re is msg sensitivity superstition in article qnns l agate berkeley edu spp zabriskie berkeley edu steve pope writes the mass of anectdotal evidence combined with the lack of a properly constructed scientific experiment disproving the hypothesis makes the msg reaction hypothesis the most likely explanation for events the following is from a critique of a minutes presentation on msg which was aired on november rd the critique comes from the tufts diet and nutrition letter february edited for brevity chances are good that if you watched minutes last november rd you came away feeling msg is bad for you in the segment entitled no msg for instance show host ed bradley makes alarming statements without adequately substantiating them millions are suffering a host of symptoms and some get violently sick peppers his report with sensational but clinically unproven personal testimony and speaks of studies on msg that make the substance seem harmful without explaining just how inconclusive those studies are consider his making reference at the beginning of the program to a study conducted at the eastern virginia medical school in order to back up his comment that there is a lot of evidence that msg a flavor enhancer in chinese and other asian cuisines as well as in many supermarket items causes headaches what he does not make reference to is the fact that the study was performed not on humans but on rabbits one of the researchers who conducted the study pharmacologist patricia williams ph d says it certainly is conceivable that a small minority of people are sensitive enough to msg to get headaches from it but she explains the show probably overemphasized the extent of the problem a second lapse comes with mention of dr john olney a professor at the washington university school of medicine who mr bradley remarks says that his years of research with laboratory animals shows msg is a hazard for developing youngsters because it poses a threat of irreversible brain damage dr olney s research with lab animals does not show anything about human youngsters in fact only under extreme circumsrtances did dr olney s experiments ever bring about any brain damage when he injected extremely high doses of msg into rodents completely bypassing their digestive tracts and entering their bloodstreams more directly and when he used tubes to force feed huge amounts of the substance to very young animals on an empty stomach of course neither of those procedures occurs with humans they simply take in msg with food and most of what they take in is broken down by enzymes in the wall of the small intestine so that very little reaches the bloodstream much to little in fact for human blood levels of msg to come anywhere near the high concentrations found in dr olney s lab animals the world health organization appears to be very much aware of that fact and so does the european communities scientific committee for food both after examining numerous studies have concluded that msg is safe their determination makes sense considering that msg has never been proven to cause all the symptoms that have been attributed to it headaches swelling a tightness in the chest and a burning sensation among others in fact the most fail safe of clinical studies the double blind study has consistently exonerated the much maligned substance that s quite fortunate since the alleged hazardous component of monosodium glutamate glutamate enters our systems whenever we eat any food that contains protein the reason is that one of the amino acids that make up protein glutamic acid is broken down into glutamate during digestion it s a breakdown that occurs frequently glutamic acid is the most abundant of the or so amino acids in the diet it makes up about percent of the protein in flesh foods percent in milk percent in corn and percent in whole wheat that doesn t mean it s entirely unimaginable that a small number of people have trouble metabolizing msg properly and are therefore sensitive to it the consensus reached by large international professional organizations is that msg is safe the same consensus reached by the fda and the biomedical community at large rich young these are not kodak s opinions
