An Overlooked Cause of Obesity?

As a health care provider, I am interested in passing on information that could affect my patients’ health, even if it’s not directly related to the teeth and gums. This information was brought to my attention and is taken from two books cited below.

Is it normal to continue eating after your stomach is no longer interested in food? Have you ever opened a bag of chips only to realize you ate the entire thing? What could create a seemingly insatiable appetite? Read on.

John Erb, author of The Slow Poisoning of America and a research assistant at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, spent years working for the government. He made an amazing discovery while going through scientific journals. 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. In hundreds of studies presented in medical journals, researchers routinely administer MSG to newborn rats and mice to induce obesity. The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing them to become obese. They then use these animals as experimental subjects for research on anything from diabetes to weight loss.

MSG-laced food products are found in any kitchen: Campbell’s soups, Hostess Doritos, Lays flavored potato
chips, Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen prepared meals, Kraft salad dressings, especially the ‘healthy low fat’ ones.

According to The Glutamate Association, a lobby group sponsored by food manufacturers’ (http://www.msgfacts.com/facts/msgfact12.html), the reason MSG is added to food is to encourage people to eat more. Their home page singles out the elderly as most benefited by MSG-laced food, since taste diminishes in the elderly and MSG causes them to eat more.

Interestingly, several attempts have been made to pass a bill in Congress that would prevent lawsuits from obese people against food manufacturers or retailers like McDonalds. Called the “Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act” also known as the “Cheeseburger Bill” it has twice been passed by the House and turned down by the Senate. Opponents make the analogy to the tobacco industry, which eventually was held accountable for creating disease in its customers.

Ever Thought Today’s Kids Are Overstimulated? MSG is also considered an “excitotoxin,” which is a substance added to food and beverages that stimulates neurons. Glutamate is the active ingredient in MSG. It is a neurotransmitter found mainly in the brain and spinal cord. Glutamate can cause neurons to become extremely excited and, if the dose is large enough, the cells will die.

In his book, Excitotoxins: the Taste that Kills, author Russell Blaylock relays the discoveries of neuroscientist Dr. John Olney. In 1948, Dr. Olney was working out of the Dept of Psychiatry at Washington University here in St Louis. He discovered that MSG caused widespread destruction of neurons. At the time of his report of findings, baby foods contained high levels of msg. His reports were ignored by medical journals, but after he and other doctors testified before congress as to their findings, MSG was voluntarily removed from baby foods in 1969.

While one can argue if an obese individual can blame his condition on McDonalds, it is interesting to note the
rise in childhood obesity with the prevalence of msg in our foods and the shift from home cooked meals to
fast food meals.