Does someone know how bad it is??

I was reading an article which said this makes the pacreas produce more insulin and hence people are obese...

And I read that it is there in everything, they add to make the food addictive.

Please throw in your ideas on this one.

If you eat a lot of processed foods and very little wholefood then you'd probably be overproducing insulin for more reasons than the MSG content.   Some people have bad reactions to MSG and it gives them headaches.  It can make bloating and water retention worse.

Whether it's 'bad' or not is debatable.  However, I think it has few attributes to positively recommend it.

I think one of the main debates about MSG has to do with neurological effects. Glutamate in the brain will activate a lot of neurons and overstimulate them, which will eventually lead to death of the neuron (this is also called excitotoxicity). After eating food that contains MSG, your blood content of glutamate increases significantly.

Although, as far as I know, glutamate doesn't cross the blood brain barrier without specifically being transported, so consuming MSG may not have an effect on the nervous system at all.

I try to avoid it...
My boyfriend gets some bad side effects from it.
It makes him more sensitive to stress and can put him in a bad mood.
I still consume it on occasion but i avoid it when possible :]

Sadly i have yet to find a brand of salt and vinegar crisps that doesn't have it though :(
Ready Salted doesnt though!

 I am someone who is extremely sensitive to MSG- it triggers very, very bad migraine headaches in me, especially while I am pregnant, so I have completely removed it from my diet.  I have removed the food additive MSG I should say, there is a naturally occuring version, especially in mushrooms, that is nearly impossible to completely avoid.  That being said though, unless you are unfortunate enough to have the same problem that I do, you are probably fine to eat it in small amounts.  I agree with gi-jane that MSG is primarily found in foods that you would not want to over eat anyhow.

Original Post by simwaves1:

I think one of the main debates about MSG has to do with neurological effects. Glutamate in the brain will activate a lot of neurons and overstimulate them, which will eventually lead to death of the neuron (this is also called excitotoxicity). After eating food that contains MSG, your blood content of glutamate increases significantly.

Although, as far as I know, glutamate doesn't cross the blood brain barrier without specifically being transported, so consuming MSG may not have an effect on the nervous system at all.

 Also, glutamate naturally occurs in many foods, and the "umami" taste receptors on our tongues detect it (I think it's mostly in meats and protein rich food). So, I'm pretty sure that glutamate itself is not harmful in naturally occurring amounts (unless you have a sensitivity/allergy...). However, MSG is probably found in unnatural amounts in food since it is added which is why there may be concern over its effects.

MSG is found in the cheaper Chinese restaurants and I have recently found it in dry salad dressing packets.  I also found it in frozen fish fillets, the kind that are supposed to be "grilled" and otherwise look healthy. 

I'm also sensitive to MSG.

MSG is the sodium salt of glutamate.

How could a substance that is used normally by the brain cause harm? This is because, glutamate, as a neurotransmitter, exists in the extracellular fluid only in very, very small concentrations - no more than 8 to 12uM. When the concentration of this transmitter rises above this level the neurons begin to fire abnormally. At higher concentrations, the cells undergo a specialized process of delayed cell death known as excitotoxicity, that is, they are excited to death.

I found out years ago when I finally made the connection between my horrible migraine headaches and chinese food or Planter's dry roasted peanuts (both loaded with MSG).
I almost immediately started to feel a migraine headache coming on as soon as I finished eating those two products. And it would last until the next day. The throbbing was so bad I couldnt do anything but lie down in a dark, quiet room and wait for the painkillers to kick in and knock me out. I did my research and found out MSG was the culprit. It was kind of a wake up call for me though because I had to start reading labels of what I was eating after that.

But like other posters have said it's a food additive designed to make food taste better. The crappy thing about that is companies can use lower quality ingredients add some MSG and no one is the wiser.

But it is not only found in Chinese food. Also look for it in bottled, bagged, frozen, or canned processed foods.

Also be aware that companies can disguise it under other names such as : hydrolyzed vegetable proteins, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed yeast, yeast extract, soy extracts, protein isolate, "spices" and "natural flavorings." The food additives disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate.

source: http://www.frazzled-family-finding-change-gro wth-wellness.com/monosodium-glutamate.html

its not so terrible the FDA won't let you have it!  in fact you can buy pure MSG in the spices section of your grocery store.  its called Accent!  its in different size cardboard jars that are mostly red and white. 

Original Post by gibblerfan83: 

How could a substance that is used normally by the brain cause harm? This is because, glutamate, as a neurotransmitter, exists in the extracellular fluid only in very, very small concentrations - no more than 8 to 12uM. When the concentration of this transmitter rises above this level the neurons begin to fire abnormally. At higher concentrations, the cells undergo a specialized process of delayed cell death known as excitotoxicity, that is, they are excited to death.

I'm not sure this matters. Glutamate at high concentrations DOES kill neurons, but there's no real evidence that MSG gets into the brain. 

Here's a study that found that under fluctuating concentrations of plasma glutamate, the transport past the blood brain barrier remained constant:

Transport of Glutamate and other Amino-Acids at the Blood-Brain Barrier