Dangers of MSG That May Surprise You

A silent killer that’s worse than alcohol, nicotine, and drugs is likely lurking in your kitchen cabinets and even your child’s school cafeteria. It’s monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavor enhancer that’s known widely as an addition to Chinese food, but that’s actually added to thousands of the foods you eat.

Dr. Mercola's comments:
MSG is used in countless foods in your supermarket, local restaurants, school cafeterias, and more. Everything from soup to crackers to meats may contain it because MSG, as dangerous as it is, makes food taste good and it is dirt cheap, just like sugar. Incredibly, even infant formulas and baby food contain this poison, even though babies and infants, who are four times more sensitive than adults to the toxic effects of this chemical, are the most at risk.

There are a couple of main reasons why MSG is one of the worst food additives on the market. First, as Dr. Blaylock, author of the highly recommended Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills, says in the video, MSG is an excitotoxin, which means that it overexcites your cells to the point of damage, acting as a poison. The second part of the equation is that MSG can be literally hidden in food labels, under names like broth, casein, hydrolyzed, autolyzed, and more, making it extremely difficult to identify.MSG is also a probable cause contributing to the obesity epidemic.

As the FDA continues to vouch for its safety, scientists have known that MSG causes obesity since the 1960s! It is clearly not worth a few bites of tasty junk food to give your body the green light to produce visceral fat, the most dangerous type that surrounds your organs and increases your risk of heart attack, stroke, insomnia, type 2 diabetes, and more. Yet, that is exactly what you’re doing when you eat foods that contain MSG.

Eliminating MSG from your diet is a wise choice for everyone, including pregnant women. To do so, stick to natural, unprocessed foods. And, if you do eat processed foods, be on the lookout for the many hidden names for MSG on food labels. They include (but are far from limited to):
Gelatin
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP)
Yeast Extract
Malted Barley
Rice Syrup or Brown Rice Syrup

The dangers surrounding MSG are, perhaps, most concerning for new moms who are unable to breastfeed, and are looking for an alternative to the MSG-laden infant formulas on the market. Fortunately, women who are unable to breastfeed can make an extremely nutritious, MSG-free infant formula for their baby using raw milk.