Thanks for this post!

The fact that glutamate is a neurotransmitter is enough to make me cautious about how much MSG I consume. Yes, it’s an essential amino acid, but nutrition and health is all about balance, and too much of a good thing is almost always bad.

Another reason it is good to avoid MSG is that MSG is often used to mask poor-quality ingredients, usually in highly processed foods, which are low in nutritional value. The reason our bodies are so sensitive to the flavor of glutamate is that in natural foods, glutamate content is a good indicator of protein content and to some degree, other nutrients…thus glutamate tasting good makes protein-rich foods taste good. For example, traditionally, in Japan, seaweed was used to make soup broths rich in vitamins, minerals, and essential amino acids…these broths were naturally high in glutamate but also nutrient-rich.

If instead you make soup broth by adding MSG, you add the flavor without adding any of the nutritional value. The soup may taste good but it’s tricking your body and you’re not getting as much out of it.

Even if MSG were totally safe (and there are certainly enough studies to make me cautious) it would be worth avoiding it for this reason alone!

Thanks for this article – the comments were interesting too. I saw this on twitter and came through – glad I did. I’ll watch out for MSG in my food from now.

Thanks for letting everyone know Bernadette! Some people don’t have visible signs but you obviously did the right thing removing it from your diet! I did too, symptoms or not, it’s extra toxin I can do without!

Thanks Vicki,
I need to get over here more often.
The video did not play on the iPad so I still need to find out the hidden sources of MSG.
BTW I didn’t do very good at cutting out coffee. I got down to 3 lattes a day and regressed back to 6. Bone health, lung health eating veggies all stuff I should have started working on decades ago.