Tag: truthinlabeling

Posted on

Ajinomoto found to conduct ‘horrific’ testing on dogs and other animals

According to PETA, numerous food and beverage companies, including Coca-Cola and General Mills, have stopped conducting tests on animals to “establish health claims for the marketing of products.”

Ajinomoto, the world’s largest manufacturer of monosodium glutamate, is not one of them.

The group describes torturous experiments such as cutting open dogs’ stomachs to insert feeding tubes to deliver liquid diets with MSG, removing stomach fluids and injecting them with drugs.

Below is the petition by PETA (with link) asking Ajinomoto to put an end to its animal testing.

Urge MSG Flavor Giant Ajinomoto to End Horrific Tests on Dogs, Others

Japan-based conglomerate Ajinomoto Co., Inc.—the world’s largest manufacturer of the controversial food flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate (MSG) as well as the owner of packaged frozen food brands Tai Pei, Ling Ling, and José Olé—has been tormenting thousands of dogs, fish, gerbils, guinea pigs, mice, pigs, rabbits, and rats in horrific and deadly experiments since the 1950s. The company has ignored numerous attempts by PETA to discuss putting an end to worthless animal testing using its ingredients.

It’s time Ajinomoto paid attention, and we need your help.

Why Animal Testing?
Food companies frequently torment and kill animals in abusive tests to make dubious human health claims about food products and ingredients in order to market them to consumers. But the truth is that these experiments aren’t required by law, nor do they have any relevance to human health.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Superior non-animal research methods, including studies safely conducted on human volunteers or donated human tissue, are readily available, more affordable than animal tests, and far more reliable.

What Is Ajinomoto Doing to Animals?
Ajinomoto experimenters have cut open dogs’ stomachs and inserted tubes, starved them for 18 hours, given them liquid diets with MSG and other common amino acids, taken their stomach fluid, and injected them with drugs. They’ve also fed rabbits a common amino acid, starved them, repeatedly taken their blood, and then killed and dissected them. And Ajinomoto has funded or conducted recently published experiments in which rats or mice have endured their nerves being cut and have been starved, forced to run or swim, force-fed, injected with a variety of toxic cancer drugs, electrocuted, and cut open, causing some to die from botched surgeries while others were killed and dissected.

What’s PETA Doing to Help?
PETA is leading the global effort to end abhorrent animal testing in the food and beverage industry. Major companies such as Kellogg, The Coca-Cola Company, and General Mills have adopted new policies banning animal tests following talks with PETA scientists. It’s time that Ajinomoto joined the dozens of other food and beverage companies throughout the world that, after talking with PETA, have stopped funding or conducting shocking animal tests that aren’t even required by law.

Please take action and let Ajinomoto know that it’s time it banned animal testing. (The petition you can sign is at the bottom of the page linked below).
https://support.peta.org/page/14048/action/1?

Posted on

The Truth in Labeling Campaign: Who we are and why you should follow us

In a world filled with instant information coming at you from all directions, it has become increasingly difficult to tell fact from fiction, PR from journalism and reality from advertising.

This is where the Truth in Labeling Campaign, which is marking its 25th anniversary, can make a difference.

We are a non-profit, all-volunteer organization dedicated to the complete and clear labeling of ingredients in processed foods. We don’t rent space for fancy offices or pay our officers or directors a salary. We are beholden to no organization, advertiser, PR firm, donor or university. Our small budget comes entirely from contributions from volunteers.

Since the Truth in Labeling Campaign was incorporated in 1994, we have been providing fact-based information to consumers, many of whom have been trying to unravel mysterious health problems for years. Our focus has been on glutamic acid (glutamate), the excitotoxic (brain damaging) amino acid found in monosodium glutamate (MSG), hydrolyzed proteins, autolyzed yeast, caseinates, maltodextrin, and some 40 additional ingredients used in quantity in processed foods, dietary supplements, and pharmaceuticals.

Over the past 25 years we’ve learned a lot about propaganda techniques used to benefit those who profit at the expense of human life and suffering. Ajinomoto, possibly the world’s largest producer of MSG, as well as the low-calorie sweetener known best as aspartame (or Equal), is only one among many. The cigarette, pharmaceutical, sugar, oil and chemical industries, as well as those who manufacture and sell GMOs, pesticides, and fertilizers, use similar tactics.

What we do
Our first challenge was to expose the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about MSG. But it wasn’t long before it became obvious that we had more to do than simply provide useful information to our followers. We found that there was, and still is, a large and extremely well-funded campaign purposely designed to keep consumers deceived and in the dark about the toxic effects of MSG, and the names of the many additives we’re ingesting on a daily basis that contain MSG and the excitotoxic manufactured free glutamate (or MfG) found in it.

TLC was founded by Jack Samuels, a health-care professional and his wife, Adrienne Samuels, an experimental psychologist by training, proficient in research methodology, statistics, research design and test construction – vital skills to have if you’re going to notice and unravel design flaws, detect fraudulent research and spot skewered study conclusions.

Long before either thought of putting up a web page, Adrienne was searching for answers that would help her understand Jack’s life-threatening sensitivity to MSG, which could put him into anaphylactic shock.

Finding those answers proved to be inordinately difficult, for the people to whom she was at first referred simply assured her that no one was sensitive to MSG. Richard Cristol, then executive director of Ajinomoto’s Glutamate Association, even sent her a book that he said would prove it.

The answers eventually came from individual consumers, manufacturers, food chemists, food technologists, food encyclopedias, trade magazines, people Jack met on airplanes, and above all, intuition. And over time, Jack and Adrienne found discrepancies between 1) scientific articles produced by independent scientists who found that MSG had toxic potential, and 2) claims made in seriously flawed studies by glutamate industry researchers that declared that MSG was harmless. (Details can be found at the TLC website here.)

Possibly the most flagrant violation of ethics has been use of double-blind studies wherein the number of reactions to MSG test material would be compared to those of a “placebo” containing excitotoxic amino acids. Aspartame, which contains excitotoxic aspartic acid, was the placebo material of choice, but glutamic acid in ingredients with names other than MSG were also used. Then, when subjects reacted to both test material and placebos, industry researchers claimed that was proof MSG was harmless.

The studies in question were approved by the FDA prior to their implementation.

Shortly after the Truth in Labeling Campaign was formed, it was joined by 29 doctors, researchers and parents of MSG-sensitive children, in filing a Citizen Petition asking that the FDA mandate labeling of all MfG added to processed foods.

When the Citizen Petition was denied, TLC filed a lawsuit requesting the same labeling standards. The FDA’s response was to invoke the Administrative Procedures Act, a rule allowing government agencies to refuse to disclose any evidence contained even in their own files that industry wanted withheld.

Realizing that the chances were slim to none that the hold the glutamate industry has over our “watchdog” and other regulatory agencies would ever allow potentially life-saving changes to be made in food labeling, TLC has focused on telling the public the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about MSG and MfG – one person at a time if necessary.

Do you care?
Chances are somewhere down the road that you or a loved one will encounter a glutamate-associated disorder, which can range from problems such as headaches, muscle pains, asthma, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to diabetes, atrial fibrillation, ischemia, trauma, seizures, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, epilepsy, addiction, frontotemporal dementia, autism, and even cancer.

Then there is brain damage. Glutamate (and aspartate and L-cysteine) kill brain cells — and one would not notice a few brain cells gone missing today and a few more gone missing tomorrow.

So, wouldn’t it be smart to avoid the trio of excitotoxins that are associated with those abnormalities and brain damage? It includes not only glutamate, but aspartate (found in aspartame), and L-cysteine (often used in bakery products) that are excitotoxic. The Truth in Labeling Campaign will help you to do that.

To learn more, click here for a free download of the book, It wasn’t Alzheimer’s, it was MSG, and the peer-reviewed published article The Toxicity/Safety of Processed Free Glutamic Acid (MSG): A Study in Suppression of Information.

We also invite you to visit TLC’s webpage at www.truthinlabeling.org, follow TLC on twitter (@truthlabeling), join TLC on Facebook and read our blogs.

Posted on

Want to avoid MSG/MfG? Listen to your body. Industry lies, but your body doesn’t.

Trying to avoid excitotoxic manufactured free glutamate (MfG) — the same toxic ingredient in monosodium glutamate (MSG) that kills brain cells, is an endocrine disruptor, causes asthma, migraines, fibromyalgia, a-fib, seizures and more?

Today you can’t avoid it by reading food labels, even if you’ve memorized the names of all the ingredients that contain MfG.

Eating only whole foods that are organic will help, but it’s not fool-proof. MfG found in organic processed foods is just as toxic as the MfG in conventional foods.

In some countries, “E numbers” are used instead of food additive names, and there’s an expectation that toxic flavor-enhancers will all carry E numbers. For example, MSG is E621, glutamic acid is E620 and citric acid is E330. (In Australia, just the numbers are used.) But in many parts of the world yeast extract, which invariably contains MfG, is recognized as a food ingredient not a food additive, so it won’t have an E number.

Another mine field is the expanse of plant-based processed foods marketed to vegetarians and those trying to cut down on meat consumption. True, they might contain no meat, but they don’t contain actual food, either. They’re typically made of a boatload of chemicals and flavor enhancers such as MSG, autolyzed yeast, and hydrolyzed pea protein added to make these tasteless chemicals palatable. And if they’re advertised as “protein,” they contain the three excitotoxic amino acids: glutamic acid, aspartic acid, and L-cysteine — and no real food.

Many of these chemical stews will be found in ultra-processed foods – the quick fixes busy people grab from grocery shelves without glancing at the labels. Ultra-processed foods are concocted out of chemicals and scraps of cheap food laced with toxic MfG-containing flavor-enhancers designed to make then appetizing.

The consumer’s greatest challenge, however, is navigating what industry calls “clean labels.” Those are labels for foods that contain toxic ingredients, but don’t contain ingredients such as MSG that manufacturers think will keep customers from buying their product. Yeast extract was used as a clean label ingredient until consumers began to catch on to the fact that yeast extract contains MfG just as MSG does.

And then there are the compounds added to food which don’t legally have to be identified on food labels because they are used in such small amounts.

A fool-proof way to check a product is something called muscle strength testing or applied kinesiology. Muscle strength testing has been used for years by chiropractors for diagnosis and treatment, by NAET practitioners, and MSG/MfG-sensitive people. It is a simple arm test to demonstrate which factors in the environment – specific foods, drugs, even music – strengthen or weaken an individual. To test your muscle strength, stand with your arm outstretched, palm down, while your partner pushes down quickly and firmly on your wrist, attempting to force your arm to your side. In most cases you will be able to resist the push. To test a food for sensitivity, hold a small amount of the food in your right hand while your partner repeats the arm test on your left arm. If your arm remains as strong as before, this food “agrees” with your body, but if your arm is weaker, you may be sensitive to this food.

Applied kinesiology is something that anyone can learn. It’s relatively easy, fast, and your body doesn’t lie. If you need help, find a video on YouTube, look up a local chiropractor, or simply talk to someone who is obviously muscle-testing food in a health food store. And ignore those people who say it doesn’t work because they don’t know how to use it.

Places you might never dream of looking for MfG:

PACKAGING: On occasion you may run into packaging that breaks down the protein in the product being packaged, thus producing MfG. Cryovac is one such form of packaging.

PESTICIDE PRODUCTS: AuxiGro, Hydrolyzed Chicken Feathers, and Hydrolyzed Fish Protein are fertilizers that contain MfG. (The last two have been approved for use on organic produce.)

FRUIT WAX: Waxes used on non-organic produce often contain MfG.

POLISHING AGENTS: White rice may cause an MfG-reaction in a highly sensitive person while brown rice doesn’t. Some of the agents used to polish rice contain MfG.

BINDING AGENTS: The agent that causes salt to stick to the nuts, popcorn, or whatever, may contain MfG.

FLOWING AGENTS: Whatever it is that keeps salt loose in its box or bottle may contain MfG.

LABELS THAT SAY NO MSG ADDED: Products that claim “No MSG added” or “No added MSG” on labels or in advertising may be hiding places for MfG. Read the small print that may say “except for” and check the lists of ingredients.

ORGANIC PRODUCTS: A number of MfG-containing ingredients have been approved for use in products labeled “organic.” MfG that is produced using “organic” ingredients is just as toxic as MfG produced from non-organic sources. The fact that a plant or animal meets or does not meet the standards of the National Organic Standards Board has no relevance to its capacity for producing MfG.

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.

Posted on

Medical mystery solved (one of many stories we have)

Dear Dr. Samuels,
I am writing first of all to tell you how very sorry I was to hear of Mr. Samuels’ death last year. I realize this is a bit late for condolences, but I know that even after a year and a half, he is greatly missed by those who loved him and also by those his life touched through his work.

I received my copy of your book The Man Who Sued the FDA (now titled It wasn’t Alzheimer’s, it was MSG) just yesterday morning in the post and could not put it down until I had finished all of it sometime late last night. It was a wonderful documentation in your words and Mr. Samuels’ of the journey the two of you have been on and the battles you have fought and won. Though I realize that in many ways, especially with Mr. Samuels’ untimely death and with the fact that the glutes continue to lie, cheat, steal and murder without shame that so many battles seem to have been won by the other side.

I have often felt a sense of despair in the knowledge that their adulteration of nearly every available food source continues to go on in even more hidden and illegal ways. My only hope is that as a Christian, I know there will be a day of reckoning for the men and women behind the deception and as I firmly believe murder, of so many who had no idea of what was really behind their illnesses, cancers and debilitations.

The main reason I am writing you is that I would very much like to say thank you for the long hours you have poured over research to uncover the truth, the support you gave your husband through his encounters with MSG and your continued presence on the web, which is where I first learned of the dangers of MSG myself just over three years ago.

My story is so like hundreds I know you have encountered of unexplained symptoms that progressed until I finally eliminated MSG (which as you so accurately stated in your book is never a battle that is completed for there is always something else adulterated by its presence). My husband was the first to notice changes in his health shortly after we were expatriated to China 9 years ago. For the first three years of living here, he could not get a confirmation that his problems were directly related to his threshold for MSG’s toxicity. By the process of elimination and through the information on your website and Debbie Anglesey’s website and also through Dr. Schwartz’s book we were given the information to begin eliminating processed foods that were causing the problem. We also seem to have adverse reactions to eating gluten as well and there seems to be very little written on this correlation, though I know one exists. What I am not sure of is if it is the gluten or the presence of MSG in the enhancers that are usually found within the bread recipes. Thankfully, I have always reacted badly almost instantly upon eating aspartame and so this has never been a problem for me; but as you know companies are putting it in items with regular sugar and in some cases my reactions tell me it was not identified on the label. It very much gives one the feeling of being one of those lab rats that have no control of what is being fed to them.

I continue to try to purchase and cook only whole foods, but recently we are reacting to simple apples, pears, of course the wine, and also meat that shouldn’t be adulterated but is. There is no such thing as reliable “organic” here and it is discouraging to say the least. It is also exhausting to have to cook everything you eat from scratch, but I am learning to make this more of a routine. I really appreciated your honesty in the book of how you struggled with the strain of constant vigilance for your husband. Our lives today seem far removed from the years we grew up eating so many things we had no idea that were altering our endocrine systems, destroying our brain cells and turning our bodies against us.

Thank you again for helping so many people like me and my family, who may not have the pleasure of meeting you and who didn’t have the privilege of meeting Mr. Samuels, but who will continue to think of both of you everyday we pass up that box, can or frozen dish in the grocery store; or think carefully about what to order in a restaurant.

Your work you have shared on your website and especially the work in your book will be treasured by me as I continue to try and think of ways to pass this information on to others. It is perhaps a slow and steady pursuit that will not end with the passing of Mr. Samuels and if God is willing, will continue in our children and their children as well.

God bless you, Dr. Samuels as you have blessed others who truly appreciate the cost you and your husband have paid, even when we cannot fully understand it.

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.

Posted on

Recognizing or diagnosing MSG adverse reactions

Identifying MSG sensitivity is extremely difficult.

The strangle-hold that chemical, food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, fertilizer, and pesticide industries have on the lives of Americans are nowhere better illustrated than in the glutamate industry’s ability to guarantee that MSG be hidden in food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, dietary supplements and fertilizer/pesticide products.

These industrial giants have promoted the fiction that the pollutants and carcinogens poured into our food, drugs, cosmetics, fertilizers, and pesticides are not pollutants and carcinogens. They, through their wealth and positions of power, are ultimately responsible for medical school curricula that minimize the extent of the toxic effects of numerous pollutants and carcinogens – and are ultimately responsible for physicians’ failure to look to these pollutants and carcinogens as a basis for much of the disease that currently plagues us. It is they who make generous contributions to universities and medical schools that carry out their research designs. It is they who send friendly scientists on junkets around the world. It is they who are directly responsible for the refusal of the United States government to regulate the use of processed free glutamic acid (MSG) in food.

There is no straightforward way to identify MSG in food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, or dietary supplements. A consumer may have an MSG-induced adverse reaction, but since MSG in food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and dietary supplements is not identified as such on the label of the product, the consumer may not realize that (s)he has come into contact with MSG.

Making matters worse, the glutamate industry (the glutes) have sold the medical community on the fiction that reactions to MSG are allergic reactions–which is not true. The glutes urge physicians to give allergy tests to people who might be MSG-sensitive, knowing full well that the MSG adverse reaction is a reaction to a toxin, not a reaction to an allergenic substance, and, as such, is not IgE mediated. Traditional allergy tests only identify reactions that are IgE mediated.

The only way to determine if a person is sensitive to MSG is to feed MSG to that person and observe him or her for as long as 48 hours after feeding; or to have the person keep a record of food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and dietary supplement use and any MSG reactions.

Learning to pinpoint MSG as a reaction trigger, recognizing reactions that might be MSG-induced adverse reactions, and understanding where MSG is hidden in food, are essential to recognizing or diagnosing MSG-induced adverse reactions.

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.

Posted on

Listen up people. You have power. Use it.

Everyone wants their share of the pie. Ajinomoto gets theirs in part by selling toxic amino acids and the food ingredients/products that contain them – excitotoxic glutamic acid (glutamate) in monosodium glutamate (MSG) and excitotoxic aspartic acid (aspartate) in aspartame, equal, AminoSweet, and other sugar substitutes. Monsanto/Bayer gets theirs in part by selling Roundup, which contains toxic glyphosate. And you, the consumer, would have to work hard to avoid the products of either manufacturer.

But savvy consumers are starting to have their say with companies that purchase from Ajinomoto and Monsanto/Bayer – and that will cost Ajinomoto and Monsanto/Bayer. An article by Robert Arnason in The Western Producer tells the story of what can happen when a major company gets pushed by consumers to threaten its piece of the pie. Arnason tells us that in order to keep its customers happy and buying its product, they will find a way to eliminate toxins that customers refuse to purchase.

According to Arnason, “General Mills, like all companies, needs happy and satisfied customers. That’s why it’s asking suppliers, farmers who produce oats, wheat, sugar, soybeans and other commodities, to reduce pesticide use.

“‘We can see the trends. Consumers want less pesticide in their food,’ said John Wiebold, General Mills vice president, North American direct material sourcing. ‘They want less things in their food that shouldn’t be there.’

“The company … intends to reduce pesticide use in its supply chain by encouraging farmers to adopt practices like regenerative agriculture, integrated pest management and increasing organic acres. General Mills is hoping to cut pesticide use in its supply chain for a number of reasons but the number one reason is its customers.

“‘I think what’s happening now is science and capabilities are increasing. The ability to detect pesticides, at lower and lower levels in our foods, is there,’ Wiebold said… ‘And consumers are responding to that. And we’re responding to what they’re (asking). Because they’re ultimately the reason we get to do business, every day.’”

Listen up people. You have power. Use it. Read food labels. Ask questions. Don’t buy food that contains toxic chemicals. Don’t buy food that has been treated with toxic chemicals. Buy only food that is identified as Non-GMO. And as you do that, more real, wholesome food will become available.

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.


The Western Producer: General Mills uses contracts to avoid glyphosate

Posted on

Ultra-processed foods: Little nourishment, lots of toxic amino acids

Although the typical U.S. supermarket contains a wide variety of packaged foods, that assortment emanates from 10 giant conglomerates.

These multinationals, such as Unilever, Coca-Cola and Mondelez, have their imprints on practically everything you eat. And more and more of these products are “ultra-processed.”

It used to be that food technologists designed processed foods.  Those would be whole foods that were canned, freeze-dried, or fermented, for example.  But in the 1980s ultra-processed food — products manufactured with substances extracted from foods or synthesized in laboratories — started to line supermarket shelves.

Ultra-processed foods are fractionated-recombined foods consisting of an extensive number of additives and ingredients, but little actual whole food.  They can be identified by the remarkably long list of ingredients – including many unpronounceable ones — found on their labels. According to a recent study, Canadians are taking in practically half of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods.

Not mentioned in any study of ultra-processed foods, however, are the toxic ingredients added for color, flavor, shelf life (preservatives), and protein, along with low-calorie sweeteners. Manufactured free glutamate (MfG), the toxic component of monosodium glutamate, and all of the ingredients in the following list are found in both flavor enhancers and protein enhancers. And some say because they mask the taste of old or rancid food, MfGs are used as preservatives as well. 

Names of ingredients that always contain MfG:

  • Glutamic acid (E 620)
  • Glutamate (E 620)
  • Monosodium glutamate (E 621)
  • Monopotassium glutamate (E 622)
  • Calcium glutamate (E 623)
  • Monoammonium glutamate (E 624)
  • Magnesium glutamate (E 625)
  • Natrium glutamate
  • Anything “hydrolyzed”
  • Any “hydrolyzed protein”
  • Calcium caseinate, Sodium caseinate
  • Yeast extract, Torula yeast
  • Yeast food, Yeast nutrient
  • Autolyzed yeast
  • Gelatin
  • Textured protein
  • Whey protein
  • Whey protein concentrate
  • Whey protein isolate
  • Soy protein
  • Soy protein concentrate
  • Soy protein isolate
  • Anything “protein”
  • Anything “protein fortified”
  • Soy sauce
  • Soy sauce extract
  • Protease
  • Anything “enzyme modified”
  • Anything containing “enzymes”
  • Anything “fermented”
  • Vetsin
  • Ajinomoto
  • Umami
  • Zinc proteninate

Names of ingredients that often contain or produce MfG during processing:

  • Carrageenan (E 407)
  • Bouillon and broth
  • Stock
  • Any “flavors” or “flavoring”
  • Natural flavor
  • Maltodextrin
  • Oligodextrin
  • Citric acid, Citrate (E 330)
  • Anything “ultra-pasteurized”
  • Barley malt
  • Malted barley
  • Brewer’s yeast
  • Pectin (E 440)
  • Malt extract
  • Seasonings

The following are ingredients suspected of containing or creating sufficient processed free glutamic acid to serve as MfG-reaction triggers in HIGHLY SENSITIVE people:

  • Corn starch
  • Corn syrup
  • Modified food starch
  • Lipolyzed butter fat
  • Dextrose
  • Rice syrup
  • Brown rice syrup
  • Milk powder
  • Reduced fat milk (skim; 1%; 2%)
  • most things “low fat” or “no fat”
  • anything “enriched”
  • anything “vitamin enriched”
  • anything “pasteurized”
  • Annatto
  • Vinegar
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • certain amino acid chelates (Citrate, aspartate, and glutamate are used as chelating agents with mineral supplements.)

Convenient, relatively inexpensive and heavily advertised, the future of ultra-processed foods seems to be assured (1).  And why not?  The FDA lets the people who manufacture ultra-processed foods declare that they are GRAS (generally recognized as safe), and the general public seems unaware that the fox is guarding the hen house.

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.

Reference

1. Open PR Worldwide Public Relations.  Press release. 7/3/2019. “What’s driving the Flavor Enhancers Market Growth?  Cargill, Synergy Flavors, Tate & Lyle, Associated British Foods pic, Corbion …”  https://www.openpr.com/news/1794737/what-s-driving-the-flavor-enhancers-market-growth-cargill.  Accessed 7/31/2019.

Posted on

MSG reactions aren’t allergies!

Reactions to MSG and other sources of manufactured free glutamate (MfG) are reactions to poison. They’re not allergic reactions, and the rules for allergies don’t apply.

You may hear people refer to an “MSG allergy,” but that’s incorrect. And allergists aren’t the ones to ask about your reactions to MSG.

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.

Posted on

Cutting through industry’s maze of lies about monosodium glutamate (MSG): Seven essential truths

1: MSG is manufactured. It isn’t found naturally in anything. https://bit.ly/31Euddc

2: The toxic ingredient contained in MSG is manufactured glutamic acid — glutamic acid that is mass-produced in chemical plants. https://bit.ly/2VBV0mZ

3: The same toxic free glutamic acid found in MSG is also found in some 40-plus other ingredients. https://bit.ly/2U0gkAU

4: Glutamic acid becomes excitotoxic (killing cells throughout the body) when present in amounts that exceed what’s needed for normal body function. https://bit.ly/2VoGZwN

5: The average American diet of processed food (all kinds, not just “junk food”), contains more than enough free glutamic acid to cause glutamate to become excitotoxic. https://bit.ly/2U0gkAU / https://bit.ly/2iGqNli

6: When glutamate becomes excitotoxic, four types of abnormalities can follow:

7: The dose needed to cause these reactions varies widely from person to person. https://bit.ly/2UXwR9i

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.

Posted on

Monososdium glutamate isn’t found naturally in anything

Glutamic acid is found naturally in unprocessed tomatoes, grapes, pork, chicken, mushrooms and other unprocessed foods. Monosodium glutamate isn’t found naturally in anything. Monosodium glutamate is manufactured.

If monosodium glutamate is found in food, it’s been added to processed food when the food is processed/manufactured.