Pouring MSG over food?

[arohydro]

Hey guys,

I have healthy kidneys (for the sodium), and I love MSG. I've read that it can raise blood glutamate levels, though, especially in the absence of carbohydrates.

I'm wondering if excitotoxicity is a concern from ingesting somewhat large amounts of MSG? I've read a lot of conflicting literature on the matter and am intrigued that I've yet to reach a solid conclusion.

 

[CHiLD-0F-THE-BEAT]

Are you actually saying your pour MSG over food? I have never heard of that..

 

[arohydro]

Yeah, I have Aji-No-Moto brand MSG in my cupboard. Just MSG crystals in a shaker. : )

Stuff tastes AWESOME.

 

[KamMoye]

The literature I've read says it is an excitotoxin, yes. What conflicting research have you read?

 

[T. Calderone]

I like the extra boost it gives for flavoring. But many times it gives me headaches.

 

[atara]

The risk is sort of like pouring erythritol over your food: you desensitize yourself to the taste and normal food doesn't taste as good. But as long as you're not eating way more glutamate than an ordinary diet would contain (around 30 grams a day at most), and similarly not way too much sodium, MSG is no worse than the glutamate naturally present in most foods.

There is the attendant problem: if your food tastes unnaturally strong and you eat too much. Any flavoring theoretically carries this risk, but MSG possibly to a greater degree.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/247/4938/20

I don't know how John Olney intends to convince a 20-pound child to eat an entire can of instant soup, but you may want to avoid giving MSG to small children.

 

[arohydro]

The literature I've read says it is an excitotoxin, yes. What conflicting research have you read?

I read that the increase in plasma levels is often not high enough, strictly speaking, to pronounce such an effect. Not that free glutamate does not have excitotoxic properties.

I like the extra boost it gives for flavoring. But many times it gives me headaches.

I don't seem to get headaches from it, which is odd as almost anything can provoke a headache in me. I feel the same, albeit quite a bit fuller, after chinese food as I did before it. : D That umami taste is delicious, though.

The risk is sort of like pouring erythritol over your food: you desensitize yourself to the taste and normal food doesn't taste as good. But as long as you're not eating way more glutamate than an ordinary diet would contain (around 30 grams a day at most), and similarly not way too much sodium, MSG is no worse than the glutamate naturally present in most foods.

There is the attendant problem: if your food tastes unnaturally strong and you eat too much. Any flavoring theoretically carries this risk, but MSG possibly to a greater degree.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/247/4938/20

I don't know how John Olney intends to convince a 20-pound child to eat an entire can of instant soup, but you may want to avoid giving MSG to small children.

I don't know, all I garner from this is that it's really not worth it. I already eat an ungodly amount of salt, I think I will just stick to that one vice.

The funny thing is, it doesn't seem to have any negative effect on my body. Creatinine levels are normal to low, so my kidneys are functioning well (or could low creatinine levels indicate that my kidneys are having to work TOO hard? Hmm.) My blood pressure is ~105-110/55-65, so I've considered that perhaps I'm craving it for a reason. I'm ignorant of whether such a correlation actually exists, but love of salt runs in my family (could just be a habit passed down from generation to generation), and so does low-normal BP.


Thanks for the answers, guys. I guess this requires a bit of deliberation.

 

[KamMoye]

Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills

I would read that before making up my mind.

 

[slimvictor]

I thought that it was common knowledge that MSG is toxic.
It seems to be taken for granted in much work, e.g. "It has been shown that administration of MSG induces
toxic effects in various regions of brain, thymus, liver and kidney." found here

Older research apparently nearly all supported the idea that it is toxic, such as
The Toxic Effects of Glutamate and Related Compounds in the Retina and the Brain


It has been shown that most neurons in the ventrolateral and ventromedial arcuate nucleus are sensitive to the toxic effects of MSG

And yet, I found some broad studies done by government agencies that claim it is non-toxic, at least in doses consumed by human adults.

I guess there are many organizations that don't want it to be toxic, based on this:
http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/99air/99Samuels.pdf

Overall, it seems to be a muddy picture, but with all the evidence that it is toxic, and since kombu seaweed can give great umami flavor to food, I will continue to stick with that, instead of risking eating MSG.

 

[ebola?]

Overall, it seems to be a muddy picture, but with all the evidence that it is toxic, and since kombu seaweed can give great umami flavor to food

But insofar as it does, shouldn't the dangers be similar to those with MSG (I mean, isn't a glutamate ion similar regardless of vehicle)?

ebola

 

[slimvictor]

^ Not sure. Most of the research seems to use msg itself, so I have no idea how much of it carries over to all glutamates.

 

[ebola?]

It could be the case that natural foods (and extracts) confer umami more effectively than msg (as measured on a per glutamate ion basis), so are thus safer.

ebola

 

[spacejunk]

MSG makes me feel weird. sort of dehydrated - i didn't know about its excitotoxicity but i'm not surprised to hear that, based on the way i feel after ingesting it in certain foods.
i didn't know people deliberately added it to their own food! always figured it was something added to processed foods to trick our brains into thinking they taste really good.