Aug.
15 - MSG Use Linked to Obesity
People who use monosodium glutamate (MSG) as a
flavor enhancer in their food are more likely than people who
don’t use it to be overweight or obese, even if they have
the same amount of physical activity and total calorie intake,
according to a University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill
School of Public Health study recently published in Obesity.
Researchers at UNC and in China studied more than
750 Chinese men and women aged 40 to 59 in three rural villages.
The majority of study participants prepared their meals at home
without commercially processed foods. About 82% of the participants
used MSG in their food. Those users were divided into three groups
based on the amount of MSG they used. The third who used the most
MSG were nearly three times more likely to be overweight than
nonusers.
“Animal studies have indicated for years
that MSG might be associated with weight gain,” says Ka
He, MD, an assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology at
the UNC School of Public Health. “Ours is the first study
to show a link between MSG use and weight in humans.”
Because MSG is used as a flavor enhancer in many
processed foods, studying its potential effect on humans has been
difficult. He and his colleagues chose study participants living
in rural Chinese villages because they used very little commercially
processed food, but many regularly used MSG in food preparation.
“We found that prevalence of overweight
was significantly higher in MSG users than in nonusers,”
He says. “We saw this risk even when we controlled for physical
activity, total calorie intake, and other possible explanations
for the difference in body mass. The positive associations between
MSG intake and overweight were consistent with data from animal
studies.”
As the percentage of overweight and obese people
around the world continues to increase, He said, finding clues
to the cause could be very important.
“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and
other health organizations around the world have concluded that
MSG is safe,” He says, “but the question remains--is
it healthy?”
Source: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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