Slim Vegetarian: Re: [Vegetarianslimming] FYI - The Surprising Ingredient Causing Weight Gain

I saw this yesterday too and I have to say I'm not all that surprised as the author! :-)

Cindi

--- On Fri, 7/31/09, Judy Goldsmith <judyjtg@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

From: Judy Goldsmith <judyjtg@sbcglobal.net>
Subject: [Vegetarianslimming] FYI - The Surprising Ingredient Causing Weight Gain
To: Vegetarianslimming@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, July 31, 2009, 10:14 AM

The Surprising Ingredient Causing Weight Gain

By Margaret Furtado, M.S., R.D. - Posted Mon, Jul 27, 2009, 12:23 am PDT

Say it isn't so! A recent study out of the University of Carolina at Chapel

Hill cites what animal studies have hinted at for years: MSG (aka monosodium

glutamate) could be a factor in weight gain.

The study focused on 750 Chinese men and women, ages 40-59, living in 3

rural villages in north and south China. Most of the study subjects prepared

their meals at home without commercially processed foods and roughly 82

percent used MSG. Those participants who used the highest amounts of MSG had

nearly 3 times the incidence of overweight as those who did not use MSG,

even when physical activity, total caloric intake, and other possible

explanations for body mass differences were accounted for. The positive

correlation between MSG and higher weight confirmed what animal studies have

been suggesting for years.

Maybe you're wondering what monosodium glutamate is exactly, and what you

can do to avoid it in your diet. MSG is a flavor enhancer in foods-some

believe it may even provide a fifth basic taste sensation (in addition to

sweet, sour, salt, and bitter), what the Japanese call "umami" (roughly

translated as "tastiness") . MSG is considered an "excitotoxin, " since its

action in the body is to excite neurotransmitters (important brain

chemicals), causing nerve cells to discharge and also exciting nerves

related to taste. Perhaps this ability to excite these nerves is a factor in

an association between increased MSG usage and weight gain.

How prevalent is MSG in the U.S. diet? Americans consumed about 1 million

pounds of MSG in 1950, and today that number has increased by a factor of

300!

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) describes MSG as "naturally

occurring," and has it on the GRAS ("generally regarded as safe") list.

However, not only could MSG be causing us to gain weight, but some studies

also reveal that as many as 25 to 30 percent of Americans have adverse

reactions to it (e.g., palpitations and migraine headaches), and as many as

30 percent are extra sensitive to it if they consume more than 5 grams at

one sitting.

OK, if you're an MSG user who could stand to lose a little weight (or know

someone who is), what should you do?

Unfortunately, eliminating MSG from the diet is much easier said than done,

since-given the fact that food processors often change recipes-there' s no

list of "safe" foods that never contain MSG. A good start is to avoid

anything with MSG anywhere in the ingredient list, but there will still be

many foods that have MSG hidden inside other ingredients. Likewise, even

products labeled "no MSG added" can still contain these hidden sources.

Best bets for avoiding MSG

Buy organic produce whenever possible.

Make things from scratch, avoiding processed ingredients as much as

possible.

Limit making stews or soups in a crock pot, since slow-cooking tends to

cause small amounts of glutamic acid to be released from the protein sources

(e.g., meat, chicken) in the recipe.

C 2007 Johns Hopkins University. All Rights Reserved. This article from

Johns Hopkins University is provided as a service by Yahoo. All materials

are produced independently by Johns Hopkins University, which is solely

responsible for its content.

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