Does eating too much MSG cause obesity and metabolic syndrome? 

Ma Guansheng, a professor at the School of Public Health, Peking University

Monosodium glutamate is a common condiment in daily life.

The main component of monosodium glutamate is sodium glutamate, the sodium salt of glutamic acid

Some people think that monosodium glutamate is a chemically synthesized seasoning.

The rumor about "flavored cancer" has actually been refuted

Where does MSG cause obesity and metabolic syndrome? This claim comes from a paper by the University of Colorado research team published in the journal Nature, titled "Umami-induced obesity and metabolic syndrome mediated by nucleotide degradation and uric acid production

The study focused on the effects of sodium glutamate intake on the health of mice

Further experiments show that sodium glutamate may cause obesity, hypothalamic inflammation and central leptin resistance in male mice by inducing AMP deaminase and purine degradation, especially the accumulation of uric acid can increase the appetite of mice, leading to energy intake Enter too much

The final conclusion of the study is that sodium glutamate, an umami substance, promotes the intake of more food, resulting in excess energy intake, which ultimately leads to metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes

Unlike mice, humans generally have the ability to control their own food intake and also have the concept of preventing obesity

Although sodium glutamate has the effect of promoting appetite, paying attention to a reasonable diet in daily life and not eating too much can also effectively avoid the occurrence of obesity

Many tests have shown that monosodium glutamate is very safe, and the toxicity of monosodium glutamate is lower than that of table salt from the LD50 (half-lethal dose) obtained by the oral acute toxicity test

"China Food News" (November 17, 2021 03 edition)

(Editor in charge: Zhou Yan)