Reply #10: Crying Shame wrote"Monosodium Glutamate" and you said is is an amino acid -- that's wrong

[AikidoSoul]

it's not. You may want to call it that for your own reasons, but MSG is not a natural "amino acid" as you say -- MSG is actually "free glutamic acid" produced by an industrial process started in Asia, but more recently adapted and industrialized in the US using mainly corn and other starches for fermentation. Chemicals are often added to "control" the fermentation process which occurs is huge vats.

What is of concern is the neurotoxic effects that some people experience. MSG is known as an excitotoxin.

"Because MSG is absorbed very quickly in the gastrointestinal tract (unlike glutamic acid-containing proteins in foods), MSG could spike blood plasma levels of glutamate.<6><7><8> Glutamic acid is in a class of chemicals known as excitotoxins, high levels of which have been shown in animal studies to cause damage to areas of the brain unprotected by the blood-brain barrier and that a variety of chronic diseases can arise out of this neurotoxicity.<9><10> The debate among scientists on the significance of these findings has been raging since the early 1970s, when Dr. John Olney found that high levels of glutamic acid caused damage to the brains of infant mice.<11> The debate is complex and has focused on several areas:"

Wikipedia link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate


added Wiki quote