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The latest research says MSG is "harmful"?

 Last Update: 2022-01-07
 Source: Internet
 Author: User

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Original: Fan Zhihong

Recently, many people have come to me and asked me: "Hearing on the latest scientific news, eating MSG and chicken essence can promote obesity, and the metabolic mechanism has been studied clearly
.
Media reports say that MSG is harmful to humans! Is it true?"

I said: Eating more MSG is associated with an increased risk of obesity.
Such research results have been reported in epidemiological surveys in China before
.
But the results are not consistent
.
Some said it was relevant, some said it was irrelevant
.

The research literature this time is a study conducted with model mice
.

The results of the study show that excessive consumption of MSG in mice can indeed promote obesity.
The mechanism is not only to induce an increase in food intake, but also to the degradation of nucleotides and metabolic regulation
.
Researchers found that too much MSG increased uric acid levels
.
This mechanism is similar to that of fructose and high-salt diet
.

One difference between chicken essence and monosodium glutamate is the addition of umami nucleotides-sodium inosinate and sodium guanylate
.
They and monosodium glutamate can play a "synergistic effect", increasing the umami taste of monosodium glutamate several times or even twenty to thirty times
.

These umami nucleotides themselves are purine derivatives and precursors of uric acid
.
What's more interesting is that research has found that adding inosinic acid can also promote the weight-increasing effect of a large amount of MSG, just as it increases the umami effect of MSG
.

This research was published in the journal Nature Metabolism and has attracted a lot of attention
.

However, don't be frightened by this result, and dare not eat MSG and Essence of Chicken from now on
.

There are several questions that must be asked:

1.
Mice and humans have different eating habits and digestive abilities.
Can the experimental results be directly extrapolated to humans?

2.
How much MSG did the experimental mice eat? Is it consistent with what we eat daily?

3.
In addition to MSG, what sources of sodium glutamate are in the diet? Is MSG the only source?

4.
There are many obesity factors in life, is MSG the key factor among them? The answer to the first question is: mouse experiment results cannot be directly extrapolated to humans
.

The answer to the second question is: The MSG intake in the experiment is very inconsistent with our daily intake
.

The mice in the article ingested these ingredients by drinking water containing MSG (sodium glutamate) or MSG + umami nucleotides (chicken essence is mainly a combination of these two components)
.
It can be analogized as human beings do not drink white water every day, but drink MSG soup and chicken essence soup to quench their thirst
.

So how strong is this water containing MSG and chicken essence? Calculated according to the content of 100 liters of water, it is 1%-5%
.
With such a high MSG concentration, most people can't drink it
.

According to the practice in the catering industry, the amount of MSG added to the dishes is 0.
2%-0.
5%, and the maximum umami taste is reached at 0.
5%
.
In home applications, it is almost impossible to use as much as 0.
5%
.
However, when cooking in restaurants, because they often use a variety of umami condiments, the total concentration may exceed 0.
5%
.

Even so, it is impossible to put so much in drinks and soups
.

In 2017, the European Union Food Safety Authority once put forward a proposal
.

Taking into account the problems of controlling sodium to prevent the increase in blood pressure and the decrease of insulin sensitivity, it is recommended that each person consume no more than 30 mg/kg of monosodium glutamate per day
.
If you do not eat processed foods, and rarely eat restaurant foods and takeaway foods, it is not difficult to control the MSG you can cook at home within this limit
.

When I make my own vegetable dishes, I often add chicken essence and monosodium glutamate, but the amount is small
.

My usage is:

Add 1 gram of chicken essence to about 300 grams of dishes (a small salt spoon for household use, one spoon is equivalent to 2 grams of salt or 1 gram of chicken essence)
.

According to relevant industry standards, if the chicken essence contains 35% MSG, the MSG content in 100 grams of vegetables is only 0.
12%
.

If you eat 300 grams of dishes per meal, you will consume 0.
35 grams of MSG
.
So even if you eat like this for three meals a day, you only consume 1.
05 grams of flavor.

Fine
.
If I add soy sauce or other sauces, I won’t add chicken essence or MSG, because soy sauce often contains flavor enhancers such as MSG and chicken essence
.

If ingredients such as meat and chicken are added, MSG and chicken essence will be added less or not
.

Utilizing the umami flavor of chicken essence can help reduce salt
.
In 300 grams of dishes, I add no more than 1 gram of table salt, plus 1 gram of chicken essence, the total amount of sodium is equivalent to less than 1.
5 grams of salt (the sodium content in chicken essence is about half of table salt)
.

In this way, if I eat 1,000 grams of dishes a day, I only consume 5 grams of salt, which meets the low salt standard
.

I do not eat snacks that contain MSG, nor do I drink beverages and soups that contain MSG
.
A person with a weight of 55 kg eats only 1 gram of MSG per day, and the intake of MSG per kg of body weight per day is 0.
018 g, or 18 mg, which is lower than the 30 mg/kg body weight per day recommended by the European Union
.
Even if I double the amount of MSG, it is only 0.
04 g/kg body weight/day
.

However, the male mice in the experiment had an adult body weight of only 40 grams and a daily drinking volume of about 5 ml, but they drank a monosodium glutamate solution with a concentration of 1%-5% as water every day
.
According to this calculation, the MSG intake of experimental mice is 1.
25-6.
25 g/kg body weight/day
.

Calculated in kilograms of body weight, the MSG intake of the experimental mice and my MSG intake (calculated by eating 2 grams per day) is really much higher, 60-300 times that of mine
.

Of course, when eating in a restaurant, the intake will be much higher
.
According to the 0.
5% added amount, one meal of 300 grams of vegetables will have 1.
5 grams of MSG
.
In addition to drinking a small bowl of 200 ml of soup, calculated based on the amount of 0.
2% MSG added, another 0.
4 g is credited
.
That adds up to 1.
9 grams
.
What's more, there are very few staple foods in restaurants, and the amount of dishes eaten is usually far more than 300 grams
.

According to the data in a previous study in China, the median daily intake is 1.
8 grams.
That is to say, although the amount of MSG that many people actually eat is much lower than that of experimental mice, it will not increase uric acid.
However, half of the people exceed the number recommended by the European Union and need to be controlled
.

The answer to the third question is: the source of sodium glutamate is not just MSG
.

As an amino acid, glutamic acid is a component of various proteins
.
Sodium is the main component of table salt (sodium chloride)
.
When glutamic acid meets sodium chloride, sodium glutamate can be formed at a suitable pH
.
These two ingredients are super rich in our food
.

For example, the protein of flour is rich in the amino acid glutamic acid
.
Eight or ninety years ago, the early MSG factories used flour as the raw material for the manufacture of MSG
.
According to the data in the food composition table of our country, the protein in 100 grams of flour contains 4.
1 grams of glutamic acid
.
As long as the flour is fully digested, these glutamate will be absorbed by the body, which is more than the glutamate in the essence of chicken I eat in a day
.
So, can we say that eating all kinds of pasta will lead to fat gain.
.
.
There are also all kinds of meat, eggs, fish and shrimp, and their protein also contains a lot of glutamic acid
.

The protein of 100 grams of chicken breast contains 3.
6 grams of glutamic acid, and the protein of 100 grams of egg liquid contains 1.
6 grams of glutamic acid
.

Drinking "pure natural" chicken soup and broth will also drink a lot of umami substances such as sodium glutamate and umami nucleotides
.

Therefore, for daily household use, the externally added MSG is not the bulk of the glutamate intake.
.
.

The answer to the fourth question is: a small amount of MSG is not the main cause of obesity
.

There are many fattening factors in life, such as too many sweets and refined starch foods, such as high-calorie dishes with excessive oil and salt, such as serious lack of exercise, such as insufficient sleep, such as excessive stress, and so on
.
Their contribution to obesity is much greater than eating one or two grams of MSG
.

Even if you put some MSG to eat more, you can't put the board on the MSG head
.
Because more salt, more sugar, more spicy seasonings, more meat flavors.
.
.
will make people appetite, just putting MSG, the effect is limited
.

It should be noted that if glutamic acid leaves sodium, its umami taste will decrease
.
If there is no salt in the dishes, only MSG, the umami taste is not so obvious
.
When the intake of salt itself is too much, it will increase the weight
.
Therefore, it can be speculated that as long as the total sodium content is controlled and a little salt is added, the appetite-promoting and fat-increasing effects of MSG should also be weakened
.

To solve the problem, we must grasp the main contradiction
.
To ensure safety, we must grasp the key points of the hazard
.
A small amount of MSG in cooking at home is not the key point
.

Having said that, you may have breathed a sigh of relief
.

Everyone knows that the dose determines the toxicity
.

After eating MSG (sodium glutamate) and adding an amino group, it is metabolized into glutamine
.
Glutamine is the energy source of the intestine and an essential component for intestinal repair
.
In order to reduce blood ammonia, some patients with liver disease also need to take glutamate pills to detoxify
.
On the other hand, everything has disadvantages and advantages
.
Eating MSG for lean people may help increase appetite and improve digestion and absorption, and epidemiological studies have shown that MSG can reduce the risk of anemia
.
Therefore, MSG itself is not a poison
.

Although protein is not poisonous, it is no problem to eat 70 grams a day.
If you increase it by 7 times and eat 490 grams, then there is bound to be a problem
.

Fructose is the same
.
Although drinking 50 grams of fructose from sweet drinks is harmful to health, eating 10 to 15 grams of fructose from 300 grams of fruit is harmless and healthy
.

Therefore, it is still okay to add a small amount of MSG when cooking
.

Just like we don't dare to eat fruits because of the large amount of fructose that promotes obesity and hyperuricemia
.

Each food ingredient needs to be limited to a suitable range, not excessive and diverse, this is the essence of a healthy diet
.

To live peacefully with MSG and Essence of Chicken, you need to use them correctly
.
I have the following suggestions:

(1) The monosodium glutamate limit is within 1.
8 grams per day, and the chicken essence limit is within 4 grams per day
.
If you can avoid them, just eat the original flavor
.
(2) Use MSG chicken essence to help reduce salt
.
Add salty condiments when you start the pot, first add a small amount of MSG or chicken essence, then add salt, and the amount of salt is halved than usual
.

Studies have shown that adding a small amount of MSG can make it easier for people to accept less salted foods; but adding MSG to high-salt foods will make people feel that salty foods are more delicious
.
So the key is to avoid adding extra MSG chicken essence after putting a lot of salt-this approach is not conducive to fat prevention, nor is it conducive to preventing high blood pressure
.

(3) People with elevated uric acid should pay special attention to controlling MSG and avoid chicken essence
.
Chicken essence is a source of purines
.

(4) If you use soy sauce, oyster sauce, abalone sauce, salad dressing, rice sauce, mushroom sauce, chili sauce, beef sauce, XO sauce, black pepper sauce and other seasoning sauces and rice sauces, don't put MSG chicken bouillon
.
Most of them have added glutamic acid and umami nucleotide freshness enhancers
.

(5) Don't be too obsessed with the strong and fresh taste
.
Drink less salty soup and use less salty soup
.
Almost all of them are added with flavor-enhancing ingredients such as monosodium glutamate and chicken essence
.

(6) Reduce the strong flavored dishes in restaurant takeaways.
The amount of monosodium glutamate and chicken essence added is usually much more than that of the family's daily cooking
.

If you can do the above, you don't have to be overly fearful of the problem of MSG gaining weight
.

Maintain a light and natural taste everyday, and enjoy strong-flavored food only occasionally, just fine
.

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