MSG BLAMED AGAIN WITHOUT SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT
Report #7121; 5/20/97
There is no evidence whatever that MSG causes Attention deficit disorder, a condition in which children fail in school because they can't concentrate and keep on moving when they should be sitting down. I found only one study showing that MSG causes headaches, and it was done in rabbits. Some people get headaches after eating foods laced with MSG, but such headaches occur so soon after eating foods containing MSG that sufferers usually recognize the cause and avoid MSG. The study showing irreversible brain damage was done by injecting large doses of MSG into the brains of newborn mice. Injections of large doses of common table salt will also cause brain damage. Everyone eats significant amounts of monosodium glutamate because foods that contain protein contain a building block amino acid called glutamic acid which is converted in the body to glutamate, the same as from monosodium glutamate.
If monosodium glutamate causes millions of people to get headaches, then many people would develop headaches from eating protein- containing foods, such as meat, fish, chicken, eggs, milk and beans, and they don't. Furthermore, when most people who think they have the Chinese restaurant syndrome are given unlabelled MSG, they do not get headaches or flushing.
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News
Nonsense presented on 60 minutes, November 3, 1991