Retinal Degeneration: Early Evidence of MSG Toxicity

Evidence of risk posed by ingestion of processed (manufactured) free glutamic acid (MSG) is undeniable. Retinal damage induced by treatment with monosodium glutamate was demonstrated in 1957 by Lucas and Newhouse. In 1969, Olney demonstrated that treatment with monosodium glutamate causes brain lesions in experimental animals, and that those lesions may be followed by endocrine disorders as the animals approached maturity. During the 1970s, additional research demonstrated that hydrolyzed protein products (which contain MSG just as monosodium glutamate does) will cause brain lesions and neuroendocrine disorders; and that ingestion of monosodium glutamate by the very young will do the same.

The glutamate industry, led by Ajinomoto Co., Inc., the world’s largest producer of monosodium glutamate, responded. Their researchers claimed to replicate the studies that demonstrated MSG-induced neurotoxicity, but did not do so. Delay in examination of potentially damaged tissue beyond the time that damage could be observed, and delay in administering or feeding monosodium glutamate to test animals beyond the age that brain damage would most readily be inflicted, were common to these studies. Researchers also used entirely different (and inappropriate) methods of preservation and staining brain tissue in analysis of results.

As evidence of MSG-induced neurotoxicity became undeniable, the glutamate industry gave up producing its badly flawed animal studies and turned to designing, producing, and publishing human studies that seem to have been carefully designed to guarantee that no difference would be found between subjects given MSG test material and control subjects or between subjects given MSG and subjects given placebos. It was from these studies that they would argue that ingestion of MSG poses no risk to humans.
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Names and addresses of ingredients that contain processed free glutamic acid (MSG)

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