Crystals of monosodium glutamate (MSG). - Photo courtesy of Wikipedia image:30416:0::0

A few hours ago, I received the e-mail pasted below. I know that Digital Journal does not want us to copy and paste, and I wholeheartedly agree. However, I believe that making an exception to this rule is warranted in this case because the e-mail is the subject of my article, and I feel it is important to include the entire text. Therefore, the text of the e-mail should not be seen as part of the article, but as an illustration, just as a picture. I also feel that my pasting this message does not go against the spirit of the Digital Journal rules, only against the letter.

I received this message from a friend who understood this to be a hoax. Unfortunately, it did not seem to be documented in any meaningful way on the Internet.

Therefore, I thought I should discuss the message myself.

I paste the unchanged message below, and I will discuss its contents after that.

MSG - Are You Slowly Poisoning Yourself?

Another interesting read! MSG has been banned in Europe for over 40 years, but its still in wide use here!!!,

ARE YOU SLOWLY POISONING YOURSELF?

MSG - used in Coffee - (read this for sure) please read this. It is startling!!

Food additive "MSG" is a Slow Poison. Slow Poisoning MSG hides behind 25 or more names, such as "Natural Flavouring".

MSG is also in your favourite Tim Horton's and other brand coffee shops! Pass this on to those who still may be unaware or disbelieving of the dangers of MSG. I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive obesity epidemic, so did a friend of mine, John Erb. He was a research assistant at the University of Waterloo in Ontario , Canada , and spent years working for the government.

He made an amazing discovery while going through scientific journals for a book he was writing called "The Slow Poisoning of America ". In hundreds of studies around the world, scientists were creating obese mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes test studies.

No strain of rat or mice is naturally obese, so the scientists have to create them. They make these morbidly obese creatures by injecting them with MSG when they are first born. The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates; causing rats (and humans?) to become obese. They even have a title for the fat rodents they create: "MSG-Treated Rats".

I was shocked too. I went to my kitchen, checking the cupboards and the fridge. MSG was in everything! The Campbell 's soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays flavoured potato chips, Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen prepared meals, Kraft salad dressings, especially the 'healthy low fat' ones.

The items that didn't have MSG marked on the product label had
something called ''Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein'', which is just another name for Monosodium Glutamate. It was shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our children everyday are filled with this stuff. They hide MSG under many different names in order to fool those who carefully read the ingredient list, so they don't catch on. (Other names for MSG:
'Accent' - 'Aginomoto' - 'Natural Meet Tenderizer' etc) But it didn't stop there.

When our family went out to eat, we started asking at the restaurants what menu items had MSG. Many employees, even the managers, swore they didn't use MSG. But when we ask for the ingredient list, which they grudgingly provided, sure enough MSG and Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein were everywhere. Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell , every restaurant, even the sit down ones like TGIF, Chilis', Applebees and Denny's use MSG in abundance. Kentucky Fried Chicken seemed to be the WORST offender: MSG was in every chicken dish, salad dressing and gravy. No wonder I loved to eat that coating on the skin, their secret spice was MSG!

So why is MSG in so may of the foods we eat? Is it a preservative or a vitamin?

Not according to my friend John. In the book he wrote, an expose of the food additive industry called "The Slow Poisoning of America " he said that MSG is added to food for the addictive effect it has on the human body.

http://www.spofamerica.com/
Even the propaganda website sponsored by the food manufacturers lobby group supporting MSG explains that the reason they add it to food is to make people eat more. A study of the elderly showed that people eat more of the foods that it is added to. The Glutamate Association lobby group says eating more benefits the elderly, but what does it do to the rest of us? 'Betcha can't eat just one', takes on a whole new meaning where MSG is concerned! And we wonder why the nation is overweight?

The MSG manufacturers themselves admit that it addicts people to their products. It makes people choose their product over others, and makes people eat more of it than they would if MSG wasn't
added.

Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity, it is an addictive substance! Since its introduction into the American food supply fifty years ago, MSG has been added in larger and larger doses to the pre-packaged meals, soups, snacks and fast foods we are tempted to eat everyday. The FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food.

They claim it's safe to eat in any amount. How can they claim it safe when there are hundreds of scientific studies with titles like these? :- The monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese rat as a model for the study of exercise in obesity'. Gobatto CA, Mello MA, Souza CT, Ribeiro IA.Res Commun Mol Pathol Pharmacol. 2002.

Adrenalectomy abolishes the food-induced hypothalamic serotonin release in both normal and monosodium glutamate-obese rats'. Guimaraes RB, Telles MM, Coelho VB, Mori C, Nascimento CM, Ribeiro Brain Res Bull. 2002 Aug.

Obesity induced by neonatal monosodium glutamate treatment in spontaneously hypertensive rats: an animal model of multiple risk factors'.

Iwase M, Yamamoto M, Iino K, Ichikawa K, Shinohara N, Yoshinari Fujishima Hypertens Res. 1998 Mar.

Hypothalamic lesion induced by injection of monosodium glutamate in suckling period and subsequent development of obesity'. Tanaka K, Shimada M, Nakao K, Kusunoki Exp Neurol. 1978 Oct.

Yes, that last study was not a typo, it WAS written in 1978. Both the "medical research community" and "food manufacturers" have known about MSG's side effects for decades! Many more studies mentioned in John Erb's book link MSG to Diabetes, Migraines and headaches, Autism, ADHD and even Alzheimer's. But what can we do to stop the food manufactures from dumping fattening and addictive MSG into our food supply and causing the obesity epidemic we now see?

Even as you read this, G. W. Bush and his corporate supporters are pushing a Bill through Congress called the "Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act" also known as the "Cheeseburger Bill", this sweeping law bans anyone from suing food manufacturers, sellers and distributors. Even if it comes out that they purposely added an addictive chemical to their foods. Read about it for yourself at: http://www.yahoo.com/.

The Bill has already been rushed through the House of Representatives, and is due for the same rubber stamp at Senate level. It is important that Bush and his corporate supporters get it through before the media lets everyone know about 'MSG, the intentional Nicotine for food'.

Several months ago, John Erb took his book and his concerns to one of the highest government health officials in Canada .

While sitting in the Government office, the official told him "Sure I know how bad MSG is, I wouldn't touch the stuff!" But this top level government official refused to tell the public what he knew.

The big media doesn't want to tell the public either, fearing legal issues with their advertisers. It seems that the fallout on fast food industry may hurt their profit margin. The food producers and restaurants have been addicting us to their products for years, and now we are paying the price for it. Our children should not be cursed with obesity caused by an addictive food additive. But what can I do about it?... I'm just one voice!

What can I do to stop the poisoning of our children, while our governments are insuring financial protection for the industry that is poisoning us!

This e-mail is going out to everyone I know in an attempt to tell you the truth that the corporate owned politicians and media won't tell you.

The best way you can help to save yourself and your children from this drug-induced epidemic, is to forward this email to everyone. With any luck, it will circle the globe before politicians can pass the legislation protecting those who are poisoning us. The food industry learned a lot from the tobacco industry. Imagine if big tobacco had a bill like this in place before someone blew the whistle on Nicotine?

If you are one of the few who can still believe that MSG is good for us, and you don't believe what John Erb has to say, see for yourself. Go to the National Library of Medicine, at http://www.pubmed.com/. Type in the words "MSG Obese" and read a few of the 115 medical studies that appear.

We the public, do not want to be rats in one giant experiment and we do not approve of food that makes us into a nation of obese, lethargic, addicted sheep, feeding the food industry's bottom line, while waiting for the heart transplant, diabetic induced amputation, blindness or other obesity induced, life threatening disorders. With your help we can put an end to this poison. Do your part in sending this message out by word of mouth, e-mail or by distribution of this print-out to all your friends all over the world and stop this 'Slow Poisoning of Mankind' by the packaged food industry.

Blowing the whistle on MSG is our responsibility, get the word out.

Message Review
Please note that I use the abbreviation of MSG for all forms. While not scientifically correct, this has become the norm in popular literature because non-scientists usually lack sufficient knowledge to understand the distinctions between the different forms and also because these distinctions are essentially irrelevant in the context of this message.

MSG has been banned in Europe for over 40 years, but its still in wide use here!!!

This is manifestly untrue. MSG has most definitely not been banned in Europe. According to the European Food Information Council (EUFIC), MSG is one of the most extensively researched food ingredients, and numerous tests have shown that it is a safe and useful taste enhancer for foods. They even advise to partly replace salt with MSG because it will help to reduce the total sodium intake. Furthermore, the acceptable daily intake in Europe is "not specified", the most favourable status possible. Europe has also determined that children metabolize MSG as efficiently as adults and that they do not display any special susceptibility to elevated oral intakes of glutamate (EC Scientific Committee for Foods).

MSG - used in Coffee - (read this for sure) please read this. It is startling!!

To date, no one has been able to demonstrate the presence of MSG as an additive in coffee. For good reason. People love coffee as it is. There is no reason whatsoever to use MSG.

Food additive "MSG" is a Slow Poison.

No one has ever been able to show that MSG is a poison.

Slow Poisoning MSG hides behind 25 or more names, such as "Natural Flavouring".

Is MSG “hiding” behind other names? No. However, it is true that some ingredients used in food will contain MSG. Why? Because glutamate is a component of protein. It is essentially not possible to eat animal protein that does not contain glutamate. Parmesan and Roquefort cheeses are amongst the highest sources of MSG in the food chain. Furthermore, in humans, it is a non-essential amino-acid. This means that the human body manufactures glutamate all by itself. Also, MSG is present in high concentrations in certain fruits and vegetables, broccoli being one of the best examples.

MSG is also in your favourite Tim Horton's and other brand coffee shops!

This is a very strange sentence. We can only assume that the author means that MSG is present in Tim Hortons (without apostrophe!) and other coffees. It is not. Not only has no-one has ever been able to demonstrate the presence of MSG in any coffee, but Tim Hortons has officially denied (Acrobat file) the presence of any additives whatsoever in its coffee. It has done so when the CBC made a television program (Real Media) about the rumour of Tim Hortons using nicotine in its coffee (it does not).

Pass this on to those who still may be unaware or disbelieving of the dangers of MSG.

Please don’t. It will only serve to cause panic among less informed and more gullible people, and there is no reason whatsoever for it.

They even have a title for the fat rodents they create: "MSG-Treated Rats".

This is true. The obese rats are created by injecting them subcutaneously (under the skin) with 4 mg of MSG per gram of body weight every other day from the first day they are born until they are two weeks old. The rats that do not die, nearly all become obese. Proof that MSG truly is one of the most horrible products on the planet, right? No.

First of all, products that you inject, usually have a totally different effect than when you eat them.

For example, we all know that broccoli is one of the most healthful vegetables we can eat, but not a single doctor on the planet would ever advise you to inject broccoli juice under the skin. Not in adults, and not in newborn babies.

Second, 4 mg per gram of body weight doesn’t sound like much, but the quantity is truly gigantic. To show how much this is, imagine a fairly average human newborn baby of 3 kg. 4 mg per gram of body weight would amount to 12 grams of MSG. In a normal adult of 72 kg, it would amount to a whopping 288 grams.

MSG-obese rats are purposely created to study obesity. Not a single rat has ever become obese by eating this amount of MSG. It would simply be digested, just as any other product.

I was shocked too. I went to my kitchen, checking the cupboards and the fridge. MSG was in everything! The Campbell 's soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays flavoured potato chips, Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen prepared meals, Kraft salad dressings, especially the 'healthy low fat' ones.

No one will dispute that. As said before, MSG is a natural product that is part of many, if not most of our foods. It would, for example, not be possible to eat broccoli without MSG as broccoli is naturally rich in MSG. MSG enhances the taste, just as salt enhances the taste, and salt is also present in all these foods.

The items that didn't have MSG marked on the product label had something called ''Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein'', which is just another name for Monosodium Glutamate.

This is not true. In this context, hydrolysis is a process in which water is used to make protein decompose in its constituents. MSG is one of the 20 amino acids that make up protein. When you hydrolyse protein, MSG will naturally be released. Hydrolysed protein is not MSG, MSG is simply one of the many substances that can be found in hydrolysed protein.

It was shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our children everyday are filled with this stuff.

There is nothing shocking about it. The foods we feed our children are nowhere near filled with MSG. MSG is virtually always less than 1% of our food, the most notable exceptions being Parmesan and Roquefort cheese and their MSG is naturally present, it is not added to the food.

They hide MSG under many different names in order to fool those who carefully read the ingredient list, so they don't catch on. (Other names for MSG:
'Accent' - 'Aginomoto' - 'Natural Meet Tenderizer' etc) But it didn't stop there.

That is ridiculous. Accent and Ajinomoto (not Aginomoto!) are simply brand names under which MSG is sold, and the FDA regulations clearly state that foods which contain added MSG and even ingredients containing substantial amounts of MSG must clearly be labelled as containing MSG. "Hiding" behind other names is absolutely not an option.

I can only assume that the Meet Tenderizer is a meat tenderizer. MSG can sometimes be used as a flavour enhancer in seasoned meat tenderizers but it is itself not used as a tenderizer.

When our family went out to eat, we started asking at the restaurants what menu items had MSG. Many employees, even the managers, swore they didn't use MSG.

Can you reasonably expect every person working at a restaurant to know the chemical composition of all menu items? As a matter of fact, do *you* know the chemical composition of all the foods you prepare yourself?

But when we ask for the ingredient list, which they grudgingly provided, sure enough MSG and Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein were everywhere. Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell , every restaurant, even the sit down ones like TGIF, Chilis', Applebees and Denny's use MSG in abundance. Kentucky Fried Chicken seemed to be the WORST offender: MSG was in every chicken dish, salad dressing and gravy. No wonder I loved to eat that coating on the skin, their secret spice was MSG!

Sure, the same is true for salt. Can you truly accuse a restaurant of trying to create a delicious recipe? Be serious, especially given the safety record of MSG. But as far as MSG being a secret? It most definitely is not.

So why is MSG in so may of the foods we eat?.. Is it a preservative or a vitamin??
Not according to my friend John. In the book he wrote, an expose of the food additive industry called "The Slow Poisoning of America " he said that MSG is added to food for the addictive effect it has on the human body. http://www.spofamerica.com

This is untrue. MSG is a flavour enhancer, no more. MSG is also one of the 20 amino acids contained in our bodies. Without MSG, we would be very different creatures, or we would not exist at all.

What seems to be true however, is that the author of this book is desperately trying to get the word out about his book. He clearly sees this as a nice advertisement to incite people to buy it.

Even the propaganda website sponsored by the food manufacturers lobby group supporting MSG at: http://www.msgfactscom/facts/msgfact12.html explains that the reason they add it to food is to make people eat more. A study of the elderly showed that people eat more of the foods that it is added to. The Glutamate Association lobby group says eating more benefits the elderly, but what does it do to the rest of us? 'Betcha can't eat just one', takes on a whole new meaning where MSG is concerned! And we wonder why the nation is overweight?

First of all, this website does not exist. There needs to be a dot between msgfacts and com: http://www.msgfacts.com/facts/msgfact12.html .

Second, MSG is a flavour enhancer, just like salt, sugar, vinegar, cilantro and any number of other flavour enhancers or spice. If we accuse the users of MSG of our obesity, we have to be consistent and also accuse the users of salt and the users of every single product that has a good taste.

The MSG manufacturers themselves admit that it addicts people to their products.

They don’t and it doesn’t. I have been unable to find a single study that proves that MSG is an addictive substance.

It makes people choose their product over others, and makes people eat more of it than they would if MSG wasn't added.

The same is true for any other flavour enhancer.

Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity, it is an addictive substance!

MSG only causes obesity when injected in enormous amounts in newborns. No, it is not an addictive substance.

Furthermore, MSG is one of the oldest flavour enhancers on the planet. It has been used for countless hundreds of years in Asia and Asians happen to be among the skinniest people on earth.

Since its introduction into the American food supply fifty years ago, MSG has been added in larger and larger doses to the prepackaged meals, soups, snacks and fast foods we are tempted to eat everyday.

Those larger and larger doses don't seem to be all that large. Usually less than 1% of our food is MSG.

The FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food. They claim it's safe to eat in any amount. How can they claim it safe when there are hundreds of scientific studies with titles like these? :- The monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese rat as a model for the study of exercise in obesity'. Gobatto CA, Mello MA, Souza CT, Ribeiro IA.Res Commun Mol Pathol Pharmacol. 2002…

How can they claim it is safe? Because no one has ever succeeded in proving that it is not. The fact that MSG has some dramatic effects when injected in newborns, does not show in any way that it is a dangerous product.

Both the "medical research community" and "food manufacturers" have known about MSG's side effects for decades!

MSG does not have side effects. At least, no one, including its fiercest detractors, has ever been able to show that it does.

Many more studies mentioned in John Erb's book link MSG to Diabetes, Migraines and headaches, Autism, ADHD and even Alzheimer's.

Of course, we have to buy the book before we can even find out his references, whereas we can find out about real scientific studies for free and none of those have ever been able to substantiate any of these accusations. This is a sickening part of the mail, because it preys on the most vulnerable people of our society, people with real and debilitating diseases and conditions.

But what can we do to stop the food manufactures from dumping fattening and addictive MSG into our food supply and causing the obesity epidemic we now see?

Food manufacturers are by no means dumping MSG in our food supply. This is a minor ingredient in foods. Moreover, MSG is neither fattening nor addictive.

Even as you read this, G. W. Bush and his corporate supporters are pushing a Bill through Congress called the "Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act" also known as the "Cheeseburger Bill", this sweeping law bans anyone from suing food manufacturers, sellers and distributors. Even if it comes out that they purposely added an addictive chemical to their foods. Read about it for yourself at: http://www.yahoo.com/.
The Bill has already been rushed through the House of Representatives, and is due for the same rubber stamp at Senate level. It is important that Bush and his corporate supporters
get it through before the media lets everyone know about 'MSG, the
intentional Nicotine for food'.

This act exists. It is meant “To prevent legislative and regulatory functions from being usurped by civil liability actions brought or continued against food manufacturers, marketers, distributors, advertisers, sellers, and trade associations for claims of injury relating to a person's weight gain, obesity, or any health condition associated with weight gain or obesity.”

The reasons for this act are obvious. It is not the fault of the manufacturer of a food that we eat too much and become obese in exactly the same way as it is not the fault of the manufacturer of a vehicle that we are caught speeding. This act should protect the food and restaurant industries against clearly frivolous litigation. To date, June 6th 2007, it has not yet passed the senate and as such, it is not an official legislation.

Also, labelling MSG as the intentional nicotine for food is highly misleading. Nicotine is one of the strongest plant toxins known to man. MSG is one of the safest. It is so safe that it is not considered a toxin at all.

Several months ago, John Erb took his book and his concerns to one of the highest government health officials in Canada. While sitting in the Government office, the official told him "Sure I know how bad MSG is, I wouldn't touch the stuff!" But this top level government official refused to tell the public what he knew.

How convenient. If John Erb is this certain of his case, he could take it to court. His “top level government official” will be required to testify, if he/she exists at all, of course.

The big media doesn't want to tell the public either, fearing legal issues with their advertisers.

The big media often do tell the public of this type of issue, they love sensational news, it brings them market share. However, when you have often announced this type of thing and have been shown wrong every single time, it loses its appeal real fast.

It seems that the fallout on fast food industry may hurt their profit margin.

Indeed, would you really return willingly to a restaurant or would you really willingly buy food that is bland and tasteless? If I understand it properly, you accuse restaurants of using top chefs? From now on, they should only be allowed to use people with a proven inability to cook?

The food producers and restaurants have been addicting us to their products for years, and now we are paying the price for it.

They haven’t and we aren’t.

Our children should not be cursed with obesity caused by an addictive food additive.

They shouldn’t and they aren’t.

But what can I do about it?... I'm just one voice!

No one is forcing you in any way to eat MSG. If you really hate it that much, don't eat it.

What can I do to stop the poisoning of our children, while our governments are insuring financial protection for the industry that is poisoning us!

If you poison your children or not is entirely up to you. You don’t like MSG? That is your right. Don’t eat it, don’t give it to your children. However, MSG is not poison. Avoiding MSG will not protect them against any poisoning.

This e-mail is going out to everyone I know in an attempt to tell you the truth that the corporate owned politicians and media won't tell you. The best way you can help to save yourself and your children from this drug-induced epidemic, is to forward this email to everyone.

This a campaign of disinformation that will only cause panic amongst the scientifically ignorant and the gullible.

With any luck, it will circle the globe before politicians can pass the legislation protecting those who are poisoning us. The food industry learned a lot from the tobacco industry. Imagine if big tobacco had a bill like this in place before someone blew the whistle on Nicotine?

A bill like this would by no means have protected“big tobacco”against someone blowing the whistle on nicotine. The poisonous effects of nicotine are a very old and well-documented knowledge.

If you are one of the few who can still believe that MSG is good for us, and you don't believe what John Erb has to say, see for yourself. Go to the National Library of Medicine, at
http://www.pubmed.com/. Type in the words "MSG Obese" and read a few of the 115 medical studies that appear.

How deliciously contradictory. If the government doesn’t want us to know, why does it make this information freely available if it is really so devastating? Because the government does not want us to poison ourselves, and because this information is not devastating at all, at least not to people with enough intelligence and education to understand what is going on.

We the public, do not want to be rats in one giant experiment and we do not approve of food that makes us into a nation of obese, lethargic, addicted sheep, feeding the food industry's bottom line, while waiting for the heart transplant, diabetic induced amputation, blindness or other obesity induced, life threatening disorders.

Nobody wants to. That is precisely why the government does its best to publish information on how not to become obese and how to lose weight. This is not a gigantic experiment, and we are not rats in it.

With your help we can put an end to this poison.

MSG is not a poison. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Putting an end to it is not necessary.

Do your part in sending this message out by word of mouth, e-mail or by distribution of this print-out to all your friends all over the world and stop this 'Slow Poisoning of Mankind' by the packaged food industry. Blowing the whistle on MSG is our responsibility, get the word out.

Don’t send this message out. All you will be doing is cause panic among the gullible, and advertise a book full of disinformation about one of the oldest and safest food additives on the planet. This mail is clearly only intended to advertise this ridiculous book.

Conclusion
MSG is a safe substance. The e-mail in question is clearly not about a genuine warning of the public against a dangerous substance. It is probably nothing more than an advertisement for a book that is presumably filled with disinformation. This mail shows marketing at its ugliest.