ArcBound said:
Just went to wiki like you said found:
"Since glutamates are important neurotransmitters in the human brain, playing a key element in learning and memory, there is ongoing study by neurologists about possible side–effects of MSG in food but no conclusive studies saying there are any connections.[30]"
Hardly seems like a hard fact
The poster that posted that glutamate is neurotoxin is a highschool kid who doesn't know what he's talking about. A neurotoxin is something that causes damage/death to nerve cells. Even water, in sufficient quantities, can be neurotoxic. Just look up water intoxication. A true neurotoxin like TTX (tetradotoxin from pufferfish) can kill you with extremely small doses. Meanwhile the allegedly neurotoxic glutamate is actually pretty common in our bodies and in nature.
Glutamate is nothing more than the conjugate base of glutamic acid (glu or E) a non-essential amino acid (AA) . Its one of the 20 or 21 (depending on who you ask) commonly occurring AA's. MSG is nothing more than the sodium salt of this amino acid.
Glutamate is generally accepted as being the most ubiquitous excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. It plays a lot of important roles in learning and stuff. Overall there's like 4 glutamate receptors (NMDA/AMPA and the K one) these are the ionotropic ones... this just means that they function as ligand-gated ion channels, or ion channels that get turned on/open when glutamate binds to them. I can't remember what the metabotropic E receptor is called... but you can just look it up.
Over-excitation of the NMDA receptor leads to a condition called excitotoxicity. In many ways excitotoxicity, and resultant intra-cellular changes are basically the molecular basis for death at the cellular level. This is essentially how we all die. Short of being vaporized, lack of oxygen to the brain is the most common cause for death. Cerebral hypoxia/ischemia sets about events that lead to excitotoxicity.
The NMDA receptor in itself is a crazy ass weird molecule with very complex kinetics w/ tons of weird ass ligands like PCP (angel dust) and Ketamine!
Anyways, MSG has some anecdotal evidence connecting to all sorts of badass diseases like asthma. It has actually been extensively tested, and shown statistically to cause no reproducible adverse reactions in people. Here's a study if you wanna check it out:
Freeman M. (October 2006). "Reconsidering the effects of monosodium glutamate: a literature review". J Am Acad Nurse Pract 18 (10): 482–6. doi:10.1111/j.1745-7599.2006.00160.x. PMID 16999713.
That being said, I'm not a huge fan of any processed food, including stuff that has MSG in it.
There's tons of posters on this site that have no academic background and no idea what they're talking about. Its good that you took the time to call him on it.
