The Hidden MesSaGes in our food.
MSG or Monosodium Glutamate is used to enhance the flavour of savoury food, particularly meaty foods and soups. Glutamate is a naturally occurring substance and when mixed with sodium it becomes Monosodium Glutamate. It’s put in many foods but Chinese food is often blamed for overuse of MSG; however it was discovered by a Japanese scientist in the 1900s who was looking for a way to imitate the flavour of a particular food.
MSG is implicated in migraine anecdotally only at the moment. In 2017 a study was done on men and women using MSG on its own and MSG in food. The results were not straight forward so they declared that MSG as a headache trigger was not proven; however, MSG is included as the cause of Secondary Headache in the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD – 3rd Edition)… 8. Headache attributed to a substance or its withdrawal
So, what are we to think…? Good question. Until we get conclusive proof one way or another, the best you can do is avoid it if at all possible if you think it’s a trigger for you. To help you with this, here’s a list of names to look out for on food packaging. For more information on this see the article this list was taken from here: https://bit.ly/2r9MsXl
Hidden names for MSG and free glutamic acid: (Again with thanks to a member for giving us this information)
Names of ingredients that always contain processed free glutamic acid:
- Glutamic Acid (E 620)
- Glutamate (E 620)
- Monosodium Glutamate (E 621)
- Monopotassium Glutamate (E 622)
- Calcium Glutamate (E 623)
- Monoammonium Glutamate (E 624)
- Magnesium Glutamate (E 625)
- Natrium Glutamate
- Yeast Extract
- Anything “hydrolyzed”
- Any “hydrolyzed protein”
- Calcium Caseinate
- Sodium Caseinate
- Yeast Food
- Yeast Nutrient
- Autolyzed Yeast
- Gelatin
- Textured Protein
- Soy Protein
- Soy Protein Concentrate
- Soy Protein Isolate
- Whey Protein
- Whey Protein Concentrate
- Whey Protein Isolate
- Anything “…protein”
- Vetsin
- Ajinomoto
Names of ingredients that often contain or produce processed free glutamic acid:
- Carrageenan (E 407)
- Bouillon and broth
- Stock
- Any “flavors” or “flavoring”
- Maltodextrin
- Citric acid, Citrate (E 330)
- Anything “ultra-pasteurized”
- Barley malt
- Pectin (E 440)
- Protease
- Anything “enzyme modified”
- Anything containing “enzymes”
- Malt extract
- Soy sauce
- Soy sauce extract
- Anything “protein fortified”
- Anything “fermented”
- Seasonings
The following are ingredients suspected of containing or creating sufficient processed free glutamic acid to serve as MSG-reaction triggers in HIGHLY SENSITIVE people:
- Corn starch
- Corn syrup
- Modified food starch
- Lipolyzed butter fat
- Dextrose
- Rice syrup
- Brown rice syrup
- Milk powder
- Reduced fat milk (skim; 1%; 2%)
- Most things labeled “Low Fat” or “No Fat”
- Anything labeled “Enriched”
- Anything labeled “Vitamin Enriched”
