The Obscene Scam that is Food Flavorings

I have often wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive obesity epidemic we seem to be having, worldwide, and if so, could it be related to the equally massive injection of flavors into our food, particularly MSG. The answer is maybe, in fact quite possibly.

Have you noticed that pharmaceutical companies are spending millions of dollars developing glutamate blockers with which to fight neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer's disease, while the glutes are pouring (often hidden) processed glutamate (MSG) into our food? Their answer to this: the glutamate industry claims that glutamic acid and aspartic acid are natural components of protein and, therefore, cannot be harmful.  What they fail to mention is that when glutamic acid and aspartic acid are freed from protein through a manufacturing process, they will invariably be accompanied by contaminants.  If the manufacturing process used to free amino acids from protein is acid hydrolysis, carcinogenic propanols will be included as contaminants.

The production of food has undergone considerable change over the past century as the emphasis of its preparation having moved progressively from the humble kitchen to the factory floor. This transition has been accompanied by significant changes in the types of food we eat, and the methods by which it is prepared, packaged, managed, distributed and more importantly, marketed. Much time and effort has been expanded by manufacturers to recreate factory-processed food products having traditional "home cooked" appeal. But the apparent lack of flavor in most modern food stuff is regretted by those, like me, who remember when everything tasted so much better than it does now. None of the ready-made meals I have ever bought have tasted any good to me, mere fillers is about the best I can come up with. It is said that there are basically five flavors namely sweet, sour, bitter, salt and savory. What we experience as flavors is a combination of these with the odors. A flavor can in other terms be called the essence of food. Earlier it was considered that there are just four flavors. It was just in the recent years the fifth flavor, that of natural amino acid glutamic acid and certain nucleotides was observed. This flavor is best noticed in Monosodium Glutamate (MSG). The Japanese named this flavor umami and it was translated as savory in English.

The following is an excerpt from the book 'Excitotoxins - The Taste That Kills' By Dr. Russell Blaylock.

"What if someone were to tell you that a chemical (MSG) added to food could cause brain damage in your children, and that this chemical could effect how your children's nervous systems formed during development so thatin later years they may have learning or emotional difficulties? What if there was scientific evidence that these chemicals could permanently damage a critical part of the brain known to control hormones so that later in life your child might have endocrine problems? How would you feel? Suppose evidence was presented to you strongly suggesting that the artificial sweetener in your diet soft drink may cause brain tumors to develop, and that the number of brain tumors reported since the introduction of this widespread introduction of this artificial sweetener has risen dramatically? Would that affect your decision to drink these products and especially to allow your children to drink them? What if you could be shown overwhelming evidence that one of the main ingredients in this sweetener (aspartate) could cause the same brain lesions as MSG? Would that affect your buying decisions?"

Well, MSG is present almost in every processed foods imaginable: from Campbell's soups to Doritos, Lays flavored potato chips, from Top Ramenv to Heinz gravy & soups, Swanson frozen prepared meals, Kraft salad dressings (especially the 'healthy low fat' ones) and a million more "convenient" foods. The items that don't have MSG have something called Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, which is just another name for Monosodium Glutamate. Or Amino acids. Don't get fooled.

In fast food restaurants such as Burger King, McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, TGIF, Chilis', and some sit-down places like Applebees and Denny's use MSG in abundance. Kentucky Fried Chicken, according to this article here, is the WORST offender: MSG is in every chicken dish, salad dressing and gravy. So why is MSG in so many of the foods we eat? Is it a preservative,a vitamin or an anti-oxidant (as some have made this spurious claim?) Neither, MSG is added to food for the addictive effect it has on the human body. 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. 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. For example, glutamic acid naturally occurs in food proteins, however, take a fresh food and concentrate the protein in it and the amount of glutamic acid becomes much larger.  Most people don't notice a reaction when they eat small amounts of fresh tomatoes or fresh peas or fresh mushrooms, because the amount of free glutamic acid is so small compared to what is found in processed foods such as soy sauce, or non-fat dry milk, or hydrolyzed protein.  

The FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food. They still claim it's safe to eat in any amount.

How can they claim it is 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 RC, 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

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

Other side effects of consuming MSG are migraines and headaches, autism, ADHD and even Alzheimer's. And that could be the reason why the MSM doesn't want to tell the public either, fearing legal issues with their advertisers. It seems that the fallout on the fast food industry may hurt their profit margin.

There are hundreds of food flavoring companies listed on the world's Stock Exchange, the following one is an example of where the so-called flavorings are going into:

We produce a complete line of natural and artificial savory flavors, building blocks and top note flavors in a wide-range of forms. Our liquid compounds, extracts, distillations, concentrated oils, emulsions, spray dried powders, vacuum tray dried granules and dry blends are ideal for wet and dry soups, gravy bases, fresh and frozen entrees, french fries, salad dressings, cheeses, snacks, dips, and pet foods. From soups and sauces to gourmet entrées, food products are enhanced by our technology competences in microbiology, natural extraction, fermentation and enzyme and culture modification. The Group supplies over 10,000 food, food ingredients and flavor products to customers in more than 140 countries worldwide with manufacturing facilities in 19 different countries and international sales offices in 20 other countries across the globe.

Most artificial flavors are specific and often complex mixtures of singular naturally occurring flavor compounds combined together to either imitate or enhance a natural flavor. These mixtures are formulated by flavorist to give a food product a unique flavor and to maintain flavor consistency between different product batches or after recipe changes. The list of known flavoring agents includes thousands of molecular compounds, and the flavor chemist (flavorist) can often mix these together to produce many of the common flavors. Many flavorants are esters.

Many well established food products and beverage could not be produced without recourse to the use of added flavorings. The choice between natural and synthetic flavorings is still a subject for debate; and this is likely to become more emotive as the demand for safe and wholesome food increases and a greater proportion of what we eat and drinks become subject to mass production methods and associated standardization. The problems of flavoring fabricated foods are numerous and complex, they are not amenable to facile answers.

That there are no regulations that govern food flavoring plants is just not plain oversight but almost criminal. In addition, there are no regulations that govern the chemicals used in these plants. Organic products never sounded better.

Here is a list of all the foods that contain hidden MSG, a handy if somewhat shocking list (scroll down for it). The other elephant in the room, flavored fructose, is another giant con and well worth another diary.