Monosodium Glutamate - MSG
What you need to Know as Parents/Guardians 
This food additive hides behind 25 or more names, such as "Natural Flavoring".

MSG is in your favorite Tim Horton's and other brand coffee shops!   John Erb is a research assistant at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and spent years working for the government.  He made an amazing discovery while going through scientific journals for a book he was writing called "The Slow Poisoning of America".  In hundreds of studies around the world, scientists were creating obese mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes test studies.

No strain of rat or mice is naturally obese, so the scientists have to create them.  They make these morbidly obese creatures by injecting them with MSG when they are first born.  The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates; causing rats (and humans?) to become obese.  They even have a title for the fat rodents they create: "MSG-Treated Rats".
 
MSG is in everything!  The Campbell's soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays flavored potato chips, Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen prepared meals, Kraft salad dressings, especially the 'healthy low fat' ones.  The items that didn't have MSG marked on the product label had something called 'H'ydrolyzed Vegetable Protein'', which is just another name for MSG (Monosodium Glutamate).  It is shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our children everyday are filled with this stuff.  They hide MSG under many different names in order to fool those who carefully read the ingredient list, so they don't catch on.  (Other names for MSG: 'Accent' - 'Aginomoto' - 'Natural Meat Tenderizer' etc) But it didn't stop there.
 
When you go out to dinner at many restaurants like Burger King, McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, every restaurant, even the sit down ones like TGIF, Chilis', Applebee’s and Denny's use MSG in abundance. So why is MSG in so may of the foods we eat?..   Is it a preservative??
 
Not according to John Erb. In the book he wrote, an expose of the food additive industry called "The Slow Poisoning of America" he said that MSG is added to food for the addictive effect it has on the human body.    http://www.spofamerica.com/
Even the propaganda website sponsored by the food manufacturers lobby group supporting at: http://www.msgfactscom/facts/msgfact12.html   explains that the reason they add it to food is to make people eat more.   A study of the elderly showed that people eat more of the foods that it is added to.  The Glutamate Association lobby group says eating more benefits the elderly.  'Betcha can't eat just one', takes on a whole new meaning where MSG is concerned!   And we wonder why the nation is overweight?
 
The MSG manufacturers themselves admit that it addicts people to their products.  It makes people choose their product over others, and makes people eat more of it than they would if MSG wasn't added.
 
 Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity, it is an addictive substance!  Since its introduction into the American food supply fifty years ago, MSG has been added in larger and larger doses to the pre-packaged meals, soups, snacks and fast foods we are tempted to eat everyday.  The FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food.  They claim it's safe to eat in any amount.

How can they claim it safe when there are hundreds of scientific studies with titles like these? : The monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese rat as a model for the study of exercise in obesity'.   Adrenalectomy abolishes the food-induced hypothalamic serotonin release in both normal and monosodium glutamate-obese rats'.   Obesity induced by neonatal monosodium glutamate treatment in spontaneously hypertensive rats: an animal model of multiple risk factors'.   Hypothalamic lesion induced by injection of monosodium glutamate in suckling period and subsequent development of obesity'.  Yes, that last study was not a typo, it WAS written in 1978.

Both the "medical research community" and "food manufacturers" have known about MSG's side effects for decades!  Many more studies mentioned in John Erb's book link MSG to Diabetes, Migraines and headaches, Autism, ADHD and even Alzheimer's.  But what can we do to stop the food manufactures from dumping fattening and addictive MSG into our food supply and causing the obesity epidemic we now see? Research the facts and don’t hide from them. Be aware and educate our children.
  
Even as you read this, G.  W.  Bush and his corporate supporters are pushing a Bill through Congress called the "Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act" also known as the "Cheeseburger Bill", this sweeping law bans anyone from suing food manufacturers, sellers and distributors.  Even if it comes out that they purposely added an addictive chemical to their foods.

Several months ago, John Erb took his book and his concerns to one of the highest government health officials in Canada.  While sitting in the Government office, the official told him "Sure I know how bad MSG is, I wouldn't touch the stuff!" But this top level government official refused to tell the public what he knew.
  
The big media doesn't want to tell the public either, fearing legal issues with their advertisers.  It seems that the fallout on fast food industry may hurt their profit margin.  The food producers and restaurants have been addicting us to their products for years, and now we are paying the price for it.  Our children should not be cursed with obesity caused by an addictive food additive. 
  
If you are one of the few who can still believe that MSG is good for us, and you don't believe what John Erb has to say, see for yourself.  Go to the National Library of Medicine, at http://www.pubmed.com/   
Type in the words "MSG Obese" and read a few of the 115 medical studies that appear.