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Dr. Jack Soltanoff's Pages
The Chinese Syndrome
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - According to Dr. John W. Olney of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, glutamate is added to hydrolized vegetable protein (HVP) and is "simply another way of getting MSG into baby food.."
Dr. Olney, whose research found that feeding MSG to mice destroyed brain nerve cells, continues to be one of the most outspoken opponents of MSG. His research was directly responsible for removal of this substance from baby foods.
Dr. Olney believes that MSG should be removed from the FDA's Generally Recognized as Safe (GRS) list and should be much more strongly regulated.
Since it is one of the country's most widely used additives - 50 million pounds were produced in the U.S. alone last year - does Dr. Olney consider it more harmful than any other frequently used condiment such as salt? "Certainly anything that can cause brain damage in animals is dangerously toxic," he says. "We have to look at each substance separately. If one can have serious toxic effects, it makes sense to observe a wide margin of safety"
Glutamates are found naturally in many foods, particularly onions, beets, mushrooms, tomatoes and wheat gluten. MSG manufacturers argue that the body responds the same way to "natural" glutamates as it does to synthetic glutamate products added to foods.
Dr. Olney disagrees. "The glutamate occurring naturally in foods is largely digested as protein, not as free glutamate," he said. For instance, it takes several hours for the protein in steak to be digested. The glutamate is released slowly and never causes a marked elevation of glutamate in the blood.
"When added to foods as free glutamate, it is abruptly absorbed into the system, quickly elevating glutamate levels in the blood."
While there are only a few scientific studies on why MSG affects humans adversely, there are popular theories about how it does.
One theory is that soup served in Chinese restaurants is the culprit since it often contains large doses of MSG. Since people go to restaurants on an empty stomach and because soup is usually the first course - it, has been suggested that these factors ensure that large amounts of MSG are quickly absorbed into the blood stream and carried off to the nerve endings, setting off this syndrome (series of symptoms.)
This, however, does not explain why some people react to MSG and others do not.
Dr. Luane Rief-Uhrer, an assistant professor of biochemical ophthamology at Harvard Medical School, suggests that some people may have a greater ability to metabolize glutamate than others.
"My guess is that some people, when challenged with elevated amounts of MSG, just can't metabolize it, that addition of MSG overloads the system," she says.
Dr. Reif-Lehrer, who has polled adults and children on Chinese Restaurant Syndrome and hopes to begin testing children in the near future on their reactions to MSG, describes herself as one who takes a middle line in this controversy.
"There are many conditions we really don't talk about much," Dr. Reif-Lehrer noted. "Uke the fact that there are a number of people whose urine turns red when they eat beets. We don't know now if there are any long range effects of this." One unanswered question concerning glutamate is that if MSG does cause adverse reactions in many people, what does it do to those whose diet is likely to contain rather large quantities of this substance, such as Orientals or Occidentals eating large quantities of Japanese or Chinese food over long periods of time? Another question might be whether there is any evidence, published or otherwise, to suggest that MSG may be a carcinogen.
Dr. Olney explains, MSG in commercially-produced free form has only been in use for 20 or 30 years, and there simply have been no tests - actually no controls - on the effect of MSG in the diets of Orientals."
If one suffers from MSG reaction it is not necessary to totally avoid Chinese food.
Although most Chinese restaurants admit to using MSG in varying quantities most say they will omit it if diners request it.
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