Many people are allergic to MSG. Big Food is being incredibly irresponsible by putting this in almost all processed foods and then not labeling it, or, in the case of restaurants, warning the consumer.

If the hypothesis is that eating MSG reduces people's metabolic rates, then it's surely a hypothesis that can be tested quite easily by measuring average resting metabolic rates before and after introducing MSG into the diet?

It is probably another baseless study by some gov funded entity. Oriental people who reportedly consume lots of this stuff are generally not over weight nor do they appear to report headaches etc.

Western heritage people do not tolerate it as well. (Orientals do not process or tolerate alcohol as readily as we do just to give a comparison)

But really to see MSG as a wieght gain culpret ----highly doubt it. Grabbing at straws is more like it.

The flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate (MSG), most often associated with Chinese food and after-dinner headaches, may also be enhancing waistlines, a new study finds.

Of course. That's why we see all the rotund Chinese waddling around. Morons.

Bottom line is we all need to exercise more and limit caloric intake. 

It does seem a bit contrived (to produce some sort of publishable result). Nibor, you left out all those porky Japanese and Koreans.

MSG is considered safe, but some people complain of headaches, nausea and other bad reactions it.

Sounds like good stuff to me. You eat it and it gives you headaches and makes you puke, no problem. Actually, it's kinda like beer.

It would be nice if everyone would stop trying to micro manage everyone elses lives.

Good luck getting americans to do that. You're better off talking to a wall.

That stuff gives me awful headaches, and some people I know get awful nightmares after consuming it. I don't mind if others want to have it in their food because it makes it tastier, but for those of us who react negatively to this additive, it is very deceitful to not disclose this ingredient in food products and force us to eat something that can make us ill. I feel that they should be held responsible for doing this, just as every product has a "warning: may contain nuts" label, they should specify if something has MSG.

This is NOT a new finding. Studies linked MSG to weight gain long ago.

What irritates me, is that MSG is a very common ingredient in a huge variety of salad dressings, soups, broths and boullion. Big food sabotages even its so-called healthy food.

MSG does not cause weight gain. Eating like a pig and sitting around in cubicles causes weight gain. Stress causes weight gain.

Jonathan Reid is absolutely correct. Eating more food than your body needs to run(Eating like a pig) makes you gain weight - period. I'm pretty tired of all the BS excuses too.

Check out rBGH. You may find it in your milk and meats. It's another hormone injected into livestock passed on to us.

As far as MSG i don't have a reaction to it but i avoid it. It's clearly marked on packaging of food that contain it. My Father though can't have it. If he does his temp goes up and he starts to sweat.

The mass market food industry has been doing a lot of things that are patently bad for decades, and it has become so ingrained in their thinking that it is virtually impossible to overcome . . .

On the good side, with the economy continuing to decline, higher food prices are causing people to engage in a bit of productive mentation with the consequence that more people are beginning to realize that simple tends to be better when one seeks to save money at the grocery store while continuing to enjoy tasty and healthy meals . . .

People also are starting to focus more attention on reading ingredient labels, where the general rule is that if simply pronouncing the name of an ingredient correctly requires an advanced degree in Chemistry, then it probably is not something you want to consume . . .

It takes a while to discover how to cook and bake, but there are plenty of cooking books and cooking shows, and it is not so difficult to learn. Additionally, it is FUN, and it is an excellent way to enjoy gourmet meals without having to pay gourmet prices . . .

As a general rule, the least expensive but highest value food and beverage products have very simple names that match their ingredients, where for example the ingredients of vitamin D fortified milk are "milk, vitamin D", and the ingredients of whole wheat flour are "whole wheat flour" . . .

To get a sense of the other side of the spectrum, take a magnifying glass with you the next time you visit the local grocery store, and spend 10 to 15 minutes attempting to read and comprehend the ingredients of a typical frozen pizza or any type of highly-processed prepared junk food . . .

Regarding MSG, the reality is that food manufacturers and restaurants use it to make low-quality food taste as if it were high-quality food, and finding "MSG" or monosodium glutamate" in the ingredient list is a clue that it is low quality and essentially has no natural taste, hence the need to trick consumers by adding MSG . . .

The same thing happens with salt, and in some respects adding huge quantities of salt to processed food is a relic of the early-20th century, where it was not such a problem, because people tended to do a lot of physical work and actually needed increased levels of salt, since hard physical work for hours at a time causes one to sweat and to lose salt, but at the dawn of the early-21st century most people do not need so much salt . . .

One of the problems is that older companies tend to become entrenched in their recipes and product formulations, so changing the ingredient portions of an established product is not so easy to do, even when it makes abundant sense . . .

Another more recent problem is that established companies have been overrun by sneaky weasels who simply have no concerns for anything other than making as much money in the short run as possible with no regard whatsoever for long term consequences, and what happens is that ingredients begin changing from natural to artificial, which is one of the reasons that the food industry is so adamantly opposed to accurate and detailed labeling of ingredients and country of origin, because the names of individual ingredients and country of origin provide clues to what actually is contained in the food . . .

One of the best ways to determine when there is a problem with a food product is finding the phrase "distributed by" as contrasted to "made in the USA", "product of Spain", or something similar that states where the product is manufactured, and as a general rule "distributed by" maps to "made in China", which is a big problem, because the Red Chinese are notorious for putting all sorts of gnarly stuff in "food" and are so obsessed with pinching pennies that they replace powdered baby formula with melamine (plastic powder) to pinch pennies, which in recent years has resulted in babies literally starving to death in China even though their parents were feeding the babies what they thought was powdered milk . . .

From a different perspective, the mind-boggling aspect of adding huge quantities of salt and MSG to processed, frozen, and canned food is that it costs money to add salt and MSG, and this is mind-boggling because (a) grocery stores sell iodized sea salt and MSG and (b) consumers can add salt and MSG at the table or when preparing food, but (c) there is no practical way to remove salt and MSG when the manufacturer adds it . . .

In other words, most folks have a salt shaker and a pepper shaker, so what sense does it make for food manufacturers to add huge amounts of salt?

Some folks need higher levels of salt, but most folks need less salt, and the consequence is that folks for whom salt is a problem simply avoid highly salted foods, which maps to no sales for the companies that put so much added salt in their products . . .

This is easier to understand when one replaces "salt" and "MSG" with "ketchup" . . .

What possible logic is there to adding "ketchup" to everything when Hunt's® sells excellent tomato ketchup made with pure cane sugar (a personal favorite)?

If you want Hunt's ketchup on something, then add it yourself, which is not difficult to do . . .

It might appear that adding MSG to prepared food is not a huge manufacturing cost, but someone has to order the MSG and someone needs to add it to the food product, which in turn requires additional manufacturing steps for quality control and so forth, so the expense is not trivial, at all . . .

For me, finding "MSG" or "monosodium glutamate" in the ingredient list for a product automatically maps to "NO PURCHASE", and I use its presence as a clue in the same way that I use "high fructose corn syrup" and "distributed by", which also map to "NO PURCHASE", as does any food where one serving maps to more than 10 percent of the minimum daily requirement for sodium, although I prefer finding "no added salt" on the label, for sure . . .

For sure!

One of the benefits of using these clues as guidelines for shopping is that it essentially removes all the high-price junk food from the grocery list, which in turn maps to reducing the overall cost of food, since the fact of the matter is that basic and simple food ingredients cost less but are considerably more healthy and nutritious, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous! :)

After experimenting with my diet over a 6 month period, I determined that MSG gives me headaches, stomach cramps and makes me thirsty. We read the labels when we shop. If it's in food, it should be listed on the label.

I'm going to find out more about this study and whether it has been peer reviewed. To immediately discount the findings of a nutrition expert at a university without knowing more just doesn't make sense.

There is absolutely NO credible scientific evidence whatsoever that MSG is in any way linked to adverse symptoms such as headache and flushing. MSG is found in mushrooms, aged cheeses, and tomatoes, to name but a few natural items, and soy sauce, fish sauce, and Big Macs, to name a few processed products. This malarkey has been debunked numerous times since the original letter to the New England Journal of Medicine (completely anecdotal, it must be noted) in 1968. Really, it's time to move on to another "villain," people!

Come on people, the real reason eating Chinese food makes you fat is that half an hour later you're hungry again.

As some other people have stated, I don't care what people choose to eat, but it would be nice if everything was labeled correctly so that those of us who are sensitive to MSG (like me) would at least know whether it is in the food or not. That also goes for GMO foods too. Just label it correctly and completely! Is that too much to ask!!!

Imagine what MSG does to humans when they give it to certain test animals to cause them to develop diabetes.

Why are we fat and the Japanese are not? This makes no sense.

If you are as sensitive to sodium like I am msg or salt are killers. My swelling and inflamation used to be really intense on our western high sodium diet. The condition is called lymphadema and can lead to cellulitus which can kill or lymphoma which is a sort of cancer. The natural salt that God has put in food is all I need.

I think MSG is being added to food by the Illuminati to bring about The New World Order. They just want us fat and lazy so it's easier to load us into the cattle trains headed to the FEMA Deathcamps! And it also doesn't hurt for us to be fat so we cannot run from the tornadoes that are being created by HAARP. We need to put an end to MSG and the NWO!! Killuminati!

I have made a startling discovery: Not only does eating MSG give me a massive headache, reading this article about MSG did the same thing! Go figure?

In the United States, we may not consume a lot of msg compared to the Chinese but we sure do consume a lot of hydrolyzed protein, autolyzed yeast, etc. etc. which thanks to the FDA, does not have to be labeled. No telling how much we're getting. I try and keep from eating it because it causes pain and other things unpleasant but it's hard to avoid.

Some of these foods cause cravings. It's no wonder we are so unhealthy.