MSG and Weight Gain - Nah, really?

[pampered_mom]

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/weig...g-weight-gain/

I don't typically think much of yahoo health articles, but this one had me going "nah, really?"

[bobandjess99]

LOL..I read the title and was like "do NOt tell me they are talking about MSG" *sigh*
Ya...really SURPRISING.
NEVER would have guessed that one.
Seriously?
If I paid for a clue, do you think they would take it?

[noobmom]

The "Best Tips" were pretty lame. Why not publish a list of all the names MSG can masquerade under? I'm not totally adverse to MSG, esp from natural sources (I am Chinese after all), but there is entirely too much added to processed and restaurant food these days.

[Purple Sage]

Limit making stews or soups in a crock pot, since slow-cooking tends to cause small amounts of glutamic acid to be released from the protein sources (e.g., meat, chicken) in the recipe.

Wouldn't this apply to bone broths? I make chicken stock in my crockpot on a regular basis, cooking it for at least 24 hours. Not giving that up!

[pampered_mom]

Originally Posted by noobmom

I'm not totally adverse to MSG, esp from natural sources (I am Chinese after all), but there is entirely too much added to processed and restaurant food these days.

I can understand that and would probably think somewhere along the same lines too if it weren't for the whole:

The study focused on 750 Chinese men and women, ages 40-59, living in 3 rural villages in north and south China. Most of the study subjects prepared their meals at home without commercially processed foods and roughly 82 percent used MSG. Those participants who used the highest amounts of MSG had nearly 3 times the incidence of overweight as those who did not use MSG, even when physical activity, total caloric intake, and other possible explanations for body mass differences were accounted for. The positive correlation between MSG and higher weight confirmed what animal studies have been suggesting for years.

....but added into the whole processed food thing and one can only imagine the damage it can do.

Originally Posted by Purple Sage

Wouldn't this apply to bone broths? I make chicken stock in my crockpot on a regular basis, cooking it for at least 24 hours. Not giving that up!

lol...not sure about that one either. I would suppose it would depend on the amount of meat in it. Given that the amounts are "small" and if one's diet did not contain a whole lot of MSG then I probably wouldn't worry about it.