My lovely OS homecooked food is full of MSG! -what does it do to you?

flourgirl

Thanks lil_me

While baking for the farmers market we were told that we could not use anything with MSG in and that if we used stock for the savouries they were the ones to use. Just goes to show even if you do read the label and take advice it's not always right.

Thankfully we don't usually have any problems. DH just says clear of takeaway curries.

lil_me

It's the same where we think we are safe buying organic but it says on here

http://www.organicfoodee.com/emails/msg3.html

It can be present in the other 'permitted' ingredients.

Buying completely MSG free everything would be extremely hard, especially now as a lot of foods contain it added (even if it doesn't say it has been) and some just contain it naturally. Not much avoiding it is there.

I worked in an Indian takeaway before, never used to add MSG there. I make things like that at home now anyway.

Herbaholic

I haven't found any particular brands yet, but I've just read on the Hidden Names For MSG site I posted the link to above, that MSG can be found in toothpaste!!! :eek: I wonder how many other products it's in that we're not aware of?

So even Marigold and Kallo have it in? Thanks for the heads up lil_me Looks like our Grandparents had it right making everything from scratch, I recall my Nan used to make her gravy from the meat juices and stock from the veggies with cornflour to thicken it, it was yummy to. Think I'll be forgoing the bisto in future, homemade may take a bit longer but I think I'll try making my own gravy from now on, or have curry all the time made with the spice mix I grind myself :T

Maybe we should have an MSG thread that people can add products they find or already know of that contain MSG to give others a heads up?

mutley74

lil_me wrote: »

Natural in parmesan cheese, chicken, tomatoes other foods aswell

QUOTE]

Tomatoes????
How the h*ll does msg get in a freshly grown product? I eat loads of tomatoes well the cherry ones daily.

lil_me

Because glutamate occurs naturally same as salt etc does. It was found first in a natural plant Kombu, gives it away that it's a naturally occuring thing. It is a normal component of the human body both in free form and as a building block in proteins, natural in many foods. MSG is just glutamate with salt and water.

How it was found http://www.glutamate.org/media/glutamate.htm bet he never thought it would be spoken about so much.

Herbaholic

Tomatoes????
How the h*ll does msg get in a freshly grown product? I eat loads of tomatoes well the cherry ones daily.

Because it naturally occurs in tomatoes just as they have natural levels of Folate, Sodium, Vitamin C and Vitamin B6. The point lil_me was making is as well as being artificially put in by manufacturers, the glutamate is a naturally occuring substance in many foods eg chicken, tomatoes, paramesan cheese, mushrooms etc.

lil_me

Some more research for you

Injections of glutamate in laboratory animals have resulted in damage to nerve cells in the brain. Consumption of glutamate in food, however, does not cause this condition. While people normally consume dietary glutamate in large amounts and the body can make and metabolize glutamate efficiently, the results of these animal studies conducted in the 1980s raised a significant question: Can MSG and possibly some other glutamates harm the nervous system?

A 1995 report from the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), an independent body of scientists, helps put these safety concerns into perspective and reaffirms the Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) belief that MSG and related substances are safe food ingredients for most people when eaten at customary levels.

The FASEB report identifies two groups of people who may develop a condition the report refers to as "MSG symptom complex." One group is those who may respond with temporary adverse reactions after consuming large doses (3 grams or more) of glutamate without food. Parmesan cheese, a food with one of the highest levels of naturally occurring glutamate, contains about 1.3 grams of free glutamate per 100 grams. To consume three grams of glutamate from this source, one would need to consume 50 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese. The second is a group of people with severe, poorly controlled asthma. These people, in addition to being prone to MSG symptom complex, may suffer temporary worsening of asthmatic symptoms after consuming MSG. The MSG dosage that produced reactions in these people ranged from 0.5 to 2.5 grams.

The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) believes that people who are concerned that they may be sensitive to MSG should consult their physicians for challenge tests to determine if MSG is the cause of their adverse reactions.

Although FDA has not fully analyzed the FASEB report, the agency believes that the report provides the basis to require glutamate labeling. FDA will propose that foods containing significant amounts of free glutamate declare glutamate on the label. This would allow consumers to distinguish between foods with insignificant free glutamate levels and those that might contribute to a reaction.

When it comes to stocks, boiling up left over veg, peelings etc makes a good one for me, my looney dogs who would prefer to be vegetarian I am sure will eat the veg that is left after the liquid is drained off, so that way don't waste any of it at all.

nappentass

I find this site very useful for information on additives, the link is to the MSG fact sheet.
http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/factsheets/FactMSG.htm
Some of the readers stories are fascinating - I'm just glad I'm not as sensitive as some poor folk.

It's also useful to find out the other names/numbers of things you suspect.
The last chinese we had caused me pretty bad palpitations and anxiety, and we also suspect it may have caused my partners to have asthma like symptoms, but we're not certain.

HTH

Jill

molar

As I was thinking about ditching Marigold Bouillon due to MSG I did a quick search and found the following.

http://www.marigold-health-foods.com.au/FAQ.htm#HVP

Can this quote by the manufacturer be trusted? Everywhere else I read says HVP is a hidden form of MSG.http://www.naturalnews.com/020426.html

The HVP (Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein) used in Marigold Vegetable Bouillon does not contain any MSG.

The HVP contains only naturally contained glutamates that are derived from the raw materials used to make the HVP. That’s wheat and maize. Wheat and maize are made up of fats, fibres, moisture, carbohydrates, proteins, and so on. The proteins in wheat and maize are composed of amino acids such as leucine, phenylalanine and glutamic acid commonly found in food. So the naturally occurring glutamates in HVP are derived from the naturally occurring glutamic acids in wheat and maize protein.
The glutamates present in the HVP are not present in a concentrated form like MSG. They are naturally present in proportion to the other naturally occurring amino acids in the HVP. And because the glutamates have not been added to the HVP artificially but are naturally occurring, no declaration has ever been required other than that of HVP.
In any case, glutamate is an essential and vital constituent of the human body and occurs naturally in many foods such as the following: Peas • Potatoes • Tomato Juice • Grape Juice • Cheese • Mother's Milk
The quantity of natural glutamate in an 8fl oz serving of Marigold Vegetable Bouillon, at a dilution of 18g per 1 litre, is equivalent to the amount of naturally occurring glutamate in: 5g of cheddar, 10g of Parmesan, a medium sized potato, or a small glass of tomato or grape juice.
Did you know that one of the highest concentrations of naturally occurring glutamate is to be found in mother's milk?

mazza245

Bouncing this in case there are people who didn't read it before! We find that it isn't just MSG, but flavourings or artificial flavourings that are the problem. Like I said before, some version of these are in such a lot of foods that you just don't realise. My son has had a migraine from:

toothpaste (we can only use Ultrabrite which seems fine, everything else has flavourings in)
crisps (we can only eat plain as a lot of flavoured crisps have flavourings in, now M & S have started doing some with natural flavours - yippee!)
brown sauce (the bottle said Daddy's which is OK but the stallholder must have filled it with a cheapo version) - this caused a migrainal coma which my son took 3 days to come round from!

The list goes on. We, of course, can't eat anything cooked in a Chinese (my husband once had a steak in a Chinese restaurant and still got a migraine - presumably the pans are coated with MSG). All these other sorts of things have been found by painful trial and error.

We find difficulty in eating out and my husband and son can only pick things which can be eaten dry e.g. steak, gammon etc. When it comes to arranging catering for events we have to ensure that the caterers use only our stock cubes (Just Bouillon) and have to check through every item to make sure they will be OK. We are just trying to arrange our son's wedding later this year and we are having to go through everything again, it wouldn't do for him to get a migraine that day!