was safe at current levels of use but recommended additional evaluation to determine MSG's safety at significantly higher levels of consumption. Additional reports attempted to look at this. In 1986, FDA's Advisory Committee on Hypersensitivity to Food Constituents concluded that MSG poses no threat to the general public but that reactions of brief duration might occur in some people. Other reports gave similar findings:

* A 1991 report by the European Community's (EC) Scientific Committee for Foods reaffirmed MSG's safety and classified its "acceptable daily intake" as "not specified", the most favorable designation for a food ingredient. In addition, the EC Committee said, "Infants, including prematures, have been shown to metabolize glutamate as efficiently as adults and therefore do not display any special susceptibility to elevated oral intakes of glutamate."
* A 1992 report from the Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association stated that glutamate in any form has not been shown to be a "significant health hazard".
* Also, the 1987 Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization have placed MSG in the safest category of food ingredients.

Scientific knowledge about how the body metabolizes glutamate developed rapidly during the 1980s. Studies showed that glutamate in the body plays an important role in normal functioning of the nervous system. Questions then arose on the role glutamate in food plays in these functions and whether or not glutamate in food contributes to certain neurological diseases.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate

Answer 7

Don't know about the health issue. But, some people get a violent and oftentimes life threatehing reaction to MSG.

Answer 8

YES, indeed..It causes Chinese Restaurant syndrome..which makes u feel dizzy after having MSG containg food..It can add taste to the food, and increase ur apetite, but at the sametime in long run, it is cancerous..

Answer 9

MSG gives me migraines so, I think anything that gives a person a migraine can not be all that good for you.
MSG can also lead to a lot of other illnesses check out the links below.

Answer 10

DO A SEARCH ON EXCITOTOXINS , MSG IS NOT GOOD ,
IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO THE LOVE OF MONEY ,
THE BOTTOM LINE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR HEALTH
ITS VERY SAD , LOOK UP ASPARTAME WHILE YOU ARE AT IT ,
ITS NICKNAME IS NUTRASWEET , I HATE TO SAY THAT THIS IS NOT EVEN THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG WHEN IT COMES TO ALTERING FOOD AND FOOD RELATED PRODUCTS