[N0help4u]

I have been saying for years and even been posting sites to back me up about message, aspartame, microwaves and many other things. Many people argue with me saying 'wheres your back up prove it' or 'well Snopes.com says...

Well I just found this on Yahoo news...


Say it isn't so! A recent study out of the University of North 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


The Surprising Ingredient Causing Weight Gain on Yahoo! Health


So my point about why so many Americans are gaining weight and can't figure out why looks like this may be true what I have been saying all along.

[BlackVY]

I knew this MSG was bad from my days of growing up in Singapore...

It was everywhere there, it used to be advertised as the best food out there, but after a few years, I notices the population was gaining weight like crazy.

Sad, but luckily I was never one to eat food which contained MSG. I just knew it was bad, so me and my family just stayed away from it. Obviously a good decision

[N0help4u]

Yeah a very good decision if you are allergic to it it can make you feel paralyzed temporarily. I use to wonder why after I ate certain things I felt like I was talking a little slurry and could barely move then I heard about message.
I know that in countries that do not have the standard American diet and eat foods indigenous to their country they are way healthier and slimmer than most of us Americans that will eat anything

[BlackVY]

The same can be said about Asian countries...

They will east just about anything, and the weirder the food, the more of a delicacy it is. MSG was used it just about everything you bought from the shops in Singapore, so the best thing to do was to cook at home and eat your own cooking.

[N0help4u]

That is what I don't get is most orientals are skinny and they use message in about everything. '
Is it that some parts of Asia do and some don't?

Like I can't imagine Okinawa Japan using message because they are one of the healthiest eating people on the earth and they live into their 100's

[BlackVY]

Well, I guess it depends on the culture too.

Japan is a very advanced country but their society is still strict and driven by rules and tradition. They are less likely to pollute their bodies with unhealthy stuff.

But from what I know from Singapore after growing up there, it seems like they let lose and go wild. They don't follow much tradition, and the cultural presence in that country is not very strong, so people are more likely to do whatever they want, eat whatever they want and they just don't care.

The reason why quite a lot of Asians are skinny is that's their body type. Some cannot put on weight no matter how hard they try. This is true for a majority of the Asian people, but there are a few exceptions who do put on weight, even if they don't indulge in unhealthy food.

[N0help4u]

Yeah I always said I would never want to tangle with a sumo wrestler,

So I guess the slim orientals basically have a high metabolism because they do eat healthy even if it includes some message.

[BlackVY]

True.. Also, they tend to have early dinners, like at about 5.30pm-6pm. So that helps the body digest the food better too.

They also do eat smaller portions, so all this helps.

[N0help4u]

And their food isn't over processed to the point it loses digestive enzymes and vitimans.

[BlackVY]

Yup, that's right... and they do have lots of soups too

[Fuchsia]

Whenever you are trying to tell people about natural ways to help health ailments and tell them to stay away from aspartame, microwaves, etc. People want to know proof. They don't ask for proof about those prescription drugs and all the other harmful things that's killing them everyday. I don't understand people. You have to do your own research because everything is not going to be just right under your nose.

Also, people just don't want to stop doing what they are doing no matter how bad it maybe for them. It takes effort and discipline to change your ways. Not everybody wants to or has it in them too.

Thanks for the article Nohelp4u!