Oct 30, 2008 8:21 am US/Pacific
Study Shows Possible MSG, Obesity Link
BOSTON (CBS) ―
There's a good chance you've already eaten some today and you don't know it. It's in soup, those cheesy tortilla chips, frozen pizza, frozen meals and thousands of other products.
We're talking about MSG, or monosodium glutamate.
"It's a powerful flavor enhancer," said Melanie Pearsall, a registered dietician at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Even though the FDA says it's safe, MSG has had a bad rap over the years, reports CBS station WBZ-TV in Boston. Some people claim it causes headaches and other side effects. That's never been proven, but many nutritionists, including Pearsall, believe it's possible.
We asked people in Newton Centre what they knew about MSG. Many came up with the words "monosodium glutamate," but few understood how prevalent it is.
"I only thought it was in Chinese food," one woman said.
Many others told us the same thing. But Pearsall says that's a misconception.
"You're eating a lot of MSG and you probably don't even realize it," she said. "It's just a baseline across a lot of foods."
So what's the big deal? Researchers at the University of North Carolina say it could be contributing to our ever-expanding waistlines.
Dr. Ka He and other researchers followed people in rural China. They all ate the same healthy foods, but some used MSG in their cooking and others did not.
"We analyzed the data and found that those who used MSG are more likely to be overweight than non-users," he said.
For years, animal studies have suggested a possible link between MSG and obesity, but this study is the first to make a connection in humans.
The use of MSG has recently become an issue for food companies. You hear it mentioned in television ads for different foods and it's hard to miss the series of ads by rival soup companies accusing each other of using more of it.
So if you want to avoid using MSG it should be fairly simple. By law, manufacturers are required to list it on the ingredient label. But it's not that simple. If you look at the FDA information sheet on MSG it states:
Foods and ingredients that contain glutamate as an inherent component are not required to list glutamate on the label.
That includes thinks like hydrolyzed protein, which we found in shelf-stable beef stew, onion dip, hot dogs and a rice bowl.
Autolyzed yeast extract is also in this category. We found that in canned clam chowder, frozen veggie burgers and nacho cheese sauce.
Pearsall says a little MSG probably won't hurt. But if you're concerned, you need to pay attention.
"We have to be pretty savvy about reading the label and trying to find things that are less processed," said Pearsall.
That may mean cutting back on things we all love, like those cheesy tortilla chips. Yum.
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