MSG in Nutritional Yeast? was Re: Stefansson's Book Online

[Guest guest]

Stefansson wrote in FOTL that first nations people considered salt to

be addictive. They made an analogy to their own addiction to tobacco.

They felt that white people's salting of food made it addictive.

As for bone broth...

I'm pretty sensitive to free glutamate and I react to my own home-made

bone broth, if it has gelatin in it from cartilage. In fact most

things that are added during cooking to make stuff " yummy " are

naturally high in free glutamate: garlic, mushrooms, tomatoes. I react

to them all.

Although I've been drinking a liter of homemade raw kefir every day

and eating mostly meat and I think my sensitivity is slowly going

away. There is very little known about sensitivity to free glutamate.

One theory is that it's caused by damage to the blood-brain barrier

that regulates transport of free-glutamate. There also appears to be

no effective treatment. Although it is interesting to note that big

pharma is currently developing whole families of drugs that block free

glutamate in the brain to treat a variety of neurological disorders.

Sounds like more of the same: food processors make us sick and big

pharma makes drugs to allow us to keep eating the processed food. Just

like heart disease and cavities.

> > Do you really attribute that " gimmie more " sensation to MSG alone?

> > My opinion is that processed foods high in carbohydrates are the

> > number one " gimmie more " item. When I was a teenager I would wolf

> > down bowl after bowl of breakfast cereal--I couldn't get

> > enough--and I'm pretty sure there's no significant MSG in most of

> > them. Natural breads do the same thing. It's the addictive nature

> > of processed carbs.

>

> Tom, when I tried a low fat diet many years ago, I tried some plain

> unsalted unbuttered popcorn. I had to force myself to eat it.

> Definitely no gimme more sensation! For me, added sugar, salt, and

> MSG (which is a type of salt) all contribute to over-eating. I don't

> seem to have a problem eating starchy foods that don't have these

> additives. I bet that cereal you were over-eating had lots of added

> sugar and/or salt. Likewise with most breads these days. Try eating

> plain bread that has no salt or sugar added. I might be able to eat

> it with some butter, but I wouldn't get that gimme more sensation.

>

> I eat a lot more nuts if they're salted than if they're not salted. I

> suspect people wouldn't eat near as many potato chips if they had no

> salt. In fact, I remember eating low-salt baked potato chips when I

> was doing low-fat, but don't remember wanting to eat lots. But if I

> ate something salty, I'd then want something sweet. And vice versa.

> I think adding glutamate into the salty mix just adds fuel to the

> fire. It also makes many foods taste meatier and thus more appealing

> to most of us. An easy way to make fake food that tastes meaty, but

> isn't.

>

> > Secondly, isn't MSG naturally present in small amounts in certain

> > natural foods (bone broth?), and I don't find them addicting.

>

> Yes, it is. But I suspect the main problem with glutamate is when it

> is isolated from other amino acids, as in MSG added to starchy snacks,

> or when it is greatly out of proportion to what is found in natural

> foods, relative to other amino acids. It might be the imbalance that

> causes problems for people who are sensitive, but I haven't seen any

> studies on this. Bone broth should have a more natural balance of

> glutamate with other free amino acids and consequently may be less

> problematic. Just a guess.

>

> I have read that some people who are sensitive to MSG have problems

> with bone broth. However, my wife, who claims to be sensitive to MSG

> (gives her headaches) makes bone broth and loves it made into soup, no

> problem. But she can go to a chinese restaurant and eat a bowl of

> soup loaded with MSG and very quickly get a headache. Could be a

> thing of relative amounts too, I suppose. I have never managed to eat

> enough MSG to have noticeable problems, despite trying on many

> occasions in the past before knowing any better

>

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