I really dont understand this MSG stuff. I heard a lot of it is used in chinese food which i love! I wanna know if i can still continue to eat chinese food or if i should stop. I would also like to know wat it will do for health.
2007-01-02 11:57:11 · 6 answers · asked by Rhianna 3 in Health ➔ Diet & Fitness
Msg is a chemical that is added to food to enhance flavor you can buy it at the grocery store, you use it like salt. It has been known to cause some forms of brain cancer, most resturants that use it have to post a warning that some or all of there food contain this chemical. YOu would have to eat alot of chineese food to get brain cancer from MSG.
2007-01-02 12:07:59 · answer #1 · answered by kibbles 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
MSG stands for Monosodium Glutamate. It is a salt of the amino acid - Glutamic Acid (glutamate).
Amino acids are often called the building blocks of life because it takes many of them linked together in a chain to create a protein. DNA tells the body how to make the chain and in what order the amino acids must line up.
According to some MSG opponents the glutamate added to foods is "bad" and the natural glutamate in our bodies is "good". MSG sellers argue that MSG is exactly like the glutamate in the human body, therefore it must always be "good". It is not so simple. There are contaminants in processed MSG. An anology that can be used is that there are right-handed amino acids and left handed ones. They are like mirror images of each other. Processed MSG contains not only the kind of amino acids the body is used to handling, but mirror image ones too. This may cause problems because it is like putting the wrong glove on your hand. It's not quite the same. We don't exactly know what problems this may cause. On the other hand (so to speak) the fact that glutamate the body is used to handling is also in MSG may present a problem because an excess of naturally occurring glutamate is well known by neuroscientists to be a problem in many disease states. Natural glutamate can cause problems we already know about. The reason food processors "free" glutamate from its bound form, is that it acts as a neurotransmitter in its free form. The food industry's claim that free glutamate is as harmless as bound glutamate is disingenuous at best. If it was exactly the same, they wouldn't need to hydrolyse vegetable protein (split the amino acids apart).
The bottom line is ..for some people, such as myself, MSG causes headaces and migraines when consuming much more. Though it's not known of any long term damage or negative effect, it is still a sodium product and one I choose to keep low in my system.
You can learn more about MSG with a Google search of "what is MSG".
2007-01-02 12:05:28 · answer #2 · answered by S H 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mono sodium glutamate or MSG is a form of salt if I remember my health information. There are dozens of links to be found on the net. Pick some and check out the various arguments pro and ocn.
2007-01-02 12:06:15 · answer #3 · answered by Bill W 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
msg is a food additive that enhances taste. Mono sodium glutamate and it is very high in sodium. It is not good for low sodium restricted diets and people who are allergic to it. I prefer to not have msg myself.
2007-01-02 12:06:47 · answer #4 · answered by Susan G 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
mono sodium glutamate , it a form of salt to much sodium is not good for you
2007-01-02 12:00:26 · answer #5 · answered by Abby 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't know but my grandma is allergic to it.
2007-01-02 12:04:32 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋