MSG: Many Secrets Guarded (opinion)

Monday, February 11, 2013 by: Hesh Goldstein
Tags: MSG, hidden ingredients, taste enhancer

(NaturalNews) By now, most of us are aware of the fact that MSG has two purposes: to give a food that has absolutely no flavor, flavor and to increase the shelf life of a useless product that ultimately will increase the profits of the highly reputable company using it. Actually, there is a third purpose that no one really talks about, except maybe for me, which is knowingly selling a product that will present a myriad of illness symptoms in someone, causing them to constantly see a clueless doctor who prescribes a drug that serves no other purpose other than to increase profits for the pharmaceutical industry. All together now, pimps, hookers, and tricks!

The big food companies are not stupid. They know that people are becoming more and more aware of MSG and its many euphemisms so they try to "disguise" it as best they can. Let's take a look at some of their secrets.

Ajinomoto - The name of both the Japanese manufacturer and the MSG product,

Annatto - This is a natural yellow-red plant extract used to dye foods, textiles, and body care products. Its primary use is a red food coloring in a wide assortment of foods, including cereals, preserved meats, cheeses, butter, and sweets. It is the only natural color known to cause as many adverse effects as artificial colors. Adverse reactions can include skin, gastrointestinal, respiratory, and central nervous system effects. Maybe that's because annatto is sometimes "spiked" with MSG, without that being disclosed.

Baked goods - Before you blindly accept, take a walk on the wild side and try to get an ingredients list. Most supermarkets, besides using the typical malted flour/wheat flour, can use liquid malt to enhance color and flavor to bagels and breads. Some baked goods contain whey and dough conditioners, which may contain yeast nutrients like soy lecithin, soy protein, or citric acid, all MSG. Some flour tortillas contain L-cysteine or other excitotoxins, as do many baked goods.

Barley malt - This is sprouted barley. It is dried and ground into flour and added to wheat flour and gives a sweet flavor. It does contain some MSG, but the problem is that the enzymes released in sprouting begin to break down the protein of the wheat flour it is added to, creating more MSG. It is only added to flour when the wheat quality that season is poor; however, the flour companies do not change their labels so there is no way to know if it has been added or not. Other by-products of malted barley or barley malt are coffee-free roasted grain beverages and liquid malt syrups, used baked goods and cereals to improve color and flavor.

Beverages - Many frozen fruit juices are fine if they are 100 percent juice, though most contain preservatives and corn syrup (high fructose), which may contain MSG residues. Juice drinks in cans, bottles, or little boxes are often MSG flavor enhanced. And, if you have a sensitivity to sulfites, which are basically added to prevent spoilage and increase shelf life, avoid white grape juice and bottled fruit juice mixes, which use corn syrup containing sulfites as well. Most carbonated beverages contain MSG, aspartame (if diet), sulfites, and lots of artificial colors and flavors. Since I wet your appetite about sulfites, let me add that sulfites destroy thiamine (vitamin B1), and are thought to destroy folic acid, another B vitamin. Sulfites have been associated with the full range of food intolerance symptoms, including headaches, irritable bowel symptoms, behavioral disturbances, and skin rashes. Sulfites work their best on asthmatics. Asthmatic individuals can develop bronchial spasms after eating foods or drinking wine preserved with sulfur dioxide or other sulfur preservatives. The last two are not to be confused with the organic sulfur crystals, which heals just about everything.

Bread yeast - This type of yeast is produced by growing it on a nutritious base. Unfortunately, this base often consists of some form of hydrolyzed protein, which is MSG.

Butter - Be careful about the annatto connection. Also, some of the salts added may contain flowing agents that contain MSG. If the words "natural flavoring" is used on unsalted butter, that usually means that citric acid of flavor enhancers (both MSG) have been added.

Calcium caseinate - This is the calcium by-product of milk protein hydrolysis (MSG). It is often present in milk solids, milk powder, or dried milk products and is added to canned tuna, cold cuts, and more.

Candy - Many of the "gummy" candies are loaded with gelatin, not to mention artificial colors, artificial flavors, and corn syrup. Candy bars are full of MSG euphemisms like whey, milk solids, artificial flavoring, pectin, vegetable gums, etc. Usually, the ingredients are under a fold in the label and the print is tiny. That's why you must read labels carefully. If you love chocolate, be sure it's dark, of a better quality, and/or imported. My favorite dark chocolate is found at www.mywaiora.com/701848.

Canned broth, Bouillon cubes - This is the resting place for MSG. Especially the ones that are cheap. The natural food stores say theirs are GMO free until it says "autolyzed yeast" or another yeast euphemism on the label. Even if the powder or broth says GMO FREE, beware. Due to long cooking and processing, MSG is abundant.

Canned or frozen vegetables and fruit products - If you experience a reaction to any of these, rest assured it contains citric acid or other preservatives. Do not be surprised to find MSG for flavor and/or color enhancer in frozen peas or sulfites and corn syrup in commercial fruit products.

Canned tuna - If it's cheap, give-er-a-miss mate as it will contain calcium caseinate and broth. You might get lucky with the low sodium versions, but read the label carefully. If you should be lucky enough to avoid GMO, what about the mercury?

Caramel coloring - Usually this is a by-product of malted barley or hydrolyzed corn.

Carrageenan - This is a seaweed derivative used to thicken products like ice cream, processed cheeses, toothpaste, cottage cheese, cream, eggnog, half and half, buttermilk, yogurt, etc. It's used like a gum, and is 100 percent animal product free. That's why it is used in vegetarian products. The problem - most seaweed and algae are high in "bound" glutamates. As such, carrageenan is often mixed with MSG and/or hydrolyzed milk protein, with the label only stating, "carrageenan."

Chicken and turkey - Most people will look for a label that says "No additives or preservatives." Yet, no one cares about how much doo doo is on the poultry that they eat. Very often, poultry is dipped in a broth solution containing MSG. So, saying "naturally processed" or "all natural" ingredients is a fabrication. As far as the USDA is concerned, MSG is a natural product. Turkey, for example is usually injected with it. As far as the doo doo point is concerned, why do you think you are advised to sterilize any surface, object, or utensil that the poultry has come in contact with?

Chocolate - Some milk chocolate contains whole milk solids, or whey, which are both MSG. Soy lecithin, if not labeled "organic" or "NonGMO", is just that - GMO. If the chocolate is a hydrolyzed product, it is an MSG product. Like I said earlier, a good dark chocolate is best.

Citric acid - Most citric acid today is made from hydrolyzed corn and the manufacturers could care less about removing any MSG residues. That would require spending more time and cutting down on profits.

Corn products - While organic or NonGMO corn on the cob is okay, most MSG is produced by fermenting corn. So, corn syrup, dextrose, dextrin, maltodextrin, and all other products made by hydrolyzing or fermenting corn is bad, bad, bad. That goes for alcohol, caramel color or flavor, and citric acid as well. Oh yeah, baking powder, confectioner's sugar, bleached flour, excipients, which are the binders and fillers in vitamins and meds, are made form hydrolyzed or fermented corn as well.

Croutons - These are nothing more than crunchy MSG. Yummmmmmmy!

Disodium guanylate/ Disodium inosinate - These are flavor enhancers that work synergistically with MSG. If you see it on a label and have trouble pronouncing it, just say MSG and you're good.

Dough conditioners - These are used to improve the texture of breads and pastries and usually contain MSG or L-cysteine.

Evaporated milk - Milk solids that are heated, processed or concentrated contain MSG.

Fat substitutes - Head's up guys. New ones are being developed on a daily basis. Beware of guar gum, hydrolyzed proteins (soy, wheat, oat, gluten), modified food starch made from soy, potatoes, whey, corn, etc., xanthum gum, maltodextrin, or olestra.

Fresh milk - If it isn't raw and organic, don't waste your time. You might like the taste, but your body won't like the growth hormones, antibiotics, and the fact that any semblance of nutrition has been cooked out of it.

Smoke flavors - Contains hydrolyzed protein or pure MSG for flavor. It ain't real.

Soymilk - Lots of controversy over this. But it's soy and soy is high in free glutamates.

Sugar - White is better than brown because of the molasses, which is high in sulfites and glutamates.

Stuffing mixes - Most are seasoned with MSG.

Table salt - Flowing agents and iodine carriers contain MSG through cornstarch and dextrose. The best is Real Salt, Himalayan Salt, or Hawaiian Salt.

Textured protein - MSG big time.

Tomato products - Citric acid, most often a by-product of hydrolyzed corn, is MSGH. It is used in canned tomato products to raise the acidity to ensure canning safety. If tomatoes have been sitting too long, waiting to be processed, which you will never know, a natural fermentation process will occur, resulting in MSG. To add insult to injury, sometimes to prevent fermentation, sulfite solutions are sprayed over them. To coin the Subway commercial spiel, "Eat fresh".

Vinegar - Most wine and balsamic vinegars contain sulfites. The best - organics or apple cider vinegar.

Whey - When cheese is produced, milk is treated with enzymes and heated to separate the curds from the whey, which is a liquid high in protein. MSG can be freed up by the heat and enzyme activity, but when whey is further processed and then dried to a powder, it will contain more concentrations of MSG. Then it's bagged and sold as a "food" product to be used in the manufacture of many products like ice cream, crackers, boxed macaroni and cheese, and candy. The more whey is processed, such as in whey protein or whey protein isolate, the more MSG it will likely contain. Sometimes hydrolyzed milk solids are added it more MSG loaded. When a label says "whey", it's anybody's guess as to what that means.

Yogurt - Try to find plain or vanilla whole milk yogurt and add your own fruit. Most yogurts contain carrageenan, gelatin, gums, so-called "natural" flavors, milk solids, and, you guessed it, whey.

Hey, why not make your own:
Heat 4 cups of whole, unpasteurized milk just to a boil, using the same bowl for the rest of the process.
Cool to warm temperature.
Add 2 tablespoons on plain or vanilla yogurt and mix it well. Do not use a gelatin yogurt.
Cover the bowl or pot with plastic wrap and then wrap the whole thing in a large bath towel.
Place it in the warmest place in your house for 24 hours without touching or looking at it.
Refrigerate it and save some for the next batch.
When you are ready to eat it, knock yourself out with your favorite fruits, honey. Etc.

Finally. Most doctors, dieticians, and the public know very little about the toxic effects of MSG. The multi-billion dollar processed food industry and MSG producers pay lobbyists to make all of us believe MSG is safe. MSG destroys the nerve cells of the brain and 50 percent or more of the population is experiencing the harmful effects of what the medical community has called the "MSG Symptom Complex." Yet, many of us are unaware of that. MSG is not just used in oriental restaurants, but in restaurants and most bagged, bottled, frozen, boxed, canned, or commercially prepared foods. Additives such as hydrolyzed protein, textured vegetable protein, yeast extract, autolyzed yeast, torula yeast, and anything modified, can contain as much as 50 percent MSG and need not be labeled as such. That Attention Deficit Disorder, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, some weight problems, migraine headaches, sleeping disorders, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, glaucoma, asthma, diabetes, and neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's, ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), Parkinson's, and fibromyalgia may have more in common than you think.

Now that you know the secrets that have been kept from you, read labels, act responsibly, respect your body, and get healthy.

Aloha!

About the author:
I have been doing a weekly radio show in Honolulu since 1981 called "Health Talk". In 2007 I was "forced" to get a Masters degree in Nutrition because of all the doctors that would call in asking for my credentials. They do not call in anymore. Going to www.healthtalkhawaii.com enables you, among other things, to listen to the shows. I am an activist. In addition to espousing an organic vegan diet for optimum health, I am strongly opposed to GMOs, vaccines, processed foods, MSG, aspartame, fluoridation and everything else that the pimps (Big Pharma, Monsanto and the large food companies) and the hookers (the doctors, the government agencies, the public health officials, and the mainstream media) thrust upon us, the tricks.
After being vaccinated with the DTP vaccine as a child I developed asthma. After taking the organic sulfur crystals (they are harvested from the pine trees in Louisiana) in November of 2008 for 10 days my asthma reversed and has not come back over 4 years later, 18 cases, so far, of autism have been reversed, as has cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, osteoarthritis, joint pain, astigmatism, gum disease, increased sexual activity, heavy metal and radiation elimination, parasite elimination, free radicals elimination, faster athletic recovery time, increased blood circulation, reduced inflammation, resistance to getting the flu, reduction of wrinkles, allergy reduction, reduced PMS and monthly period pain, nausea, migraines and so much more. And it's only possible because of the oxygen it releases that floods the cells of the body. The sulfur, as proven by the University of Southampton in England, enables the body to produce vitamin B12 and the essential amino acids. You can find out more about this incredible nutrient also on my website - www.healthtalkhawaii.com -.
My book, "a Sane Diet For An Insane World", has been published. It can be viewed at
www.asanediet.com.