Eliminating MSG

Three or four years ago now, we did a bunch of investigating and decided to eliminate MSG from our diet. The potential health impacts from eating MSG especially for children far outweighed any supposed "benefits". Actually I don't know if I ever found any benefits for it beyond it being a flavour enhancer, which really is a strange thing to deem as acceptable in ones food. IF you use good, fresh food sources the flavour doesn't need to be enhanced. It seemed that often food manufacturers were using MSG to hide the fact that they were using inferior products to create the food in the first place. The lists of potential health issues are miles long and can be quite severe weighed against the claims that MSG is not bad for you, we choose to go on the side of caution.

This decision resulted in my going in to our pantry and pretty much removing everything and then restocking with foods that didn't contain MSG. That search actually turned out to be a lot more involved than it sounded to start with. Manufacturers advertise "no MSG" and list ingredients that are still MSG but are not recognized as such by the average consumer, things like "yeast extract", even certified organic foods can contain hidden sources of MSG. As a result we buy very little processed foods and make nearly everything from whole, natural ingredients. and guess what? IT TASTES BETTER... imagine that!

There are some foods we really miss that I haven't found alternate sources for without MSG hidden in them, and occasionally we end up buying things that contain ingredients that may be hidden sources of MSG because we just 'really wanted it' inevitably though we find we don't eat it. Our littlest ones (ages 18 months and 3 yrs) seem to have developed built in sensors for unnatural ingredients and will refuse to eat things that later we find have a hidden source of MSG in them.

So, thus far we have virtually eliminated most of the list of "always contain MSG" from our food purchases, we haven't gotten very far on the "may contain" list mostly because its hard to remember all the things on it, And partly because some of it I think is naturally occurring and I am not sure how "hard core" we want to be.

I am hoping having the list on the blog will help because we can just call it up on the i-phone at the store. One shouldn't have to be a chemist to rad the labels on their food! We recently have been opting to try and not buy anything that has ingredients we can't pronounce, aiming at the elimination of food additives in general.

This website has some insightful information about MSG and truth in labeling truth in labeling

from the Truth in labeling website :

HIDDEN SOURCES OF PROCESSED FREE GLUTAMIC ACID (MSG)
NAMES OF INGREDIENTS THAT CONTAIN ENOUGH MSG TO SERVE AS COMMON MSG-REACTION TRIGGERS
The MSG-reaction is a reaction to free glutamic acid that occurs in food as a consequence of manufacture. MSG-sensitive people do not react to protein (which contains bound glutamic acid) or any of the minute amounts of free glutamic acid that might be found in unadulterated, unfermented, unprocessed, food.

These ALWAYS contain MSG
Glutamate (E 620)
Glutamic acid (E 620)
Monosodium glutamate (E 621)
Monopotassium glutamate(E 622
Calcium glutamate (E 623)
Monoammonium glutamate (E 624)
Magnesium glutamate (E 625)
Natrium glutamate (natrium is Latin/German for sodium),
Gelatin
Calcium caseinate
Sodium caseinate
Textured protein
anything "hydrolyzed"
any "hydrolyzed ... protein"
Yeast nutrient
Yeast extract
Yeast food
Autolyzed yeast
Vetsin
Ajinomoto

These OFTEN contain MSG or create MSG during processing
Carrageenan
Maltodextrin
Malt extract
Natural pork flavoring
Citric acid
Malt flavoring
Bouillon and Broth
Natural chicken flavoring
Soy protein isolate
Natural beef flavoring
Ultra-pasteurized
Soy sauce
Stock
Barley malt
Soy sauce extract
Whey protein concentrate
Pectin
Soy protein
Whey protein
Protease
Soy protein concentrate
Whey protein isolate
Protease enzymes
Anything protein fortified
Flavors(s) & Flavoring(s)
Anything enzyme modified
Anything fermented
Natural flavor(s)
& flavoring(s)
Enzymes anything
Seasonings (the word "seasonings")

These ingredients work synergistically with MSG to enhance flavor
(If they are present for flavoring purposes, so is MSG)
Disodium 5’-guanylate (E 627)
Disodium 5’-inosinate (E 631)
Disodium 5'-ribonucleotides(E 635)


Here are some websites that contain other lists and information about MSG

MSG Dangers and Deceptions


Health Dangers.com

MSG - The Deadly Mouth Aphrodisiac

and on the Opposite side of the fence here are some websites that claim MSG is not bad for you:

The facts on Monsodium Glutamate

Ajinomoto - All about MSG

There are so many more sites of opinion, both qualified and unqualified, some that sound very much like fear mongering conspiracy theorists and other that sound like scholarly scientists. Ultimately people need to choose for themselves and how they *feel* when they eat certain things. For us, we feel better without MSG in our diet in the huge quantity it used to be, I am happy with that.