MSG, a Moment on the Lips, forever in your……

Glutamate is one of the most powerful chemicals in the body.  It is the main neurotransmitter used in the brain.  Glutamate affects almost every organ in the body.  Eating Monosodium Glutamate upsets the natural balance of glutamate in the body, and it does so with profound and long lasting effects. 

The following are twelve of the serious diseases and afflictions that scientific evidence has linked to glutamate.  With further research, who knows how many more side effects will come to light.

Monosodium Glutamate and Obesity

With a greater frequency, Canadian and American children are becoming ‘obese’. Obesity in adults and children is at its record high.  According to the 1999-2000 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 15 percent of children and adolescents ages 6-19 years are overweight.  This is a large increase from the 11 percent found in a similar survey done in 1984.  It was an even larger jump from the 5% obesity rates found from 1970 to 1960.  In Canada the number of obese children rose from 5 to 13.5% between the years of 1981 and 1996.[1]

Even among adults, obesity rates are on the rise.  The prevalence of obesity among US adults climbed from 19.8 percent to 20.9 percent between 2000 and 2001.  44.3 million U.S. residents (1 in every 5) were found to be obese.  In Canada 1 in 6 adults is obese, while 50% of the entire adult population is considered overweight. 

These trends in unhealthy body weight are costly to the community as a whole, as well as to the individual.  In the U.S., illnesses linked to being overweight cost $100 billion in medical expenses and lost productivity. The cost in human life is even greater.  Half a million people die every year of illnesses directly related to obesity. 

In today’s world, the easiest thing to do is to consume.  We tend to have everything delivered and we eat every meal as if it were our last.

Lethargy is setting in.  Hundreds of channels on T.V. to watch, thousands of video games to play, fast paced stressful lives filled with mega-huge combo platters with 2000 calories in one meal.

With both parents working, and no time to cook meals from scratch, convenience has become the name of the game.  We are seduced daily with the draw of fast food establishments.  In 1970, Americans were spending $6 billion on fast food. In 2000, the fast food market leapt to $110 billion.[2]

Everyday we are influenced by advertising that brain washes our children into begging us to ‘go here, eat there.’  Even in schools one cannot escape the fast food chains.  Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Coke, Pepsi, and many more multinational corporations are paying the school boards to have their food and drink exclusively served in the cafeterias.  Snacks and convenience foods are the order of the new millennium.  ‘Mom, Dad, let’s go to that restaurant, they make better chicken then you do.’  How can parents argue?  mom and dad just can’t compete with the convenience, fast delivery, and taste.  It’s simply because they don’t know the secret ingredient that makes even the cheapest cuts of meat and blandest of vegetables burst with flavour. Mom and dad forgot to add MSG to their meatloaf!  No wonder they can’t compete.  Just a sprinkle of MSG can make a quick meal taste like a carefully prepared banquet.  The taste alone makes you want to eat until everything’s gone.

The end result is a western population that is more overweight than any other population on the planet.

Parents and doctors are scrambling to point to a specific culprit.  Perhaps it is laziness, high caloric intake, poor diet, or genetics. 

All of these factors can be part of the problem, but MSG can be the link to all of them. Not only can exposure to MSG predispose children to obesity, but it may also reduce their activity level and hamper their ability to shed excess weight.  Children given large amounts of MSG may gain weight even though they eat less than other children.  Genetics too may be a problem.  If a developing fetus is exposed to high levels of MSG in the mothers diet, it could make the infant more prone to weight gain later in life.

Hundreds of studies have been made using MSG in laboratory experiments.  Though manufacturers of MSG proclaim its safety independent laboratory experiments have not proven it. The world’s population has become the biggest experimental test pool of all.  By letting toxins like MSG into our food supply, we are seeing the results on a global scale.

Independent researchers appreciate the amazing consistently reproducible powers of Monosodium Glutamate.  They have seen it in mice and rats; we can see it when we look in the mirror.

In a study of mice given doses of MSG shortly after birth, it was discovered that the entire group of mice became obese.  Fat tissue mass was 65% more than the control group that did not get any MSG.[3] Hundreds of studies have produced the same result: guaranteed obesity.  Researchers who want to test a new diet drug inject newborn mice or rats with MSG, and presto, in a matter of weeks you have morbidly obese mice.  Ready for any diet drug or chemical you want to throw their way.  This group of experimental mice even has a name: “MSG-treated mice.”  Not very imaginative, but when you mention the term in the right academic circles, people in lab coats are likely to give a knowing nod.

Another repetitive feature of “MSG-treated mice” is hyperinsulinemia, a condition where the pancreas excretes huge amounts of insulin.  Increased insulin stores away the glucose in the blood by converting it to the adipose tissue we know as fat.  The increased insulin is what creates the obese response in the mice and rats.[4]  Hyperinsulinemia is directly linked to the development of diabetes.

One of the main reasons that mice and rats are tested with experimental drugs meant for humans, is that out of all the animal kingdom, their physiology closely mimics ours. 

If Monosodium Glutamate affects rodents in this way, what could it do to humans?

Like the MSG-Treated Mice, our weight and insulin level are also be affected by extra Glutamates in our blood stream.

The FDA report dated August 31, 1995 pointed out “there are Glutamate-responsive tissues in other parts of the body.”
They did not go into more detail, but one of those Glutamate-responsive tissues is the pancreas.  The pancreas is designed to recognize when blood sugar levels are too high and sends out insulin to change the sugar into fat tissue to be stored. 

The amino acid, Glutamate, tells the pancreas when and how much insulin to create.  Insulin determines just how much fat you will store on your body.  An over efficient pancreas can cause a great deal of fat deposits to develop on the body.
When abnormally high levels of Glutamate are introduced to the insulin-making beta cells of the pancreas, these mini-factories switch into overdrive.  They create massive amounts of insulin that pours into the blood stream.  The levels of insulin the cells produce are directly related to how much Glutamate is stimulating them.[5]  This finding would help explain the connection to weight gain.  Monosodium Glutamate enters into the blood stream from the food we eat.  It winds its way through the entire body, finding Glutamate receptors in many of the major organs.

Even if all you had was a salad and low-calorie, low-fat dressing, the insulin still rushes out.  There might be next to no blood sugar in your veins, but the MSG that can be found in the salad dressing has tickled your pancreas, unleashing a torrent of fat-creating insulin.  The insulin wanders around your body like an army, finding any sugars it can to turn into adipose tissue and store it away in areas we commonly refer to as love handles or thunder thighs.

If you or someone you know has a history of weight issues, you could be one of ‘those’ that the FDA refers to as being susceptible to MSG.  Your weight problem may have a direct correlation with the ingestion of MSG. 

The battle of the bulge begins:

It’s Saturday just after lunch and you’re proud of yourself for sticking to your diet and avoiding the french fries and apple pie that your kids got at the drive-through.  Back at home, the kids play computer games family room and it’s time to do those 20 minutes of exercising that you promised yourself you’d do.  But wait, where did that urge to workout go?  All you had was a salad with low-cal dressing and your body is so drained that it is ready for a nap.   What happened to the motivation?  The smiling girl on the workout tape can’t even inspire it in you.  ‘Maybe if I just lay down, that’s it, maybe a little nap would help…….zzzzzzzzz…..’

‘Ahhh, that was a relaxing nap.  Now I can work out. Hmmm, I am a little hungry’.  The insulin in your blood has stripped your body of all excess sugar, leaving you hypoglycemic and yearning for something sweet.  ‘No, I can’t have sweets; it’ll blow my diet.  I’ll just have a couple low fat vegetable crackers, that should do me.’  The first cracker hits your tongue.  You savor it, making it last.  ‘Boy, these crackers sure taste extra good!’  The Monosodium Glutamate in the crackers enters your blood almost instantly.  It makes a beeline to your brain where it tells you that these are the tastiest crackers ever; just a few more won’t hurt. 

You sit down on the couch.  You’ve turned off the fitness tape, and now the television comes on.    ‘That was a good show, is an hour up already?’  You look down and see that you’ve eaten the whole box of vegetable crackers.  ‘Yikes, how did that happen?  I didn’t know I was that hungry.’  Well, I can make up for the extra calories by not having supper.  I am sure to lose weight that way!’  So you grit your teeth and  try to resist the dinner you make for your family.  You really don’t want to spend a lot of time in that tempting kitchen, so you toss some frozen low fat chicken teriyaki and rice in the oven.  Meanwhile, the MSG from the crackers is surging through you, seeking out the pancreas once again.  Once more insulin pours out, this time finding carbohydrates to grab onto and stuff on your abdomen or thighs.  You had a nap, but still can’t figure out why you feel so drained.

‘I’ll go to bed early tonight, that will help’, you say to yourself as you dish out the steaming portions to your family.  You pour the vegetable juice.  You smile, glad that they are eating healthy.  The precooked stir-fry looks good, and smells great.  You can’t believe its low in fat!  Unfortunately for you it isn’t low in MSG. 

Fat molecules carry much of the flavor in food.  When manufacturers of diet food take out the fat, they have to put in flavor somehow.  So they pile on the MSG.  Thanks to the FDA, there are no limits to how much Glutamate they add.  Sure enough, the low fat chicken teriyaki with rice could list as ingredients Monosodium Glutamate, hydrolyzed plant protein, autolyzed yeast extract, soy sauce, maybe even gelatin and sodium caseinate.  Unwittingly, you may have just served your family seven servings of Glutamates in one meal, and the package called itself ‘healthy’!

So now your spouse and childrens are on the same roller coaster you’ve been riding.  They’ve been on it since breakfast, the sausages and hash browns, the chicken or hamburger at the fast food restaurant.  Their blood is packed with even more insulin.  Loads of carbohydrates have arrived for it to feast on, especially the low fat cheesecake they just had for dessert.  You wonder why your kids are getting a little plump.  Why don’t they want to go outside?  When you were a kid, you couldn’t wait to get outside on a beautiful sunny day.  All they want to do is play video games or watch 150 channels of T.V.

The reality is, they are just as robbed of motivation as you were today. 

The culprit: Monosodium Glutamate, possibly the secret ingredient for the ultimate Yo-Yo diet.

But the insult is yet to come.  On Sunday morning you step on the scale, smiling with pride at yesterday’s resolve: salad and a few crackers.  But wait!  The smile leaves your face.  ‘This thing must be broken!  How could it be?’  The scale isn’t lying; you’ve gained a pound!  You head for the kitchen, more starved than ever, choking back your frustration. The fudge brownie walnut ice cream is beckoning. ‘If I’m gonna gain a pound, I might as well enjoy it!’ 

You look at your kids and hope they outgrow the weight issues they have even now. ‘They’re young, they’ll grow into their weight.’ As long as MSG drains their physical motivation, they are unlikely to become the energized children you are hoping to see.  As long as your children have MSG in their diet, it may continue to work against them and could damn them to a life of obesity and lethargy.

Any individuals who are sensitive to MSG (that undetermined percentage of the population that the FDA identifies) and try to diet to lose the weight, could have any or even all of the following factors working against them.

Ø      The Glutamate present in MSG and other artificial food additives over- stimulates the pancreas creating large amounts of insulin even when only a small amount of food is eaten.  Cameron, Cutbush and Opat in a study done as far back as 1978 determined that mice who receive doses of MSG shortly after birth became obese, even though “after weaning, food intake in MSG-treated mice is less than control mice.”[6]  They also determined that after the fast that naturally occurs at night, MSG treated mice were hyperglycemic, having significantly less blood sugar than their non-MSG counterparts.[7]  Even while they slept, their pancreases excreted enough insulin to store away what little sugar they had left in their blood, expediently turning it into fat.  Do you know anyone who ‘eats like a bird’ but is still on the heavy side?

Ø      The motivation to exercise is almost impossible to find.  The hyperinsulinemia that MSG can trigger sends large amounts of insulin out to sop up almost all the blood sugar it can find.[8]  Low blood sugar leaves people feeling drained and exhausted, not at all inspired to hit the jogging trail or head to the gym for aerobics.

Ø      Experimental test subjects injected with MSG shortly after birth showed a significant reduction in energy activity level.[9]  This discovery could change the way we think about people with obesity.  Next time you see a heavy set person on the street, or maybe even in the mirror, consider that their/your situation could be due to MSG triggered lethargy, not the laziness some people may accuse them/you of.

Ø      Females that are reactive to MSG may have more weight to lose than males.  In a laboratory study between an MSG treated group of males and females, the males, though exhibiting obesity, did not become as obese as the females.[10] 

Ø      The same study also showed that MSG lowered the amount of growth hormones present during the developmental stage of both female and male subjects.  The effect of this was greater in males, who were considerably smaller than their male control counterparts. MSG not only makes one fatter, but shorter as well.

You may be one of the lucky ones.  For you weight loss might just mean cutting all free Glutamate out of your diet, thus increasing your energy level and ability to exercise. 

For many people, it’s not that easy, they may have the worst factor of all:  Genetics.  Not the genetics caused by inheritance from your parents, but genetics caused by chemicals altering your genes when you are being formed in the womb.

In April of 2003, Oken & Gillman, of the Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, published a review of the ‘Fetal Origins of Obesity.”  In their study they reviewed a great deal of studies. This extensive review prompted them to consider the possibility that tendency for weight problems can be determined when a person is still in the womb.  They surmised that children had a higher chance of becoming obese if they had the following traits: 

1.      Low birth weight.

2.      Higher than normal mechanisms that increased fat tissue.

3.      Abnormal insulin secretion.

These discoveries confounded them.[11]  How could low birth weight babies become obese adults?  What could manipulate all these factors while the baby was still forming?

These researchers were missing the magic ingredient:  Monosodium Glutamate.  MSG could solve their riddle for them.

Neonatal mice treated with MSG :

1.      Show a deficiency in growth hormone which causes them to grow slower than other mice.[12]

2.      Have enlarged adipose tissues (fat storage cells).[13]

3.      Have extremely high levels of insulin secretion.[14]

Repeatable, reliable, MSG side effects may be the developmental cause of obesity that Oken & Gillman were looking for. 

MSG has been proven to directly affect the unborn fetus.  In a 1984 study by Frieder & Grimm, pregnant rats were given water laced with MSG during their second and third trimester.  The study discovered that these babies were born with juvenile obesity, reduced energy level, and specific learning disabilities. The study also proved that MSG crosses the placental barrier, and enters the developing fetus from the mother’s blood.[15] 

With studies like these illustrating the link between MSG and overactive insulin creation, obesity, and lethargy, it becomes obvious why there could be more and more obese people in America having a difficult time losing weight.

You have heard the stories on the talk shows and news reports.  Some people claim that they try everything but can’t lose weight. These people may resort to severe surgery such as stomach stapling to help them win the war against unhealthy fat. 

The majority of people who suffer from extreme obesity (which doctors refer to as morbid obesity) are female.  Males rarely show the potential for extreme obesity that females do.  This fact is also reproduced in laboratory studies with rodents.  Female subjects respond to MSG induced obesity in a far more extreme way than male counterparts. 

Many doctors still believe that the cause of obesity is all in the heads of those afflicted; that extremely obese people have no excuse for being this fat.  These doctors would do well to examine the studies that prove that MSG in the mother’s diet directly affects the developing fetus.  These dramatically obese people may be cursed from birth.  Perhaps the obese people are right and the doctors are wrong, maybe it really isn’t their entire fault.

For those of you just fighting a few extra pounds, reducing Glutamate intake may be enough to get you back on the road to recovery.  Without MSG in your system, your pancreas may return to normal insulin production levels.  Without the extra insulin in your body, your blood sugar level will rise to give you a higher energy level.  The higher energy level will make it easier for you to get motivated and exercise.  Your journey to the ideal weight may not be a long one after all.

For those of you who may be obese due to genetics caused by the amount of MSG your mother ate while you were forming in the womb.  Your road may be far more difficult.  Cutting Glutamate from your diet would only be the first step.  There is hope.

When a poison is finally identified, the antidote is easier to find.

Diabetes and MSG, The Hidden Link?

My cousin Jonathon was a fun-loving child.  His house was the most fabulous place to visit.  He always knew just how to have a good time.  His father, a doctor, had passed away when he was young.  His mother worked hard to give him the best of everything: stylish clothes, the latest toys, and the tastiest foods.  She always gave him the best pre-packaged meals money could buy.  Snacks anytime he wanted. I especially enjoyed sleepovers at his house, one in particular.

It was shortly after my Grandmother died.  She had been diagnosed with diabetes and had to move from the farm and leave my Grandpa there alone.  I was a regular visitor at her retirement home.  She always hugged me with a smile, and I always hugged her and smiled back.  Then the diabetes got worse, and she was sent off to the extended care unit of the hospital.  She still hugged me with a smile, but it was harder for me to smile back.  One of her legs had been amputated.  ‘Diabetes does that’ the doctor said.  The next time I went, she smiled at me from her wheel chair.  Her other leg was now gone. Though her hug was filled with love, it was very hard for me to smile that time.   I was sorry that I didn’t smile.  The next time I saw her was at the funeral home.

My parents knew a stay at Jonathon’s house would cheer me up.  So they packed me up and dropped me off.

Sure enough, by 1:00 am, surrounded by potato chips, nachos, the most decadent cookies and candies, we were kicking back watching late night TV. He always was the best at telling a joke and we spent as much time laughing as we did gorging ourselves.  I cringed when he made a prank phone call, but deep down I thought he was the coolest and bravest kid I knew, a real hero.  For the moment, I forgot my Grandma, the diabetes, the missing smile.  At 13 it’s easy to find joyful diversions.

I was sure Jonathon had the best life: falling to sleep to the Letterman show, eating at fast food places more than at home.  Wow, if only I had it so good.  I envied all he had going for him.  Until he turned 18 and it all came crashing down.

Diabetes killed my Grandmother, and now it took hold of my cousin.  At age 18 he was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, and would need daily insulin injections for the rest of his life.  I was scared to see him after that.  I was even afraid to call him on the phone.  I haven’t seen him since those teenage years.  It’s sad really, cause he truly deserves a smile.

I ask my father what Jonathon’s doing now.  He dealt with the needles, the lifestyle change, the pain, and the fear.  He overcame it all to graduate with honors in biology.  Right now he is working with a team of scientists to find new ways to save people’s lives.  He is still my hero, after all.

It’s memories like this that keep us all going.  So with thoughts of loved ones on my mind, I strove to research as much as I could into what had caused hardship to those around me.

Just what is diabetes?

Diabetes occurs when the pancreas fails to produce enough insulin to regulate the sugar levels in the blood.  How could the pancreas fail?

We have already seen that high doses of Monosodium Glutamate in growing mice and rats produce hyperinsulinemia, the condition where the pancreas dramatically increases the amount of insulin in the blood.  Consider for a moment what happens when an organ becomes over-worked.  The liver, kidneys, and heart are all susceptible to failure when they are constantly stressed.  A heart racing continually at 200 beats a minute for more than a few days could certainly bring on heart failure.

Imagine a pancreas, pumping out 50-100 percent more than the usual amount of insulin.  For a while, years perhaps, the pancreas continues to function, but at some point, the stress can be too much.  The pancreas fails and the result is the harsh reality:  Diabetes. 

Diabetes affects 17 million Americans, and over 2 million Canadians.  The number of cases grows more rapidly every year. The American Diabetes Association reports that there are 16 million more Americans with pre-diabetes, a condition where the pancreas is not producing enough insulin to regulate blood levels, but not at serious enough levels to be diagnosed.  That’s a total of 33 million Americans whose pancreases are failing to do their job. 

According to these figures, more than one in ten people in the United States have pancreases that have either started to or completely lost the ability to perform. Diabetes has been around for thousands of years, but only in this century has it grown to epidemic proportions.  In the U.S. alone, one million people aged 20 and over are diagnosed with diabetes every year. 

At this rate, 1 in 4 people in the U.S. could have diabetes by 2053.  Look at your family, your children, your grandchildren.  Who will it be?

Diabetes is the number one cause of death by disease in North America.  It is the leading cause of blindness; it increases the chance of heart disease 2 to 4 times; it accounts for a quarter of all new cases of kidney disease; it is the reason for 50% of limb amputations around the world.  Chances are, you or your children could get it at some point in life.  It is a difficult, all-encompassing disease.  As parents we need to worry most because juvenile diabetes (Type 1) is the most debilitating. As the name suggests, its number one victim is children.

What causes diabetes?

Both the American and the Canadian Diabetes Associations have no answer. Some would point to the increase in sugar consumption.  Larger and larger amounts of refined sugar in the western diet may exacerbate diabetes. But according to the Canadian Diabetes Association, eating too much sugar does not cause it.

Monosodium Glutamate can.

Glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter in mammals.[16]  It affects the operation of almost every organ.  Nerves that are excited by Glutamate are found in the heart, nervous system, kidney, liver, lung, spleen, and testis.[17]  The pancreas is the organ responsible for the regulation of all sugar (glucose) levels in the blood.  When sugar levels in the blood are too high signals are sent to the Beta-cells within the pancreas telling them to create insulin. Monosodium Glutamate in the blood stream can bypass the regular control of the pancreas and hyper stimulate the beta- cells to over-produce insulin.[18]

In the previous chapter on obesity, it was shown how injection of MSG into newborn rats leads to hyperinsulinemia.  Hyperinsulinemia is the process of Glutamate’s hyper stimulation of the pancreas that causes overproduction of insulin, leading to obesity. Hyperinsulinemia facilitates fuel storage as fat.[19]  It can be the first step to diabetes.

Obese and overweight people have the greatest likelihood of developing diabetes in their lifetime.  With the evidence gathered from studies, a new question is brought to light.  Do people develop diabetes because they are overweight, or does the same thing cause both their obesity and subsequent diabetes:  Monosodium Glutamate? 

Consider the following situation: 

Sally has been attending school for years, following the same routine. She eats the school lunch (high in MSG), sits in a class all day, and returns home to snack on more MSG laden foods.  As we have seen in studies, MSG stimulates the pancreas to create extra insulin that in turn lowers the blood sugar leading to lethargy that her parents label as ‘laziness’.  She ends up watching T.V, having little energy for anything else.  Sally finds it difficult to get motivated to exercise, even though she promises herself she will try.  MSG has her sinking into a deeper trap. 

Over the years, the weight piles on.  She doesn’t even eat as much as her friends and still she gains weight.    Soon she is part of the growing population of obese children in America.  Her pancreas, continually overexcited by the MSG she has eaten literally every day, is starting to shut down.  The beta cells are deteriorating and the body’s T-cell immune system comes in to shut them down.  Her pancreas fails a little more each day.  By the time she is in her twenties, she is on the verge of Type 2 diabetes.  Her pancreas can no longer produce enough insulin for the requirements that her brain has requested.  Soon the pills prescribed by the doctor become daily injections.   

How did she get to this point?  Sally is not alone in her life sentence.  There are millions out there just like her. 

They sit in silence, judged and condemned by those who are healthier.  They try a thousand ways to diet, but whatever they manage to lose comes back with a vengeance.

They hear the constant criticism:  ‘Heavy people are just lazy.’  ‘They overeat, they do it to themselves.’

Even in this enlightened age, professionals fall into the simple trap of blaming the victim.

In a recent study by Dr. Frank B. Hu and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital, the routines of 50,000 nurses were studied.  During the six years of this study, 3,750 of these women became obese, and 1,515 developed diabetes.  Dr. Frank Hu pointed to the two hours of daily TV watching as the culprit, along with the eating of high-calorie, fat-rich foods.  Almost half of the women who became obese developed diabetes. His answer to this problem: get up and walk around for two hours.[20]  Easy for him to say, but impossible for them to do.

It is likely that MSG was in their blood, lowering their blood sugar levels to near drowsiness and causing them to yearn for more food.  Then the MSG stimulated the pancreas to death, leaving a life sentence of diabetes.

There can be yet one more factor to exacerbate the problem of both diabetes and morbid obesity.  In extreme cases of both, the victims tend to be hospitalized or institutionalized in retirement homes.  While in these facilities their sugar intake is controlled, but not their MSG intake.  Institutions tend to use a great deal of MSG to make their mass-produced meals more palatable.  The MSG may be counteracting all the good these places could do for their diabetic patients. 

It may not be too late for us.  The studies are there for us to learn from.  The over-stimulation of the pancreas is directly related to the MSG that we ingest.[21] [22]

This may well be the simplest cure for Diabetes:

1.      If we do not eat MSG, our pancreases will not be over stimulated.

2.      If the pancreas is not producing too much insulin, we will not become obese and lethargic. 

3.      If we do not become obese and become lethargic, we will be less likely to get diabetes.

4.      The end result is a healthier population.

Losing weight could be as simple as cutting MSG from the diet.  The population of the western world is becoming obese at an alarming rate.  We now have the power to stop it.

Glutamate and Eye Health.

The human eye is extremely sensitive to changes in Glutamate levels.  The capillaries in the eye easily transport glutamate directly into the sensitive areas of the eye.  This is especially apparent when Monosodium Glutamate is ingested. Subjects fed on a high diet of MSG developed retinas with extremely thin membranes.  Researchers found that a diet of MSG over several years could result in retinal cell destruction and total blindness.[23] 

Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in United States and Canada.  For years, diabetes research has focused on Retinopathy, or enlarging of the blood vessels in the eye, as the cause of blindness in people diagnosed with diabetes.  New studies suggest that retinopathy is not the cause of blindness, but rather the catalyst by which the cells within the retina are destroyed.  When the blood vessels become enlarged due to high blood sugar, the spaces between the cell membranes also enlarge.  This allows for the already thin membrane to become very permeable to the Glutamate.  Glutamate in the blood passes directly into the structures of the eye.[24]  Glutamate in the eye seeks out the glial cells which support vision, latching onto them and exciting them to death.[25]

Glaucoma, another condition found often in diabetics, is a result of dead cells accumulating within the eye.  As research shows, few chemicals in the body are as efficient at killing nerve cells than Glutamate.  By ingesting large amounts of MSG in their diet, diabetics could be greatly increasing their chances of going blind.

It is not only those with diabetes that need to be concerned about their vision.  We should be concerned for our growing children as well. 

Monosodium Glutamate can damage the eyes in rats as they grow. MSG given to newborn rats caused disturbances of eyeball growth.  The layers of the retina began to degenerate causing the rat to develop vision problems.[26]  

Our children’s eyes are not fully formed at birth and continue to develop into adolescence.  Could Glutamate have a degenerated affect on our children?  The Glutamate Association, an organization that promotes and champions the use of MSG in all food products, claims that MSG is safe for babies as well as adults. Twenty years ago, however, food manufacturers voluntarily removed MSG from baby food and infant formula.  Did their researchers discover something that they are not telling us?  Has there been an increase in children needing glasses earlier in life, and could it be due to MSG in the diet?

Further research into this area is definitely needed.