where can i find more of it? i'm all about brain cell destruction.

That's certainly true, BUT it's not just as simple as swallowing a neurotransmitter excites your brain. First off glutamate is an amino acid. Any time you eat protein you are eating glutamate along with a host of other amino acids. What's important for brain chemistry is how much of that glutamate makes it from your gut, to your blood, across the blood brain barrier, into the neurons, and then gets re-excreted into the synapse causing neural excitation. It should be rather obvious that process is regulated because we don't see people going into seizures every time they eat Chinese food or running around acting like they're on meth. It's the same reason that depression can't be treated by giving someone a big tablet of serotonin.



None if I can help it. I get wicked headaches the next morning from it, but that's another issue.

MSG is hippie food. They eat it when they can't get their grubby hands on patchouli.

No. Truthfully. I have watched my politically correct friends, the ones who drive prius's's ask for "no msg, please" and then I've walked back into the kitchen and watched their dishes being cooked and I see, first hand, the way the cooks add EXTRA MSG to the food--just for yucks! they never knew what slapped em'.

Not to mention the fact that all the raw foot/vegan types love Bragg's Liquid Aminos. Guess why it tastes so yummy? Hydrolyzing vegetable protein creates, among other things, MSG.

2NaCl + CO2 + H2O ?

negative

Tofu + HCL -> MSG (and some other stuff)


The only difference between MSG and Glutamate is the exact pH you're storing it at. In an acid solution it's Glutamate. In a basic solution it's MSG (or disodium glutamate if you get the solution really basic.)

We need more smart biochemistry-minded people like SPG on this site.

yep, you won't get that from me LOL she is a much smarter cookie.

Now if you want to discuss the history of media and propaganda theory I am your guy.. Smart stuff like that is way beyond me .

You know what works awesome for brains? Liquor. After a couple shots of rum i am truly a different person God i wish i could be drunk 24/7... (hangovers kill it for me).

Not really, they are good at it because they practice a lot and it emphasized in their education systems. Of course there are a few math geniuses who can do it with little or no practice, but the majority are not like that and they can still outperform their western equivelents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7nbmjkImHQ

Kinda depends on what math you're talking about right? Simple arithmetic is mostly a function of short term memory. Differential equations OTOH is pretty darned abstract.

From my understanding of the debate many foods do contain glutamate. But they are normally always bound with other proteins so take a while to get broken down by your digestive system and the release into your blood is slow. The problem with MSG is, the glutamate is already in amino acid form and thus gets absorbed very quickly leading to a massive spike of glutamate in your blood stream, up to 25 times higher than normal. Maybe people don't get seisures from eating chinese food but they do get what's be dubbed as Chinese restaurant syndrome.


http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/_srcfil ... Report.pdf

I think we should all be very concerned about MSG.

Looking that up I found this in relation to that study.




It seems that study was disproven. Do you push every disproven study you find?

This just in:

Dukey's mom repeatedly dropped Dukey on his head, then dipped him in dookie.

Details at 11.

Surely you can appreciate the ease with which such symptoms can be psychosomatic. Like I said, I don't think the stuff is entirely benign. If I get to much of it I get horrible headaches the next morning with vomiting and the whole 9 yards. None the less, it's a gross mistake to think that eating glutamate has the same effect as increasing release of glutamate at the synapses. We don't give people serotonin to treat depression, we give them prozac. We don't give them gaba to treat anxiety, we give them valium. Neural dopamine release is the pleasant sensation associated with indulging most forms of addiction. Infusing someone with intravenous dopamine causes none of the pleasant effects.

its funny how the MSG page on wiki says MSG is fine and safe
but the excitoxin page says it destroys your brain


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excitotoxicity



There is science to support both sides of the argument.

According to that same article:




Which explains why in the real world no one seems affected by it. Notice how in the first part it noted this was first noticed by directly adding it to the nervous system, even though that wouldn't happen in the real world.

the hypothalamus has no blood brain barrier

Whatever the effects of MSG are, I sure don't want it in my food!

How can MSG be 'bad' when it is one of 5 essential tastes?
A "new-age" friend (she sells Juice Plus) asked for no msg in her Chinese Food. I'll bet they laughed and added double for her dish. They go through big cardboard pails of the stuff. Chinese lettering and 'MSG' every morning out to the dumpster.

Ever wonder why plain old broccoli and chicken chunks is so addictive? (the grease has to help a little) I used to frequent a Chinese restaurant with the bathroom past the kitchen. You'd see them spooning huge gobs of sugar and MSG in every dish.

People consider my cooking (Asian of all kinds, BBQ, fish, fancy, etc. ) some of the best. My secret kitchen weapon? Accent.