Day 48

BREAKFAST

Had our usual great cup of coffee this morning, and had whole wheat pancakes with blueberries.

Here is an interesting article about MSG send by one of our friends

MSG (a slow poison)

The food additive MSG (Mono-Sodium Glutamate) is a slow poison. MSG hides

behind 25 or more names, such as Natural Flavoring." MSG is even in your

favorite coffee from Tim Horton's and Starbucks coffee shops!

I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive

obesity epidemic, and so did a friend of mine, John Erb. He was a research

assistant at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and spent

years working for the government. He made an amazing discovery while

going through scientific journals for a book he was writing called The Slow

Poisoning of America .

In hundreds of studies around the world, scientists were creating

obese mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes test studies. No strain of

rat or mice is naturally obese, so scientists have to create them. They

make these creatures morbidly obese by injecting them with MSG when they are

first born.

The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing

rats(and perhaps humans) to become obese. They even have a name for the

fat rodents they create: "MSG-Treated Rats."

When I heard this, I was shocked. I went into my kitchen and checked

the cupboards and the refrigerator. MSG was in everything -- the Campbell's

soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays flavored potato chips, Top Ramen,

Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen

prepared meals, and Kraft salad dressings, especially the "healthy low-fat"

ones.

The items that didn't have MSG marked on the product label had

something called "Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein," which is just another name

for Monosodium Glutamate.

It was shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our children

everyday are filled with this stuff. MSG is hidden under many different

names in order to fool those who read the ingredient list, so that they

don't catch on. (Other names for MSG are "Accent, "Aginomoto," "Natural

Meat Tenderizer," etc.)

But it didn't stop there.

When our family went out to eat, we started asking at the restaurants

what menu items contained MSG. Many employees, even the managers, swore

they didn't use MSG. But when we ask for the ingredient list, which they

grudgingly provided, sure enough, MSG and Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein were

everywhere.

Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell, every restaurant -- even

the sit-down eateries like TGIF, Chili's, Applebee's, and Denny's -- use MSG

in abundance. Kentucky Fried Chicken seemed to be the WORST offender: MSG

was in every chicken dish, salad dressing. and gravy. No wonder I loved to

eat that coating on the skin -- their secret spice was MSG!

So why is MSG in so many of the foods we eat?

Is it a preservative, or a vitamin?

Not according to my friend John Erb. In his book The Slow Poisoning

of America , he said that MSG is added to food for the addictive effect it

has on the human body.

Even the propaganda website sponsored by the food manufacturers lobby

group supporting MSG explains that the reason they add it to food is to make

people eat more.

A study of the elderly showed that older people eat more of the foods

that it is added to. The Glutamate Association lobbying group says eating

more is a benefit to the elderly, but what does it do to the rest of us?

"Betcha can't eat [just] one," takes on a whole new meaning where MSG

is concerned! And we wonder why the nation is overweight!

MSG manufacturers themselves admit that it addicts people to their

products. It makes people choose their product over others, and makes

people eat more of it than they would if MSG wasn't added.

Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity, it is an

addictive substance. Since its introduction into the American food supply

fifty years ago,MSG has been added in larger and larger doses to the

pre-packaged meals,soups, snacks, and fast foods we are tempted to eat

everyday.

The FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food. They

claim it's safe to eat in any amount. But how can they claim it's safe when

there are hundreds of scientific studies with titles like these:

"The monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese rat as a model for the study of

exercise in obesity." Gobatto CA, Mello MA, Souza CT , Ribeiro IA. Res

Commun Mol Pathol Pharmacol. 2002.

"Adrenalectomy abolishes the food-induced hypothalamic serotonin

release in both normal and monosodium glutamate-obese rats." Guimaraes RB,

Telles MM, Coelho VB, Mori C, Nascimento CM, Ribeiro. Brain Res Bull. 2002

Aug.

'Obesity induced by neonatal monosodium glutamate treatment in spontaneously

hypertensive rats: An animal model of multiple risk factors."

Iwase M, Yamamoto M, Iino K, Ichikawa K, Shinohara N, Yoshinari Fujishima.

Hypertens Res. 1998 Mar.

"Hypothalamic lesion induced by injection of monosodium glutamate in

suckling period and subsequent development of obesity." Tanaka K, Shimada

M, Nakao K Kusunoki. Exp Neurol. 1978 Oct.

No, the date of that last study was not a typo; it was published in 1978.

Both the "medical research community" and "food manufacturers" have

known about the side effects of MSG for decades.

Many more of the studies mentioned in John Erb's book link MSG to

diabetes, migraines and headaches, autism, ADHD, and even Alzheimer's.

So what can we do to stop the food manufactures from dumping this

fattening and addictive MSG into our food supply and causing the obesity

epidemic we now see?

Several months ago, John Erb took his book and his concerns to one of

the highest government health officials in Canada . While he was sitting in

the government office, the official told him, "Sure, I know how bad MSG is.

I wouldn't touch the stuff." But this top-level government official refuses

to tell the public what he knows.

The big media doesn't want to tell the public either, fearing issues

with their advertisers. It seems that the fallout on the fast food industry

may hurt their profit margin. The food producers and restaurants have been

addicting us to their products for years, and now we are paying the price

for it. Our children should not be cursed with obesity caused by an addictive

food additive.

LUNCH

We had left over chow mein from "Delicious" Restaurant...excellent!

more later...