Tag: truthinlabelingcampaign

Posted on

The Truth about Gelatin

The Truth about Gelatin originally appeared in Earth Clinic a top-rated alternative health website that features in-depth information and videos about holistic treatments (for both people and pets), home remedies and effective health-boosting uses for numerous everyday products ranging from coconut oil to hydrogen peroxide.

You’re likely to run into gelatin in some surprising places. While it’s commonly found in foods such as gelatin desserts (think Jell-O), aspic, marshmallows, gummy candies, vitamins, and other supplements (including pill capsules), it can also turn up used as a binder in yogurt, ice cream, cream cheese and anywhere a food manufacturer wants to create a good “mouthfeel” for their product.

But like sausages, nobody wants to see how gelatin is made.

Most of the gelatin found in food and supplements comes from heat-degraded collagen derived from pigs and cows. It’s an ugly process that completes the cruel loop of factory farming by taking bone, stripped skin, and connective tissue from slaughterhouses and processing them (through acid, heat, and grinding) into an innocuous-looking, tasteless powder.

There’s nothing in that bouncy gelatin dessert or a smiling gummy bear that will give a hint of the cruelty involved in its creation. But ethical concerns aside, there’s much more not to like about gelatin.

The Gelatin – MSG Connection

Although it might seem that a marshmallow Peep has nothing in common with a shaker of the MSG flavor-enhancer Accent, they are actually related as both contain manufactured free glutamate.

Just as drugs have side effects, manufactured free glutamate has side effects such as irritable bowel, headache, heart irregularities, and skin rash. In addition, manufactured free glutamate is an excitotoxin: a neurologically active compound that in high concentrations has detrimental excitatory effects on the central nervous system and may cause injury to nerve cells.

Manufactured free glutamate is created in food ingredients when protein is broken down into its constituent amino acids. One of those amino acids will always be free glutamate. It is also mass-produced using genetically modified bacteria that excrete glutamate through their cell walls.

In the case of gelatin, the Encyclopedia of Food Science and Technology states that glutamic acid (a.k.a. glutamate) which makes up around 10 percent of gelatin, isn’t the only neurotoxic component released during the manufacturing process. Aspartic acid, another brain-damaging amino acid is also present at a level of around 6 percent. Both sources will cause the same adverse reactions in people, and according to experts like Dr. John Olney, both glutamic and aspartic acid will combine to produce a toxic double-whammy.

Might you have a noticeable reaction to a gelatin product? That would depend on your individual sensitivity as well as the amount of manufactured free glutamate you consume in foods along with the gelatin. And your sensitivity is something that can change with age, illness, if you suffer a head injury, or consume a large amount of manufactured free glutamate.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Look at any gelatin-containing product in the store and you won’t see any mention whatsoever of glutamic acid, aspartic acid (or pigskin and tendons being bathed in acid for that matter). But beyond packaging, which fails to disclose important information about the possible toxic effects of gelatin, are the lies circulated by Big Food to convince you to buy their products.

You’ll hear that manufactured free glutamate is “naturally occurring,” has been extensively studied and found to be “safe,” and the biggest whopper of all — that the glutamate in the human body is exactly the same as what you’ll find in foods such as gelatin. The real story is that all manufactured free glutamate contains impurities that are unavoidable by-products of the manufacturing process.

But what about “kosher” or even “vegetarian” gelatin, are those better choices?

A Fishy Proposition

Kosher gelatin can be derived from either fish or cows certified as kosher and killed in a specific manner. Since kosher rules prohibit the combining of meat and dairy, if you notice kosher gelatin in a dairy product, it’s probably fish-derived.

Fish byproducts such as skin, scales and bones contain high amounts of collagen, and the processing will release neurotoxic free glutamate just as with gelatin from cows or pigs. Published research out of Indonesia has found free glutamic acid amounts in fishbone gelatin ranging from a low of over seven percent to a high of over 10 percent, with aspartic acid going from a low of close to five percent to a high of 6.5 percent, depending on the type of fish.

Vegetable Gelatin

As far as veggie gelatin goes, it too has issues.

Produced from processed algae and seaweed (a marine algae), vegetarian gelatins are derived from rich sources of certain amino acids that will also contain significant amounts of free glutamate and aspartic acid after processing.

If gelatin is something you’ve decided to avoid, it pays to read the ingredient labels of all processed foods and supplements thoroughly, as well as pharmaceuticals (including OTC drugs). And while you won’t be able to determine if the gelatin came from pigs, cows, or fish, the name gelatin is required to be listed on the packaging.

Resources:

The Free Dictionary: https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/excitotoxin (accessed 5/4/21)

Amino acid and proximate composition of fish bone gelatin from different warm-water species: A comparative study.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/58/1/012008 (accessed 5/4/21)

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

It’s not just MSG that’s toxic — watch out for the free glutamate found in over 40 other ingredients

Hydrolyzed proteins, you’ll find them in processed foods, pet food, “nutrition” shake mixes and even baby food.

But if you had any question about the excitotoxic (brain damaging) glutamate and aspartate content in hydrolyzed proteins, a recent research report Characterization of umami compounds in bone meal hydrolysate should set the record straight.

According to the report, “The free amino acids and peptides in the bone meal hydrolysate were analyzed. The results showed that the glutamic acid and the aspartic acid in the bone meal increased by 13.1 times and 14.2 times, respectively, after the Flavourzyme hydrolysis….The findings of this study demonstrated that the MSG‐like taste of the bone meal hydrolysate should be attributed to the generation of MSG‐like amino acids and peptides from the Flavourzyme hydrolysis.”

(Flavourzyme is a brand name for an enzymatic hydrolysis product that is used for protein extraction. This includes feather protein hydrolysis used for pet food, which the company says will allow processors to “turn feathers into profit.”)

The take-away is that the process of hydrolysis will invariably produce toxic glutamate, be it in bone meal, milk, corn or any other item that contains protein – including feathers.

Reference
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1750-3841.15751


Resource
Names of ingredients that contain Manufactured free Glutamate, updated 5/21:
https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/ingredient_names.pdf


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

Just when we thought we knew all the names… here’s an updated list

Just when we thought we knew the names of all the ingredients in which MfG 1 could be hidden, a new collection appeared on the market.

For many years we’ve known that flavor enhancers contain the free glutamate in hydrolysates, autolysates, yeast extracts and enzyme modified ingredients that enhanced taste by triggering glutamate receptors in the mouth and on the tongue. These are ingredients such as soy protein isolate, hydrolyzed pea protein and autolyzed yeast extract.

The so-called “plant based,” protein substitutes like “Just Egg,” “Impossible Meats,” “Beyond Beef” and “Lightlife plant-based burgers” contain glutamic acid and aspartic acid (both excitotoxic 2 – brain damaging — ingredients) which are part of the amino acid stews used for claiming that the products contain protein.

Now, with a rush for “clean labels,” 3 creative new names are being assigned to old ingredients.

Names of ingredients that always contain MfG

Note: Glutamic acid found in unadulterated protein does not cause adverse reactions. To cause adverse reactions, the glutamic acid must have been processed/manufactured, released from protein during processing, or come from protein that has been fermented.

Everyone knows that some people react to the food ingredient monosodium glutamate (MSG). What many don’t know, is that more than 40 different ingredients contain the chemical in monosodium glutamate — Manufactured free Glutamate (MfG) — that causes these reactions. The following list of ingredients that always contain MfG was compiled over the last 30 years from consumer reports and information provided by manufacturers and food technologists.

Glutamic acid (E 620) 4
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, Nutritional yeast
Autolyzed yeast, Brewer’s 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”
anything “Protein concentrate”
anything “Protein isolate”
Zinc proteninate
anything “Proteninate”
Soy sauce
Soy sauce extract
Protease
anything “Enzyme modified”
anything containing “Enzymes”
anything “Fermented”
Vetsin
Ajinomoto

A list of the additional ingredients that contain lesser amounts of MfG will be found at: https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/ingredient_names.pdf

Footnotes

  1. Manufactured free Glutamate
  2. Brain damaging.
  3. Labels of foods that contain undesirable components but give no clue to their presence.
  4. Numbers used in Europe in place of food additive names.


    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

Has anyone had this experience with anxiety?

“Hangxiety,” (anxiety with a hangover) is a “real condition” according to Australian doc Zac Turner.

Turner says that it’s a sign your body is attempting to “rebalance your brain’s chemicals post drinking.” That feeling of being drunk comes when our brain “begins to shake up its own cocktail of chemicals.”

“Alcohol opens the floodgates of your brain’s neurotransmitters,” says Turner, “such as dopamine and serotonin, which is why you initially feel a rush of euphoria.”

According to Turner, glutamate is another neurotransmitter that causes anxiety. Have you ever noticed a feeling of anxiety after eating processed foods that contain MSG, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed proteins, natural flavoring or any of the other ingredients that contain Manufactured Free Glutamate (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

Eating MSG isn’t the only way for its toxic ingredient to enter your body

It’s common knowledge that many things can be absorbed through the skin. Transdermal delivery of drugs is routine, even in over-the-counter products (think nicotine stop-smoking patches).

But what you may find surprising is the sheer number of goods, from medical supplies and devices to lotions and shampoos, that contain the toxic ingredient in MSG (the manufactured free glutamic acid we refer to as MfG) — which also can be readily absorbed through your skin. *

If you are savvy and go out of your way to avoid MSG and MfG in food, it makes perfect sense to also avoid using these products on your skin. And just like reactions to MfG taken in food are dose-related, for those who have extreme sensitivities to MfG, it appears that even incredibly small amounts applied topically can cause reactions.

For Truth in Labeling Campaign co-founder Jack Samuels, that was the case. Even a small amount of MfG-containing guar gum used in heart-monitor contacts brought on atrial fibrillation that would last for 3-4 days after the contacts were removed.

This is how Jack described it: “When I left the hospital, I convinced the nurse to give me a sample of the heart monitor contacts that had been glued to my chest. They were Red Dot contacts produced by 3M. I’d asked for the sample because as they removed the contacts from my chest, I observed that the center of each contact that had touched my skin had a small bulb of gelatinous material. I knew that the glue on the contact likely contained some starch, an ingredient that would have small amounts of MSG, but I didn’t think such a small amount would cause such an immediate reaction. After the contacts were removed, I realized there would also have been MSG in the gelatin that had made contact with my skin.

“Back home, I contacted 3M, told them of my situation, and asked for a list of the ingredients used in the Red Dot product. They refused, stating the information was proprietary. I then called a friend who was a major 3M customer, and asked for his help in getting the ingredient list.

“It turned out that it was the guar gum in the gelatinous material that was the offending ingredient. The 3M laboratory had found a small amount of free glutamic acid in the guar gum, which, they claimed in a carefully worded e-mail, was so very small that it wouldn’t have caused my reaction. I wish I had $10 for each time I’ve heard someone say that the amount of MSG was so small I couldn’t have reacted to it.” (From “It Wasn’t Alzheimer’s, it Was MSG,” a free download of which is available here.)

While the 3M products that Jack encountered were considered medical devices, the MfG that your skin is more likely to come into contact with will be natural-sounding skin and hair products sold just about everywhere. Many will have glutamate, glutamic acid, or amino acids in the ingredient listings, or ingredients that are hydrolyzed. (Any hydrolyzed ingredient will always contain MfG.)

Disodium cocoyl glutamate is a cleansing agent and surfactant derived from glutamic acid. We found it in Burt’s Bees, Alba Botanical and Weleda products.

One company named Fenchem launched a line of amino-acid-based surfactants a few years back with ingredients derived from L-glutamic acid given names such as SLG-95 (sodium lauroyl glutamate) and LGA-95 (lauroyl glutamic acid). Selling directly to cosmetic manufacturers, the company claimed its products would “overcome” the “fears” many consumers have over “personal health” and help to replace petrochemical-based ingredients.

And if you think some regulatory agency is watching over what we shower with, shave with and put on our heads, think again. The law does not require cosmetic products and ingredients other than color additives to have FDA approval before they go on the market.

Interestingly, while no FDA approval is required to sell personal care products, 11 ingredients have been banned (or in some cases, restricted) by the FDA. Mercury compounds are one. While that may sound as if the FDA is paying attention, compare that to the EU, which has banned 1,328 chemicals from being used in cosmetics, requires pre-market safety evaluations and mandatory registration.

And when the FDA talks about “safety data” on cosmetic ingredients, you will always find mention of Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR), an industry-funded panel of experts who “review the safety of cosmetic ingredients.”

The CIR 2013 “Safety Assessment of alpha-amino acids as used in cosmetics” concluded that “glutamic acid is safe in the present practices of use and concentration in cosmetics.” That determination was based, in part, on the fact that the amino acids reviewed by the CIR are “found in foods, and the daily exposure from food use would result in a much larger systemic dose than that resulting from use in cosmetic products….Consequently, the systemic toxicity potential is not addressed (emphasis added) further in this report. The safety focus of use of these amino acids as cosmetic ingredients is on the potential for irritation and sensitization.”

The bottom line is that shopping for soaps, lotions and shampoo can be just as tricky as food shopping, especially when it comes to avoiding MfG. Fortunately, there still are plenty of truly natural products to choose from, along with real food and herbal ingredients that will allow you to bypass these chemical concoctions altogether.

*Food ingredients that contain manufactured free glutamate (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

MSG: a double whammy to your liver

When Dr. Russell Blaylock came out with his eye-opening book in 1994, “Excitotoxins: the Taste that Kills,” he forecast an ongoing obesity epidemic based on the sheer amount of MSG and other excitotoxins dumped into processed foods and beverages.

Now, almost three decades later he says, “Unfortunately, my prediction has come true. Obesity is now a national epidemic – not just among adults, but also among children, even the very young.”

But the damage caused by our national obesity epidemic didn’t stop with extreme weight gain. It has helped to foster another widespread condition (even called a “pandemic” by some doctors and researchers), known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD. This chronic liver condition was a rare occurrence only a few decades ago. Now it’s not only rampant among adults but being diagnosed more and more in kids, some just toddlers.

As the name implies, NAFLD is a buildup of fat in the liver, something that can progress to a life-threatening condition called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which can lead to liver failure and liver cancer.

MSG has the distinction of contributing to NAFLD and NASH is two ways. As Blaylock revealed in Excitotoxins, it had been decisively shown in research that baby mice fed MSG became “grossly obese,” and that their “obesity was very difficult to reverse.” (Today, researchers turn to MSG as a tool to fatten up their lab animals for obesity studies.)

The other way MSG is helping to create this pandemic of liver disease was found in a study showing how low doses of MSG (extremely easy to consume if you eat any kind of processed food), combined with the ever-popular sweetener high fructose corn syrup, “greatly increased the risk” of both liver conditions, Blaylock recently reported.

HFCS, a cheap genetically modified sugar substitute, is extremely toxic to the liver. Study after study has found a significant connection between ingesting all forms of processed fructose and liver damage.

As for MSG and the manufactured free glutamate (MfG) it contains, it not only is a major cause of obesity that leads to NAFLD, but has been linked to numerous other conditions including many incapacitating neurological disorders.

Ironically, many processed foods labeled as “low-cal,” which are pitched to those hoping to lose weight, contain the worst additives when it comes to weight loss, as well as liver health. For example, HFCS-90, with a whopping 90 percent fructose, is often added to diet dishes, as only a small amount is needed for sweetening. And since lower-calorie processed foods are typically made from cheap, tasteless ingredients, MSG and other forms of MfG are added liberally.

While Dr. Blaylock has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the toxic nature of MSG and other excitotoxins — warning for decades about the dangers of consuming them – unfortunately, you still don’t have to look very hard to find them in our food supply.

But perhaps as even more children sadly fall victim to suffering the consequences of the widespread use of such additives, more people will join those already demanding change in how processed foods are made and regulated.


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

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

Doing Ajinomoto a favor

Deep in the FDA’s “Food Code” lies Annex 4, Table 2b. Added Chemical Hazards at Retail, along with Their Associated Foods and Control Measures that lists monosodium glutamate as an “Added Chemical Hazard.”

Knowing that Ajinomoto, producer of MSG, has expressed concern that MSG is getting “a bad rap,” I thought it only proper that all of the ingredients that contain manufactured free glutamate, MSG’s excitotoxic – brain damaging – component, should be listed along with MSG as added chemical hazards.

So, on March 1st of this year I filed Citizen Petition # FDA-2021-P-0267 requesting that the FDA Commissioner add hydrolyzed protein, autolyzed yeast, maltodextrin and the names of all other ingredients that contain excitotoxic manufactured free glutamic acid to the Food Code, Annex 4, Table 2b, “Added Chemical Hazards at Retail, Along with Their Associated Foods and Control Measures.”

To read and/or comment on the petition, use this link: https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2021-P-0267-0001

Other petitions in which you might have interest are:

Petition to revoke the GRAS status of monosodium glutamate and L-glutamic acid for any use in human food: https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2021-P-0035-0001

Petition to replace the FDA webpage post titled “Questions and Answers on Monosodium Glutamate” with accurate information about the additive, including its toxic potential: https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2021-P-0301-0001


Adrienne Samuels


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

The History of Monosodium Glutamate (the hidden neurotoxic chemical), Part Two

This is part two of a video set created by Avalina Kreska out of a series of comics she produced about the dangers of monosodium glutamate.

Credits: Compiled by Avalina Kreska, Voiceovers: wellsaidlabs.com & ttsMP3.com, Music: purple-planet.com, Comic software: Pixton.com SFX: bbc.co.uk
Copyright BBC 2021

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.