What Additives?

We have all read an ingredients list at one time or another. Generally, additives are those long, hard-to-spell-or-pronounce words, as well as some you may even recognize. They are “added” to a basic recipe to enhance, preserve, or improve the flavor, texture, or color of the product. They are generally chemical, man-made derivatives of naturally occurring substances. They are cheaper in mass production than pure ingredients. In most cases they do not add nutritional value, and, as I will illustrate, can do more harm than any good. There are new scientific findings, all the time, showing additives that were once thought safe, are instead destructive. Monosodium Glutamate, or MSG, has been labeled by the Society For Neuroscience as an “excitotoxin”, stimulating nerve cells until they die, and by the New England Journal of Medicine as a “neurotoxin”, or, translated, brain-function poison. Aren’t these labels warning enough? This additive is added, without regulation of quantity, to so many different prepared foods, it would be very difficult to gauge how much we are consuming. MSG is, in fact, an ingredient used in other additives under different names. The following is a list of ingredients that contain some form and amount of Monosodium Glutamate. This is just a sample, but a good guideline when shopping and reading labels. Aside from having “monosodium glutamate” directly on the label, products that contain these other sources allow the manufacturer the ability to place a “No MSG” or “MSG Free” label on the package.

Aspartame
Autolyzed Yeast
Autolyzed “anything”
Beef, chicken, or pork flavors
Broth
Bouillon
Calcium Caseinate
Carageenan
Flavors, flavorings
Gelatin
Glutamate
Glutamic Acid
Hydrolyzed Soy Protein
Hydrolyzed “anything”
L-cysteine
Natural Flavors
Seasonings
Sodium Caseinate
Soy Protein
Spice
Stock
Textured Protein
Whey Protein
Whey Concentrate
Yeast Extract
Season Salt