When I lived in LA, going from my house to the office was a quick trip down La Brea Avenue, one of the main arteries connecting North and South Los Angeles. The most popular establishment on La Brea Avenue is called Umami Burger.
...there was always a line around the block, every kid was trying to get their "umami fix."
Bloated, greasy college students line up in droves to wait for their chance to attack Umami Burgers. Rumor has it that one meat patty is never enough. And looking at the students’ pant sizes, I believe it. But from my perspective as a chemist, it’s sad. Like millions of other people in our country, they’re being suckered by exploitation of the fifth taste.
For a long time, only four flavors were recognized by scientists: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. But in the early 1900s, a Japanese chemist named Kikunae Ikeda, PhD, who was studying the various flavors found in seaweed broth, discovered a new taste and a corresponding receptor. He named it umami, which means “pleasant, savory taste.” Anything identified as triggering it became known as “the fifth taste.”
To isolate an umami ingredient in nature, Ikeda performed a series of caustic laboratory extractions. Using a blend of acid and ammonia, he plucked a seemingly benign amino acid called glutamate from seaweed. Ironically, it was flavorless, but it proved to trigger a drug-like sensation that led to a pleasant feeling. Like an AC/DC song can send “sensations up and down your spine,” synthetic umami proved to “taste like awesome feels.”
In laboratory testing, glutamate isolate drastically increased food intake among mice. Studies later showed that it also ramped up eating among babies who consumed excess amounts of soup richly spiked with the umami isolate. Ikeda smelled profit and started selling the sensory- igniting additive to the fast-food industry.
As time passed, a synthetic version—known as MSG—proved more economical than laborious extractions from nature. Since drugs are easier to sell as flavors, Ikeda started selling it through his company, Ajinomoto (which means, the essence of taste), in 1909. The laboratory synthesis was later published in Organic Syntheses, and the ultra-pure chemical isolate was mass produced.
It officially took eating from a nutritive endeavor to a highly addictive food experience...
Pharmaceutical Takeover
Initially, synthetic MSG was only a minor threat to our appetite. Today, it is so plentiful that you’d think it was a conspiracy to render all of us fat and impotent for the impending pharmaceutical takeover - Synthetic MSG is used by Big Pharma, Big Food, and Big Chemical. Downstream, it eventually makes its way into the hands of chefs and our burgers, which is why so many students can’t resist Umami Burger.
The Many Names of MSG
Disguised as a seemingly harmless amino acid, synthetic MSG is now tossed into everything by the fistful—burgers, organic chips, crackers, salad dressings, yogurt, sports bars, protein powders, wines, beer, and even spirits. It’s sold under the aliases of hydrolyzed vegetable protein, autolyzed yeast, sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate, yeast extract, textured protein, natural amino acid, free amino acid, malt extract, malt flavoring, bouillon, broth, stock flavoring, natural flavor, natural beef or chicken, “secret sauce,” and, of course, umami.
Just as the rise in cancer paralleled the rise in pesticide use, the rise in overeating and poor thyroid function has paralleled the greedy use of MSG. And chemistry shows us why.
How MSG Gets You High
Once man-made MSG empties into the stomach, it’s rapidly shuttled into circulation. It races through the one hundred thousand miles of veins, arteries, and capillaries—faster than the speed of light. It eventually rams into the blood-brain barrier, a tight wall of junctions protecting our brain from foreign, unnatural compounds that compromise our fragile mental function. Slipping past our protective framework, the pharmafood dives deep into the vast neural network of our pleasure centers.
Bumping and tripping past billions of receptors sitting on the slick, squishy surface of brain cells, the glutamate fake eventually finds its intended match. Like an army of ants swarming a bread crumb, the MSG molecules lock into place and crank on brain receptors to incite a massive surge of feel-good molecules. A food orgasm follows, training us to seek out more in the future.
That’s why Umami Burger and the rest of the food industry love sneaking MSG into our food—it’s great for profits. Sadly, many people are unknowingly sacrificing their health—and life experiences— to chemical-induced food addiction. Instead of identifying the culprit, many will seek out meds for help.
The MSG Cure
There's a better way...Stop eating addictive food chemicals and correct the addiction by getting your blood sugar straight.
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Dare to Live Young,
The People's Chemist
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