If it wasn’t Alzheimer’s, what was it?

On November 15, 2011, Truth in Labeling Campaign co-founder Jack Samuels suffered a massive heart attack. He died on January 15, 2012 from heart damage exacerbated by complications caused by MSG and the manufactured free glutamate (MfG) in it – MfG used in the electrode tabs applied to his skin; in the dextrose solution used to deliver the drugs that would crystallize in the non-MSG Ringer’s solution and in the starch, cornstarch, and carrageenan components of the medications given to him when the IVs were withdrawn.

Had the FDA not lied about the toxic potential of MSG and MfG, had the medical community not believed them, had the MfG in IV solutions and meds been identified on product inserts, Jack might be alive today. Had Jack not spent half of the last quarter of his life fibrillating following ingestion of MfG hidden in food, he might not have had the heart attack in the first place.

Read Jack’s story, “It Wasn’t Alzheimer’s, It Was MSG” here or purchase a Kindle edition at Amazon.

And be sure to comment on Adrienne Samuels’ petition to strip MSG and MfG of their FDA GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status at
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FDA-2021-P-0035-0001

especially if you agree that the FDA should not be advertising MSG and MfG as GRAS.


If you have questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you. If you have hints for others on how to avoid exposure to MfG, send them along, too, and we’ll put them up on Facebook. Or you can reach us at questionsaboutmsg@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @truthlabeling.

If you say ‘safe’ and ‘science’ enough times, will people forget that your product is toxic?

On January 4, 2021 my Citizen Petition asking the FDA to strip MSG of its GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status was posted by the FDA. Some of the comments that followed were restatements of what had been written in the petition. Others were powerful stories of damage done by MSG, or statements from consumers supporting the petition and agreeing that MSG should not be considered safe by the FDA. Then on March 10 a lengthy comment from Ajinomoto’s The Glutamate Association arrived, made up of run-on sentences with disconnected thoughts and a slew of feel-good words related to MSG, all of which communicated nothing other than TGA rejects the claims made in the Citizen Petition, declaring that “MSG is safe.”

My first impression was that this was some sort of mistake. In the thirty plus years since then TGA chairman Richard Cristol told me that my husband Jack couldn’t possibly be sensitive to MSG, and sent me a book* “to prove it,” my experience has been that those whose job it is to keep repeating MSG is “safe” don’t respond to criticism, they simply ignore it.

They really don’t have to respond as they have “colleagues” in high places at the FDA, USDA, and NIH and no major media has dared even suggest that MSG might be harmful since the 1991 60 Minutes program on MSG. And since the 1995 FASEB report was published, with rare exception, no researcher in the United States has published an article even hinting at MSG-toxicity. Only in January when Food Navigator-USA published “Ajinomoto defends MSG as nonprofit petitions FDA to rescind its GRAS status,” did Ajinomoto’s Tia Rains fire back — with a classic piece of glutamate-industry propaganda.

For 50+ years the Glutes have pretty much ignored criticism from those who maintain that MSG is toxic. It would appear that they’ve used this strategy to keep questions of glutamate sensitivity out of the media – just letting any mention of harm done by MSG die a slow, quiet death. And this strategy, along with rigging the research they’ve presented to the world as evidence of MSG’s safety, has been incredibly effective for this excitotoxic, brain damaging food additive is still being advertised as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the FDA.

My second impression was that this was just another piece of glutamate industry propaganda dressed up as a comment, placed on a new stage with the array of feel-good words surrounding “MSG” and the standard lies we’ve learned to anticipate from their extensive distribution of propaganda. As I worked my way through the TGA comment trying to compose a response, I was struck by the sheer volume of complementary words describing MSG, used over and over and over again as is common in brainwashing.

Brainwashing is, after all, largely about language. Language is what nourishes the lies that claim toxic food is safe. Language is what feeds the MSG-is-safe lies about MSG and the excitotoxic – brain damaging — manufactured free glutamic acid in MSG. You can lie with pictures, but since MSG looks pretty much like salt and MSG is now being marketed as a salt-substitute as well as a flavor enhancer, using language has got to be more effective.

Just look at the words (below) used in TGA’s comment. Psychologists refer to this sort of thing as “conditioning.” Pavlov gave dogs food (causing them to salivate) while ringing a bell over and over and over again until the bell alone caused the dogs to salivate.

TGA paired the feel-good words you read in their comment to the FDA with “MSG,” until the word “MSG” made you feel-good enough about MSG to go out and buy some – if the conditioning worked.

naturally occurring
found naturally
the exact same molecular components
studied
reviewed
major regulatory agencies
worldwide
MSG is a safe ingredient
history of safe use in foods
FASEB concluded
safe for the general population
FAO/WHO Expert Committee
recognized
the safety of MSG
American Medical Association
FSANZ (Food Standards Australia New Zealand)
the safety of MSG
general recognition
MSG’s safety
throughout the scientific community.
the scientific community
irrelevant to humans
high doses
safety
metabolized in the gut
food safety
not very likely
reviews and other research
MSG is a safe food ingredient
credible science
scientific integrity
transparency
scientific integrity
peer-reviewed studies
published in reputable scientific journals that recognize scientific standards
credible
scientific bodies
recognized
glutamates and MSG’s safety

The petition to which TGA was responding can be found at https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/gras_petition_final_web.pdf

TGA’s comment can be found at https://www.regulations.gov/comment/FDA-2021-P-0035-0076

My response to TGA’s comment, which was submitted in 4 parts, follows:

Response by A Samuels to The Glutamate Association’s comments on Citizen Petition FDA-2021-P-0035.

Association Overview

Monosodium glutamate is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, one of the most abundant naturally occurring non-essential amino acids. Glutamic acid is found naturally in tomatoes, grapes, cheese, mushrooms, and other foods. The human body metabolizes different sources of glutamates in the same manner.

Whether MSG is made through extraction from protein sources or microbial fermentation, it comprises the exact same molecular components, and those components define the compound, not the method by which it is produced.15 Furthermore, MSG made by fermentation has been studied and reviewed by major regulatory agencies worldwide, all of which have concluded MSG is a safe ingredient. Notably, many of those studies and reviews took place after MSG achieved GRAS status in 1958 based on its history of safe use in foods. In its most recent review, published in 1995, FASEB concluded that MSG is safe for the general population.5 Furthermore, the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives recognized the safety of MSG in 19883, the American Medical Association in 19924, and FSANZ in 20037.

Below, we address each of the “lines of evidence” offered by the petitioner regarding the safety of MSG and explain why they do not undermine the general recognition of MSG’s safety throughout the scientific community.

Samuels’ response: To some extent, the comments made in the preceding overview have been addressed and responded to below. By way of clarification, however, note that:

a. The petitioner did not address “the general recognition of MSG’s safety throughout the scientific community.” The petitioner requested that MSG be stripped of its GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status. The Statement of Grounds filed as part of that petition pointed out that the MSG in use today was never lawfully granted GRAS status, and the Statement of Grounds also provided evidence of MSG’s toxicity. There was no discussion of “general recognition of MSG’s safety,” in Petition FDA-2021-P-0035.

b. Glutamic acid, not monosodium glutamate, is the most abundant amino acid produced in nature. Glutamic acid has been classified as “non-essential” because the body can manufacture all that it needs for normal body function, and it is not essential that glutamic acid be consumed in food.

c. There are no data (no scientific evidence) that demonstrate that the human body metabolizes different sources of glutamates in the same manner.

d. MSG is not made through either extraction from protein sources or microbial fermentation. It is the glutamate component of MSG that has been manufactured by such processes. And there are no data (no scientific evidence) that demonstrate that the glutamate in MSG will contain the exact same molecular components if made through extraction from protein sources as opposed to microbial fermentation. To the contrary, a statement from the Central Customs laboratory in Japan explained how it was possible to distinguish one source of MSG from another (https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/impurities.pdf).

e. The reviews done by what the glutamate industry refers to as “major regulatory agencies worldwide, all of which have concluded MSG is a safe ingredient,” were all based on reports of studies brought to those agencies by The Glutamate Association, the International Glutamate Technical Committee, their agents, or the FDA which since 1968 has supported the false claim that MSG is a “safe” ingredient (https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/industrys_fda_final.pdf).

These “major regulatory agencies worldwide” saw only information brought to them directly or indirectly by the glutamate industry.

When questioned, the humanitarian organization Hellen Keller International (once referred to as an “authoritative body”) was not at all pleased to hear that their name was being used to endorse the safety of MSG. They had never considered that MSG might have toxic potential. Hellen Keller International was supplementing MSG, a widely used food additive with vitamin A in Indonesia to counteract an eye disease caused by lack of vitamin A (National Food Review, 1987). They did not consider that to be an endorsement of the safety of MSG.

f. In 1957, Ajinomoto changed the way it produced MSG, moving from a method of extracting glutamate from a protein source to a method that used genetically modified bacteria to secrete glutamate through their cell walls.

There are no data that demonstrate how the products of extraction differed from those of bacterial fermentation, but MSG made by extraction had been limited in quantity while the new method of bacterial fermentation allowed for virtually unlimited production of MSG. The importance of this last fact becomes evident when you realized that the glutamic acid in MSG becomes excitotoxic – brain damaging – when present in greater quantity than humans require for normal body function.

Response by A Samuels to The Glutamate Association’s comments on Citizen Petition FDA-2021-P-0035. Part 2 of 4.

Glutamate Association (GA) comment 1 on the 1969 Olney animal study on MSG

The scientific community has rejected the argument that dietary intake of glutamate from MSG would lead to neuronal excitotoxicity and subsequent cell death in the brain, a claim based on Olney’s 1969 animal study, which has been determined to be irrelevant to humans. 12

Samuels’ response: Olney’s study was a study of glutamate-induced brain damage, not a “study on MSG.” MSG was used as a source of glutamate because MSG (which contains glutamate) had been found to be just as toxic as pharmaceutical grade glutamate but less expensive.

How is “the scientific community” defined? Although not stated, it appears to be defined here as those scientists employed by the glutamate industry.

If there is such a thing as a “community” made up of independent scientists, they have not gone on record as rejecting the possibility that dietary intake of the manufactured free glutamate found in MSG will lead to excitotoxicity.

No data exist from this undefined “scientific community” rejecting the argument that dietary intake of glutamate from MSG would lead to neuronal excitotoxicity and subsequent cell death in the brain.

In 1969, Olney did not feed MSG to subjects. Yet you say that based on that study (where MSG was not fed to animals) the scientific community rejected the argument that feeding MSG to animals would lead to neuronal excitotoxicity and subsequent cell death in the brain. What logic allows you to draw conclusions about feeding from a study that did not include feeding?

Where is the alleged decision of “the scientific community” documented?

When and where was it allegedly determined that animal studies are irrelevant to humans, and what are the details behind making that alleged determination?

GA comment: In this study, neonatal mice were administered pharmacological doses (4mg/g) of MSG via subcutaneous injections. These high doses induced hypothalamic lesions in the brain and other serious adverse effects. However, this does not model dietary consumption of glutamate in humans. The average adult human consumes only about 0.55 g/day of MSG via oral route in the U.S., which does not result in serious safety concerns. 5

Samuels’ response: How are “serious safety concerns” defined?

You acknowledge that there were studies where MSG was injected into animals and brain lesions resulted. What logic allows you to conclude that finding brain lesions is such studies has any relevance to finding or not finding brain lesion in feeding studies?

GA comment: Also, more than 95 percent of ingested glutamate is metabolized in the gut and does not have a measurable effect on circulating blood glucose levels. 13

Samuels’ response: Why are free glutamate and bound glutamate being spoken of here as though they were one and the same? The glutamate in MSG is free glutamate. It is not bound with other amino acids in protein. The glutamate bound in protein is freed from protein during the normal process of digestion, a somewhat time-consuming process. The manufactured free glutamate in MSG is free to act immediately. Free to enhance the food with which it is ingested and free to cause reactions and kill brain cells. The enhanced taste of MSG is experienced immediately upon ingesting MSG, not after the glutamate in MSG has been metabolized in the gut.

Petition FDA-2021-P-0035 pertains to MSG-induced brain damage. Where are the data that demonstrate that circulating blood glucose levels are relevant to brain damage caused by MSG?

GA comment: There is also evidence that MSG does not pass the blood-brain barrier and cause adverse effects to the brain upon being consumed orally. 12

Samuels’ response: On April 4, 2021 there were 5994 citations for BBB permeability at pubmed.gov. and 11 citations for BBB permeability AND MSG. Of particular interest are:

1) Excitotoxicity triggered by neonatal monosodium glutamate treatment and blood-brain barrier function. Gudiño-Cabrera G, Ureña-Guerrero ME, Rivera-Cervantes MC, et al. Arch Med Res. 2014 Nov;45(8): 653-9. PMID: 25431840 Review “Excitotoxicity triggered by neonatal MSG treatment produces a significant pathophysiological impact on adulthood, which could be due to modifications in the blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability and vice versa. This mini-review analyzes this topic through brief des …”

2) Neonatal excitotoxicity modifies blood-brain barrier properties increasing its susceptibility to hypertonic shock in adulthood. Blanca Fabiola Fajardo-Fregoso, Jose Luis Castañeda-Cabral, Carlos Beas-Zárate, Mónica E Ureña-Guerrero. Int J Dev Neurosci. 2020 Jun;80(4):335-346. PMID: 32198947 “We conclude that neonatal excitotoxicity leads to lasting impairment on BBB properties in adulthood, increasing its susceptibility to HS that could be regulated by VEGFR‐2 activity inhibition.”

Response by A Samuels to The Glutamate Association’s comments on Citizen Petition FDA-2021-P-0035. Part 3 of 4.

Glutamate Association (GA) comment 2 on research related to neurodegenerative and other diseases

The petitioner has alleged L-glutamic acid is implicated in several endogenous glutamate-associated disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dementia, and many other diseases. The 1995 FASEB report specifically stated that while endogenous glutamate metabolism has been linked to certain neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease or Huntington’s Chorea, there is no causal evidence indicating that dietary MSG contributes to changes in brain neurochemistry. 5

Samuels’ response: The subject of Citizen Petition FDA-2021-P-0035 is MSG-induced brain damage, not brain neurochemistry.

Page 42 of the 1995 FASEB Report, which appears to be more closely related to The Glutamate Association’s comment than any other sections of the Report, reads, in part:

“An additional issue related to the [excitotoxicity] of glutamate is the growing body of evidence implicating neuroexcitatory amino acids, particularly glutamate, in the etiology of several neurodegenerative diseases….their relevance to the potential toxicity of ingested MSG is unclear at this time….While there is no doubt about the neurotoxic potential of locally produced synaptic glutamic acid in the CNS and the consequent impact on neural function, the [FASEB] Expert Panel concluded that, in the absence of studies or corroborating evidence linking symptoms or signs of adverse effects to either circulating levels of glutamate or related substances or changes in brain neurochemistry/neurophysiology in affected patients, it is not possible to link either acute or chronic consumption of MSG to glutamate-mediated neurodegenerative diseases at this time.”

It is fact that FASEB acknowledged glutamate-induced disorders seen as related to endogenous glutamate (glutamate present in the body). It is also true that there had been no human studies prior to 1995 exploring the possibility that ingestion of glutamate from MSG or elsewhere contributes to those disorders. But although one fact has nothing to do with the other, The Glutamate Association links them with the word “while,” which is grossly inappropriate.

On April 4, 2021, the National Library of Medicine at pubmed.gov listed 210 citations for “monosodium glutamate-induced” such as the study titled “Natural products as safeguards against monosodium glutamate-induced toxicity,” and listed 3,934 citations for glutamate-induced.

GA comment: In 2005, following expert review of the potential involvement of glutamate ingestion in the development of neurodegenerative diseases, the German Senate Commission on Food Safety (SKLM) stated, “a causal link between exogenously ingested MSG and Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease is not very likely for the following reasons: In the case of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, it is a matter of cell degeneration: in the former case in the substantia nigra, in the latter case in the hippocampus and the nucleus basalis Meynert. In both cases, the circumventricular organs, in which damage might be expected after ingesting large amounts of exogenous glutamate, are not affected.”14 Therefore, chronic consumption of MSG cannot contribute to or exacerbate any of the endogenous glutamate-mediated neurodegenerative diseases.

Samuels’ response: What logic allows one to assert that because something is “not very likely” something else cannot happen?

What data suggest that damage to circumventricular organs might be expected after ingestion of large amounts of exogenous glutamate?

GA comment: Contrary to the petitioner’s assertion that MSG is a brain-damaging ingredient, the evidence indicates it does not affect brain neurochemistry, nor does it affect the circumventricular organs.

Samuels’ response: There are numerous studies that demonstrate that MSG is a brain-damaging ingredient, see: https://www.truthinlabeling.org/Data%20from%20the%201960s%20and%201970s%20demonstrate_2.html

The subject of Citizen Petition FDA-2021-P-0035 is MSG-induced brain damage, not brain neurochemistry.

On March 28, 2021, PubMed returned 70 citations for MSG and circumventricular organs demonstrating MSG damage to circumventricular organs. What data suggest that MSG does not negatively impact the circumventricular organs?

Response by A Samuels to The Glutamate Association’s comments on Citizen Petition FDA-2021-P-0035. Part 4 of 4.

Glutamate Association (GA) comment 3 on industry-supported clinical (human) studies on MSG

Over the years, both FDA-sponsored reviews and other research, including research supported by industry, have concluded that MSG is a safe food ingredient. While the petitioner may consider industry-funded research flawed, credible science can be funded by any group – industry, consumer groups, or others – as long as it is carried out with scientific integrity. All science begins with a question and interest in that question. Otherwise, the question would not be asked in the first place. What is important is that any bias is minimized through transparency and scientific integrity. TGA and its members support peer-reviewed studies that are published in reputable scientific journals that recognize scientific standards.

Samuels’ response: Where is the scientific integrity in calling a product that causes the same reactions as those caused by double-blind study test material a “placebo”? According to Andrew Ebert, former chairman of International Glutamate Technical Committee, “placebos” he supplied to glutamate-industry researchers since 1979 all contained aspartame (which contains excitotoxic aspartic acid), material that would cause the same reactions as those caused by MSG (https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/ebert_letter.pdf).

The petitioner has not stated that all industry-funded research is flawed, but rather has described the flawed nature of the studies presented to the FDA as evidence of the safety of MSG and the manufactured free glutamate contained in it. And it so happens that most, if not all, of those studies were funded directly or indirectly by Ajinomoto, manufacturer of MSG and the manufactured glutamate contained in it.

Both “The alleged safety of monosodium glutamate (MSG) – The animal studies: A review of the literature and critique of industry sponsored animal research” https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/review_studies.pdf and

“The alleged safety of monosodium glutamate (MSG) – The human studies rigged to produce negative results
https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/designed_for_deception_short.pdf address the flawed nature of the studies mounted in defense of the safety of MSG and the glutamate contained in it.

GA comment: Credible, scientific bodies have recognized glutamates and MSG’s safety before and after 1958, as indicated by the supporting facts in the attached document.

Samuels’ response: Have any “scientific bodies” that claim to have recognized the “safety” of glutamates and MSG conducted laboratory studies as opposed to reviewing work brought to them directly by the glutamate-industry or glutamate-industry agents, or summarized for them by the FDA?

The attached “supporting facts” contain nothing that hasn’t been addressed in Citizen Petition FDA-2021-P-0035.

*Filer LJ Jr. et al. Glutamic Acid: Advances in Biochemistry and Physiology

If you have questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you. If you have hints for others on how to avoid exposure to MfG, send them along, too, and we’ll put them up on Facebook. Or you can reach us at questionsaboutmsg@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @truthlabeling.

MSG on 60 Minutes got people riled up 30 years ago. Could it do the same thing today?

Thirty years ago this 60 Minutes program (video below) on MSG was the second most-watched show of the year. Despite that, the show’s creator Don Hewitt caved to glutamate-industry pressure and refused to air it a second time.

Since then the Glutes have kept a tight wrap on information about the toxic effects of MSG, filling the Internet, newspapers and TV with cleverly crafted propaganda that carries the falsehood MSG is a harmless ingredient. Advertising studies have been rigged to conclude that nothing was found to suggest that MSG is anything other than safe, diverting funding from research that might concluded that MSG is harmful, enlisting the support of celebrities and professionals who vouch for the safety of their excitotoxic – brain damaging – product and keeping any mention of possible MSG-toxicity out of FDA files.

But it’s a new day. And as much as we may disagree about our politics and even what truth is, no one will disagree with the notion that it’s wrong to poison people, most especially our children. And so, through a Citizen Petition addressed to FDA Commissioner Hahn, I have asked the people at the FDA (who have kept the myth of the safety of MSG alive no matter what) to weed out the lies that the FDA is telling at the behest of the glutamate industry and officially stop calling the excitotoxic manufactured glutamic acid and the MSG that contains it generally recognized as safe — GRAS.

To comment on and support that petition, simply go here and then click the blue “comment now” button at the top of the page.

And be sure to share this message with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn friends.


If you have questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you.  And if you have hints for others on how to avoid exposure to MfG, send them along, too, we’ll put them up on Facebook.  You can also reach us at questionsaboutmsg@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @truthlabeling

Evidence of MSG toxicity

There are three lines of evidence pointing to the toxic potential of monosodium glutamate

I. The first study to address the possibility that glutamate from exogenous sources (eating for example) might cause brain damage followed by obesity and reproductive dysfunction was published in 1969. At the time, researchers were administering glutamate to laboratory animals subcutaneously using Accent brand MSG because it had been observed that MSG was as effective for inflicting brain damage as more expensive pharmaceutical grade L-glutamate (1).

In the decade that followed, research confirmed that glutamate induces hypothalamic damage when given to immature animals after either subcutaneous or oral doses (2).

II. In the 1980s, researchers focused on identifying and understanding abnormalities associated with glutamate, often for the purpose of finding drugs that would mitigate glutamate’s adverse effects. Researchers had found that glutamate was an excitotoxic amino acid. When consumed in controlled quantities, it is essential to normal body function as neurotransmitters and building blocks of protein. But when accumulated in interstitial tissue in quantities greater than needed for normal body function (in excess) it becomes excitotoxic, firing repeatedly and killing brain cells.

It is well documented that L-glutamate is implicated in kidney and liver disorders, neurodegenerative disease, and more. By 1980, glutamate-associated disorders such as headaches, asthma, diabetes, muscle pain, atrial fibrillation, ischemia, trauma, seizures, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), epilepsy, addiction, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), frontotemporal dementia and autism were on the rise, and evidence of the toxic effects of glutamate were generally accepted by the scientific community. A November 15, 2020 search of the National Library of Medicine using PubMed.gov returned 3872 citations for “glutamate-induced.”

By and large, the glutamate in question here was, and still is, glutamate from endogenous sources (glutamate originating within the body). The possible toxicity of glutamate from exogenous sources (sources that originate outside of the body) such as glutamate-containing flavor enhancers or other foods, has generally not been considered. Only Olney and a few others have suggested that ingestion of free glutamate might play a role in producing the excess amounts of glutamate needed for endogenous glutamate to become excitotoxic.

III. The third line of evidence should be studies of the effects of eating MSG, but they are virtually non-existent. Studies of glutamate found in the human body are largely funded by pharmaceutical companies interested in developing drugs with which to fight the effects of glutamate on neurodegenerative disease, obesity, and reproductive disorders for example. Those in the glutamate industry, who know full well that the glutamate in MSG is toxic, are not interested in research on the possible toxicity of ingested MSG. And it would appear that by monetarily rewarding certain activities and discouraging others, researchers are not encouraged to find alternative funding sources to pursue research on the possible toxicity of MSG. Instead, the third line of evidence comes from badly flawed studies produced by the producer of MSG to convince the public that MSG is a harmless food additive. Studies that are flawed to the point of being fraudulent. Thus the third line of evidence of MSG toxicity lies in the flawed studies turned out by glutamate-industry agents in their attempts to deceive the public into believing that MSG is “safe.”

It was possibly to counter data that first demonstrated that L-glutamate and MSG cause brain damage, that researchers pretended to replicate animal toxicity studies but did not do so. But glutamate-industry agents made no attempt to examine MSG-induced brain damage in humans. Rather, in the 1980s human studies of adverse reactions as opposed to brain damage were offered to the FDA as evidence that MSG was a harmless food additive. These weren’t alleged replications like the brain-damage studies were, but were creatively designed, each apparently calculated to produce negative results (i.e., no harm done by MSG). Negative results were ensured when researchers considered the effects of glutamate on irrelevant variables, i.e., variables such as blood pressure and weight loss that have never been shown to be associated with glutamate-induced toxicity. Or if females exhibited MSG-induced reproductive disorders and males did not, males would be studied. A variation used was to study the effects of ingestion of glutamate on plasma glutamate levels. Elevated plasma glutamate is associated with production of brain lesions but has never been shown to be relevant to glutamate-induced adverse reactions. The logical fallacy in these studies comes when it is concluded that finding nothing while studying irrelevant variables proves that glutamate is safe.

Negative results were also reliably produced by a series of double-blind studies conducted by a variety of researchers from various universities and medical schools who were given study protocols that would guarantee negative results, all supervised by Andrew G. Ebert, Ph.D., Ajinomoto’s agent in charge of research at the time (without the involvement of Ajinomoto being disclosed). Although these studies had common elements, no two studies were identical. There was, however, one feature shared by all – use of placebos that contained excitotoxic amino acids that would trigger reactions identical to those caused by the MSG test material. According to a letter from Ebert to Sue Ann Anderson, Senior Staff Scientist with the Life Sciences Research Office at FASEB, this practice began in 1978 (3).

In a double-blind study, test material is given to a subject on one occasion, and on another occasion the subject is given a placebo. The placebo, if it’s a true placebo, looks, tastes and smells like the test material, but it will not cause a reaction. If the subject reacts to the inert placebo, the researchers could conclude that the subject is not reacting to the test material, but is responding to the thought of consuming MSG. In other words, the subject would be portrayed as some kind of nut case who might react to anything, and reactions to MSG test material would be discounted.

To make sure that it appeared to be appropriate for researchers to conclude that MSG is harmless, glutamate-industry researchers guaranteed that subjects would react to placebos by using aspartame in their placebos, for the aspartic acid in aspartame and the glutamic acid in MSG cause virtually identical reactions as well as identical brain damage (4,5).

Having set that up, glutamate-industry researchers (and those who quote them) will say “These people aren’t sensitive to MSG, they reacted to the ‘placebo’ too” (6).

Conclusions drawn from these industry-sponsored studies were based on negative results. The inferential statistics used ask the question of whether a difference between two groups of subjects or two sets of measurements could have occurred by chance. If statistical analysis determines that observed differences rarely would have occurred by chance, an investigator would describe those differences as statistically significant and would specify the probability with which differences of that magnitude would be expected to be reproduced if the experiment were replicated at another time. In statistical parlance, the investigator had tested the hypothesis that there would be no difference between two groups — the null hypothesis — and had rejected that hypothesis when he found that there was indeed a significant difference. The statistical model on which these statistics are based allows the investigator to conclude that it is highly likely — the probability used usually being 95 percent or 99 percent — that differences found were not due to chance. The statistical model does not allow the investigator to conclude that no difference exists between the two groups when a statistically significant difference is not found. The industry-sponsored studies invariably violated the assumptions of the statistics used.

There is a certain sameness to these studies. They are generally methodologically inadequate, statistically unsound, and/or irrelevant to the safety/toxicity of MSG.

Researchers have gone so far as to use aspartame, which contains excitotoxic aspartic acid, and/or excitotoxic manufactured free glutamate (MfG) in placebos to cause subjects to respond to placebos just as they would respond to monosodium glutamate test material (7).

References

  1. Olney JW. Brain lesions, obesity, and other disturbances in mice treated with monosodium glutamate. Science. 1969;164(880):719-721. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5778021/
  2. Studies demonstrating both glutamate and MSG-induced brain damage https://www.truthinlabeling.org/Data%20from%20the%201960s%20and%201970s%20demonstrate_2.html
  3. The Ebert/Anderson letter: Andrew Ebert’s letter to FASEB acknowledging that from 1978 forward, placebos used in International Glutamate Technical Committee (IGTC) studies of the safety of monosodium glutamate were laced with aspartame. https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/ebert_letter.pdf
  4. FDA Adverse Reactions Monitoring System (ARMS) – Collected Reports of Adverse reactions to monosodium glutamate. https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/arms_msg.pdf
  5. FDA Adverse Reactions Monitoring System (ARMS) – Collected Reports of Adverse reactions to Aspartame. https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/arms_aspartame.pdf
  6. Studies demonstrating both glutamate and MSG-induced brain damage https://www.truthinlabeling.org/Data%20from%20the%201960s%20and%201970s%20demonstrate_2.html
  7. Discussion of glutamate-industry-study protocols https://www.truthinlabeling.org/flawed.html


If you have questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you.  And if you have hints for others on how to avoid exposure to MfG, send them along, too, we’ll put them up on Facebook.  You can also reach us at questionsaboutmsg@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @truthlabeling

Who’s suppressing information about MSG toxicity?

Research has demonstrated that excess glutamate accumulated in the human body is implicated in brain damage, kidney and liver disorders, obesity, reproductive disorders, neurodegenerative disease, and additional disorders such as headaches, asthma, diabetes, muscle pain, atrial fibrillation, ischemia, trauma, seizures, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), epilepsy, addiction, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), frontotemporal dementia and autism. A November 15, 2020 search of the National Library of Medicine using PubMed.gov returned 3872 citations for “glutamate-induced.

It has also been demonstrated that glutamate from exogenous (external) sources, often from ingestion of monosodium glutamate (MSG), produces brain lesions, reproductive disorders, gross obesity, and behavior disorders. Review of the literature has also demonstrated that studies concluding MSG is harmless, or finding no evidence that MSG is harmful, are seriously flawed, with double-blind studies using placebos containing excitotoxic amino acids that cause reactions identical to those caused by MSG.

So why aren’t researchers exploring the relationship between ingestion of glutamate-containing ingredients such as MSG and disease and disability?


If you have questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you.  And if you have hints for others on how to avoid exposure to MfG, send them along, too, we’ll put them up on Facebook.  You can also reach us at questionsaboutmsg@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @truthlabeling

Some basic truths about MSG toxicity that the people at NutritionFacts.org don’t seem to want you to know

A friend for whom I have the greatest respect is a big fan of Michael Greger M.D. FACLM. To hear her talk, you’d think he walked on water. Personally, I didn’t much care for his style of presentation, and he seemed somewhat shallow on matters I know a bit about. But with several best-selling books and posts with catchy headlines such as “Does Cholesterol Size Matter?” and “Eat More Calories in the Morning than the Evening,” he has a legion of followers.

The announcement that Dr. Greger was going to do a series of video posts on obesity, really caught my attention. I’ve been interested in obesity for over 50 years. That’s how long I’ve known that MSG causes obesity. And I was excited that Dr. Greger might be going to share facts about the toxic effects of MSG. How MSG causes a-fib, migraine headache, fibromyalgia, skin rash, seizures, infertility, brain damage and more, not just that it causes obesity.

My excitement, however, was short-lived. Seems that even suggesting that MSG might cause obesity isn’t on Dr. Greger’s agenda. How do I know? Because I went to great lengths to contact him and suggest that MSG-related obesity was something he should look into. And on May 5, 2020 Christine Kestner, MS, CNS, LDN (Health Support Volunteer) responded:

“Hi, Adrienne Samuels! You can find everything on this site related to MSG here: https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/msg/ While it is true that this topic has not been updated in a while, a quick look at the lates research indicates that nothing has really changed in the last decade or so. We base our videos on the research, and not on industry influence. If you are aware of quality, peer-reviewed research that contradicts our positions, please share it with us.”

So, I did. I sent her pages of fully-referenced information. And then I waited. And waited. And then I sent a “You did get my letter, didn’t you?” note. And I’m still waiting.

Below is a copy of the material on MSG toxicity that Dr. Gregor ignored – or maybe Christine Kestner never showed it to him. Could be. Such is the power of the glutamate industry.

You’ll find the references for all this material at the end of the letter.

May 6, 2020

Thank you Christine,

The opportunity to provide accurate information about the toxicity of manufactured/processed free glutamate acid is much appreciated.

But first, two clarifications are in order. We generally speak of “MSG reactions,” but those reactions are actually caused by the Manufactured/processed free Glutamate (MfG) component of MSG. MfG is found in more than 40 food ingredients in addition to MSG. The animal studies listed below were done using MSG to inflict brain damage.

Second, glutamic acid will either be bound with other amino acids in protein or free. Bound glutamate does not cause brain damage or adverse reactions. Only glutamate in its free form causes brain damage and adverse reactions. This distinction is an important one, because failing to make it enables the fabrication of disinformation.

You said that a quick look at the latest research indicates that nothing has really changed in the last decade or so, but that is not entirely true.

I. MSG-induced brain damage. The seminal and definitive studies of MSG-inflicted brain damage were done in 1969 and the 1970s, and there is no need to replicate them.

In the late 60s, Olney became suspicious that obesity in mice, which was observed after neonatal mice were treated with L-glutamate for purposes of inducing and studying retinal pathology might be associated with hypothalamic lesions caused by L-glutamate treatment; and in 1969 he reported that L-glutamate treatment caused brain lesions, particularly acute neuronal necrosis in several regions of the developing brain of neonatal mice, and acute lesions in the brains of adult mice given 5 to 7 mg/g of glutamate subcutaneously (12). Research that followed confirmed that L-glutamate induces hypothalamic damage when given to immature animals after either subcutaneous (13-31) or oral (19,25-26,28,32-36) doses.

This work demonstrated that when there is a vulnerable target (a brain or portion of the brain that is unprotected or vulnerable to attack from toxins), and there is glutamic acid (glutamate) in quantity sufficient to cause it to become excitotoxic, glutamate fed in quantity to immature animals causes acute neuronal necrosis in several regions of the developing brain including the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus, followed by behavior disturbances and endocrine disruption which includes obesity and infertility.

A recent review suggests that glutamate/MSG passed to fetuses and neonates by pregnant and/or lactating women causes brain damage, disrupting the endocrine system (99).

It will be argued by agents of the glutamate industry that these studies of brain damage were animal studies not human studies, and that is true. But studies wherein possible toxins are fed to pregnant women and brains of their offspring are examined would certainly be questionable at best on ethical and moral grounds. Researchers rely heavily on animal studies to suggest solutions to problems of human dysfunction.

II. Industry’s unfounded claims of MSG safety

From 1968 until approximately 1980, Ajinomoto mounted a vigorous attack to refute the studies that demonstrated MSG-induced brain damage. Beginning in 1968 and throughout the 1970s, glutamate-industry agents mounted alleged replications of independently done glutamate-induced brain damage studies, but their procedures were different enough to guarantee that toxic doses had not been administered, and/or that all evidence that neurons had died would be obscured. Industry-sponsored researchers claimed to be replicating studies, but did not do so (5).

When it could no longer be denied that animal studies showed that MSG caused brain damage in infant animals – when researchers were using models of MSG-induced obesity to study abnormalities associated with excess glutamate — industry interests decreed that studies done on animals did not reflect the human condition and were, therefore, meaningless.

Industry-sponsored human studies followed in the 1980s. None were studies of brain damage.

III. Availability of sufficient potentially excitotoxic manufactured/processed free glutamate (MfG) in food and elsewhere to cause MfG to become excitotoxic (to kill brain cells)

Evidence of MSG-induced neonatal brain damage has not changed in the last four decades, but availability of sufficient glutamate in the U.S. food supply to cause that glutamate to become excitotoxic has.

Prior to 1957, the date that Ajinomoto reformulated MSG, the amount of free glutamate in the average diet had been unremarkable. But in 1957 production of the free glutamate that makes up the excitotoxic ingredient in MSG changed from extraction of glutamate from a protein source, a slow and costly method, to a method of bacterial fermentation which enabled virtually unlimited production of free glutamate and MSG (7), and the large amounts of glutamate needed to cause excitotoxicity became widely available.

Shortly thereafter, food manufacturers found that profits could be increased by producing other flavor-enhancing additives that contained free glutamate. Over the next two decades, the marketplace became flooded with manufactured/processed free glutamate in ingredients such as hydrolyzed proteins, yeast extracts, maltodextrin, soy protein isolate, and MSG (8). And ingredients that contained free glutamate became readily accessible.

There are no data on the amount of excitotoxic material in food. Analyses from Olney’s lab and others provided some insight into amounts of MSG in processed foods in the 1980s and 1990s (half a gram of MSG in certain canned soups, for example); and according to anecdotal reports from MSG-sensitive people, that would be enough to trigger an asthma attack or a migraine headache in some MSG-sensitive people. Reports from MSG-sensitive consumers also suggest that the amount of MfG in a single serving of processed food might be similar to that found in various cans of soup. None of this, however, speaks to the amount of MfG needed to produce either brain damage or adverse reactions.

Important to remember is the fact that it is not the amount of MfG in any one product that is pertinent to determining if there is sufficient MfG available to cause neonatal brain damage or adverse reactions. To cause neonatal brain damage, it is the amount of MfG consumed by a pregnant or lactating subject and passed to fetus and/or neonate that is relevant to determination of excitotoxicity.

IV. MSG-induced adverse reactions

There are few published reports of MSG-induced human adverse reactions. Funding for studies of the safety of MSG comes primarily from the glutamate industry, and only those industry-sponsored studies with negative results have been published.

Some years ago, Samuels compiled a list of studies wherein adverse reactions to MSG were noted (1-4, 175, 179-236). The article can be accessed at https://www.truthinlabeling.org/adverse.html .

No attempt has been made to identify all of the more recent studies. A PubMed search for “MSG-induced OR monosodium glutamate-induced AND toxicity” done on May 5, 2020 elicited 93 citations (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=MSG-induced+OR+monosodium+glutamate-induced+AND+toxicity).

V. Warnings

By 1980, glutamate-associated disorders such as headaches, asthma, diabetes, muscle pain, atrial fibrillation, ischemia, trauma, seizures, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), epilepsy, addiction, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), frontotemporal dementia, and autism were on the rise.

By and large, the glutamate in question was, and still is, glutamate from endogenous sources. The possible toxicity of glutamate from exogenous sources such as glutamate-containing flavor-enhancers has generally not being considered. But Olney and a few others have suggested that ingestion of free glutamate might play a role in producing the excess amounts of glutamate needed for endogenous glutamate to become excitotoxic (34-53).

VI. Suppression of information

The request to which I am responding was for quality peer-reviewed research that contradicts your positions. A list of those studies has been submitted with this letter.

Let me just mention that the videos you offered as the information on MSG safety came, directly or indirectly, from the glutamate-industry. The “update on MSG” is delivered by an unidentified person (as is “Is MSG Bad for You”) who speaks of scientific consensus and decades of research. The “scientific consensus” mentioned is the consensus of people brought together by Ajinomoto for the purpose of concluding that MSG is harmless. The “decades of research” were discussed earlier in this letter as negative studies that failed to demonstrate a clear and consistent relationship between MSG and adverse reactions. “Is MSG bad for you?” speaks only of consensus meetings. No sound scientific studies there. I would be happy to send you a link by email to my early notes on Williams and Woessner and on “the consensus meeting” should you have interest.

Equally important for you to appreciate are the studies that have been rigged by glutamate industry interests, and the tactics that have been used by glutamate-industry interests to promote sales of MSG. A 1999 published, peer-reviewed article speaks to that subject (101).

In addition, I have taken the liberty of enclosing the link to a file from my webpage titled “Designed for Deception.” Among other things, it details the tactics that Ajinomoto has used to rig its double-blind studies. (They stopped doing double-blind studies after we exposed the fact that they were lacing what they called “placebos” with aspartic acid, the excitotoxic amino acid used in aspartame. Aspartame and free aspartic acid cause the same brain damage and adverse reactions as those caused by MSG and free glutamic acid (32, 46, 102).

Additional reference

Neurobehav Toxicol. 1980 Summer;2(2):125-9.
Brain damage in mice from voluntary ingestion of glutamate and aspartate.
Olney JW, Labruyere J, de Gubareff T.

If there is anything else you would like me to provide to demonstrate that MSG kills brain cells and causes adverse reactions, please do not hesitate to contact me again.

Sincerely,

Adrienne Samuels, Ph.D.
Director
Truth in Labeling Campaign
Chicago, IL USA

truthlabeling@gmail.com
www.truthinlabeling.org

Reference used in this material

I. MSG-induced brain damage. The seminal and definitive studies of MSG-inflicted brain damage were done in 1969 and the 1970s, and there is no need to replicate them.

References

12. Olney JW. Brain lesions, obesity, and other disturbances in mice treated with monosodium glutamate. Science. 1969;164(880):719-721.

13. Olney JW, Ho OL, Rhee V. Cytotoxic effects of acidic and sulphur containing amino acids on the infant mouse central nervous system. Exp Brain Res. 1971;14(1):61-76.

14. Olney JW, Sharpe LG. Brain lesions in an infant rhesus monkey treated with monosodium glutamate. Science. 1969;166(903):386-388.

15. Snapir N, Robinzon B, Perek M. Brain damage in the male domestic fowl treated with monosodium glutamate. Poult Sci. 1971;50(5):1511-1514.

16. Perez VJ, Olney JW. Accumulation of glutamic acid in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus of the infant mouse following subcutaneous administration of monosodium glutamate. J Neurochem. 1972;19(7):1777-1782.

17. Arees EA, Mayer J. Monosodium glutamate-induced brain lesions: electron microscopic examination. Science. 1970;170(957):549-550.

18. Everly JL. Light microscopy examination of monosodium glutamate induced lesions in the brain of fetal and neonatal rats. Anat Rec. 1971;169(2):312.

19. Olney JW. Glutamate-induced neuronal necrosis in the infant mouse hypothalamus. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 1971;30(1):75-90.

20. Lamperti A, Blaha G. The effects of neonatally-administered monosodium glutamate on the reproductive system of adult hamsters. Biol Reprod 1976;14(3):362-369.

21. Takasaki Y. Studies on brain lesion by administration of monosodium L-glutamate to mice. I. Brain lesions in infant mice caused by administration of monosodium L-glutamate. Toxicology. 1978;9(4):293-305

22. Holzwarth-McBride MA, Hurst EM, Knigge KM. Monosodium glutamate induced lesions of the arcuate nucleus. I. Endocrine deficiency and ultrastructure of the median eminence. Anat Rec. 1976;186(2):185-196.

23. Holzwarth-McBride MA, Sladek JR, Knigge KM. Monosodium glutamate induced lesions of the arcuate nucleus. II Fluorescence histochemistry of catecholamines. Anat Rec. 1976;186(2):197-205.

24. Paull WK, Lechan R. The median eminence of mice with a MSG induced arcuate lesion. Anat Rec. 1974;180(3):436.

25. Burde RM, Schainker B, Kayes J. Acute effect of oral and subcutaneous administration of monosodium glutamate on the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus in mice and rats. Nature. 1971;233(5314):58-60.

26. Olney JW, Sharpe LG, Feigin RD. Glutamate-induced brain damage in infant primates. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 1972;31(3):464-488.

27. Abraham R, Doughtery W, Goldberg L, Coulston F. The response of the hypothalamus to high doses of monosodium glutamate in mice and monkeys: cytochemistry and ultrastructural study of lysosomal changes. Exp Mol Pathol.1971;15(1):43-60.

28. Burde RM, Schainker B, Kayes J. Monosodium glutamate: necrosis of hypothalamic neurons in infant rats and mice following either oral or subcutaneous administration. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 1972;31(1):181.

29. Robinzon B, Snapir N, Perek M. Age dependent sensitivity to monosodium glutamate inducing brain damage in the chicken. Poult Sci. 1974;53(4):1539-1542.

30. Tafelski TJ. Effects of monosodium glutamate on the neuroendocrine axis of the hamster. Anat Rec. 1976;184(3):543-544.

31. Olney JW, Rhee V, DeGubareff T. Neurotoxic effects of glutamate on mouse area postrema. Brain Res. 1977;120(1):151-157.

32. Olney JW, Ho OL. Brain damage in infant mice following oral intake of glutamate, aspartate or cystine. Nature. 1970;227:609-611.

33. Lemkey-Johnston N, Reynolds WA. Nature and extent of brain lesions in mice related to ingestion of monosodium glutamate: a light and electron microscope study. J Neuropath Exp Neurol. 1974;33(1):74-97.

34. Takasaki, Y. Protective effect of mono- and disaccharides on glutamate-induced brain damage in mice. Toxicol Lett. 1979;4(3): 205-210.

35. Takasaki, Y. Protective effect of arginine, leucine, and preinjection of insulin on glutamate neurotoxicity in mice. Toxicol Lett. 1980;5(1):39-44.

36. Lemkey-Johnston, N, Reynolds WA. Nature and extent of brain lesions in mice related to ingestion of monosodium glutamate: a light and electron microscope study. J Neuropath Exp Neurol. 1974;33(1):74-97.

Reference

99. Samuels A. (2020). Dose dependent toxicity of glutamic acid: A review. International Journal of Food Properties. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10942912.2020.1733016

II. Industry’s unfounded claims of MSG safety

Reference

5. Samuels A. The toxicity/safety of processed free glutamic acid (MSG): a study in suppression of information. Accountability in Research.1999;6:259-310. https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/manuscript2.pdf Accessed 4/14/2020.

III. Availability of sufficient potentially excitotoxic manufactured/processed free glutamate (MfG) in food and elsewhere to cause MfG to become excitotoxic (to kill brain cells)

References

7. Hashimoto S. Discovery and History of Amino Acid Fermentation.
Adv Biochem Eng Biotechnol. 2017;159:15-34.

8. Sano C. History of glutamate production. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;90(3):728S-732S

IV. MSG-induced adverse reactions

References

1. Reif-Lehrer, L. A questionnaire study of the prevalence of Chinese restaurant syndrome. Federation Proceedings 36:1617-1623,1977.

2. Kenney, RA and Tidball, CS Human susceptibility to oral monosodium L-glutamate. Am J Clin Nutr.25:140-146,1972.

3. Kerr, G.R., Wu-Lee, M., El-Lozy, M., McGandy, R., and Stare, F. Food-symptomatologyquestionnaires: risks of demand-bias questions and population-biased surveys. In: Glutamic Acid: Advances in Biochemistry and Physiology Filer, L. J., et al., Eds. New York: Raven Press, 1979.

4. Schaumburg, H.H., Byck, R, Gerstl, R, and Mashman, J.H. Monosodium L-glutamate: its pharmacology and role in the Chinese restaurant syndrome. Science 163:826-828,1969.

175. Kwok, R.H.M. The Chinese restaurant syndrome. Letter to the editor. N Engl J Med 278: 796, 1968.

179. Schaumburg, H. Chinese-restaurant Syndrome. N Engl J Med 278: 1122, 1968.

180. McCaghren, T.J. Chinese-restaurant syndrome. N Engl J Med 278: 1123, 1968.

181. Menken, M. Chinese-restaurant syndrome. N Engl J Med 278, 1123, 1968.

182. Migden, W. Chinese-restaurant syndrome. N Engl J Med 278: 1123, 1968.

183. Rath, J. Chinese-restaurant syndrome. N Engl J Med 278: 1123, 1968.

184. Beron, E.L. Chinese-restaurant syndrome. N Engl J Med 278: 1123, 1968.

185. Kandall, S.R. Chinese-restaurant syndrome. N Engl J Med 278: 1123, 1968.

186. Gordon, M.E., Chinese-restaurant syndrome. N Engl J Med 278: 1123-1124, 1968.

187. Rose, E.K. Chinese-restaurant syndrome. N Engl J Med 278: 1123, 1968.

188. Davies, N.E. Chinese-restaurant syndrome. N Engl J Med 278: 1124, 1968.

189. Schaumburg, H.H. and Byck, R. Sin cib-syn: accent on glutamate. N Engl J Med 279: 105, 1968.

190. Ambos, M., Leavitt, N.R., Marmorek, L., and Wolschina, S.B. Sin cib-syn: accent on glutamate. N Engl J Med 279: 105, 1968.

191. Schaumburg, H.H., Byck, R., Gerstl, R., and Mashman, J.H. Monosodium L-glutamate: its pharmacology and role in the Chinese restaurant syndrome. Science 163: 826-828, 1969.

192. Upton, A.R.M., and Barrows, H.S. Chinese-restaurant syndrome recurrence. N Engl J Med 286: 893-894, 1972

213. Gann, D. Ventricular tachycardia in a patient with the “Chinese restaurant syndrome.” Southern Medical J 70: 879-880, 1977.

214. Asnes, R.S. Chinese restaurant syndrome in an infant. Clin Pediat 19: 705-706, 1980.

215. Cochran, J.W., and Cochran A.H. Monosodium glutamania: the Chinese restaurant syndrome revisited. JAMA 252: 899, 1984.

216. Freed, D.L.J. and Carter, R. Neuropathy due to monosodium glutamate intolerance. Annals of Allergy 48: 96-97, 1982.

217. Ratner, D., Esmel, E., and Shoshani, E. Adverse effects of monosodium glutamate: a diagnostic problem. Israel J Med Sci 20: 252-253, 1984.

218. Squire, E.N. Jr. Angio-oedema and monosodium glutamate. Lancet 988, 1987.

219. Pohl, R., Balon, R., and Berchou, R. Reaction t chicken nuggets in a patient taking an MAOI. Am J Psychiatry 145: 651, 1988.

220. Reif-Lehrer, L. and Stemmermann, M.B. Correspondence: Monosodium glutamate intolerance in children. N Engl J Med 293: 1204-1205, 1975.

221. Andermann, F., Vanasse, M., and Wolfe, L.S. Correspondence: Shuddering attacks in children: essential tremor and monosodium glutamate. N Engl J Med 295: 174, 1975.

222. Reif-Lehrer, L. Letter: A search for children with possible MSG intolerance. Pediatrics 58: 771-772, 1976.

223. Reif-Lehrer, L. A questionnaire study of the prevalence of chinese restaurant syndrome. Fed Proc36:1617-1623, 1977.

224. Reif-Lehrer, L. Possible significance of adverse reactions to glutamate in humans. Federation Proceedings 35: 2205-2211, 1976. 225. Colman, A.D. Possible psychiatric reactions to monosodium glutamate. N Engl J Med 299: 902, 1978.

226. Neumann, H.H. Soup? It may be hazardous to your health. Am Heart J 92:, 266, 1976.

227. Gore, M.E., and Salmon, P.R. Chinese restaurant syndrome: fact or fiction. Lancet 1(8162): 251, 1980.

228. Sauber, W.J. What is Chinese restaurant syndrome? Lancet 1(8170): 721-722, 1980.

229. Allen, D.J., and Baker, G.J. Chinese-restaurant asthma. N Engl J Med 305: 1154-1155, 1981.

230. Allen, D.H., Delohery, J., & Baker, G.J. Monosodium L-glutamate-induced asthma. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 80: No 4, 530-537, 1987.

231. Moneret-Vautrin, D.A. Monosodium glutamate – induced asthma: Study of the potential risk in 30 asthmatics and review of the literature. Allergic et Immunologie 19: No 1, 29-35, 1987.

232. Smith, J.D., Terpening, C.M., Schmidt, S.O.F., and Gums, J.G. Relief of fibromyalgia symptonsfollowoing discontinuation of dietary excitotoxins. The Annals of Pharmacoltherapy. 35: (6) 702-706.

233. Scopp, A.L. MSG and hydrolyzed vegetable protein induced headache: review and case studies. Headache. 31:107-110, 1991.

234. Martinez, F. et al. Neuroexcitatory amino acid levels in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid during migraine attacks. Cephalalgia. 13: 89-93, 1993.

235. Scopp, A. Personal communication. June 17, 2002.

236. He K, Zhao L, Daviglus ML, et al. Association of Monosodium Glutamate Intake With Overweight in Chinese Adults: The INTERMAP Study. Obesity. 16(8): 1875-1880, 2008. Epub 2008 May 22.

V. Warnings

References

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38. Gill SS, Mueller RW, McGuire PF, Pulido OM. Potential target sites in peripheral tissues for excitatory neurotransmission and excitotoxicity. Toxicol Pathol. 2000;28(2):277-84.

39. Zautcke JL, Schwartz JA, Mueller EJ. Chinese restaurant syndrome: a review. Ann Emerg Med. 1986;15(10):1210-3.

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46. Olney JW. Excitotoxic food additives–relevance of animal studies to human safety. Neurobehav Toxicol Teratol. 1984;6(6):455-62.

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48. Dixit SG, Rani P, Anand A, Khatri K, Chauhan R, Bharihoke V. To study the effect of monosodium glutamate on histomorphometry of cortex of kidney in adult albino rats. Ren Fail. 2014;36(2):266-70.

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50. Olney JW. The toxic effects of glutamate and related compounds in the retina and the brain. Retina. 1982;2(4):341-59.

51. Olney JW. Excitatory neurotoxins as food additives: an evaluation of risk. Neurotoxicology. 1981;2(1):163-92.

52. Hashem HE, El-Din Safwat MD, Algaidi S. The effect of monosodium glutamate on the cerebellar cortex of male albino rats and the protective role of vitamin C (histological and immunohistochemical study). J Mol Histol. 2012;43(2):179-86.

53. Iamsaard S, Sukhorum W, Samrid R, Yimdee J, Kanla P, Chaisiwamongkol K, Hipkaeo W, Fongmoon D, Kondo H. The sensitivity of male rat reproductive organs to monosodium glutamate. Acta Med Acad. 2014;43(1):3-9.

VI. Suppression of information

Reference

101. Samuels A. The Toxicity/Safety of Processed Free Glutamic Acid (MSG): A study in Suppression of Information. Accountability in Research.1999(6):259-310 (https://bit.ly/2P4ICtd).