Sodium Glutamate

Monosodium glutamate is a taste enhancing vegetable protein. At the time of discovery, MSG was thought to be safe since it was an amino acid, a natural substance. The amount of MSG added to foods has doubled in every decade since the 1940's and by 1972, 262,000 metric tons of MSG were produced. In 1957 two ophthalmologists, Lucas and Newhouse decided to test MSG on infant mice in an effort to study the effects of MSG and its correlation with an eye disease known as hereditary retinal dystrophy. When they examined the eye tissue of the test animals they found that the MSG had destroyed all the nerve cells in the inner layers of the animal's retinas. Ten years later in 1967, Dr.John W. Olney, a neuroscientist working for the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis repeated the experiment. He found that MSG was not only toxic to the retina, but also to the brain. When he examined the animals brains, he discovered that cells in the hypothalamus were destroyed after a single dose of MSG. At this time the concentrations of MSG found in baby foods was equal to that used to create brain lesions in experimental animals and in all these experiments, immature animals were found to be much more vulnerable to the toxic effects of MSG than older animals. Unfortunately, the FDA refused to take action after Dr. Olney informed the FDA and it was only after his testimony before a Congressional committee that the food manufactures agreed to remove MSG from baby foods. But instead of adding MSG they added hydrolyzed vegetable protein instead. Today excitotoxins are still added to our food, usually in the form of caseinate, beef or chicken broth, or “flavoring”. In experimental animals treated with MSG are found to be short in stature, obese and have difficulty reproducing however this effect only becomes evident long after the initial use of MSG exposure. More detailed studies have found that these animals have severe disorders involving several hormones normally produced by the hypothalamus.However MSG is not the only taste enhancing food additive known to cause damage to the nervous system they all share one important property. When neurons are exposed to these substances, they become very excited and fire their impulses very rapidly until they reach a state of extreme exhaustion. Several hours after exposure these neurons suddenly die as if the cells were excited to death. …show more content…
MSG is a modified form of glutamic acid in which sodium is added to the molecule. However, the portion thought to be toxic is the glutamic acid, not the sodium, and often manufacturers will mix MSG with other substances to disguise it. But the negative effects of excitotoxins are not limited to small children. There is growing evidence that excitotoxins play a major role in a whole group of degenerative brain diseases in adults especially the elderly. These diseases include Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, ALS and more disorders of the nervous system. What all these diseases have in common is a slow destruction of brain cells that are specifically sensitive to excitotoxin damage. For example, disorders such as strokes, seizures, migraine headaches, ADD, ADHD, and even AIDS dementia have been linked to damage from excitotoxins and there is evidence that some individuals born with metabolic defects in certain brain cells may be particularly susceptible to excitotoxin