Sunday 30 September 2012

Monosodium glutamate stimulates secretion of GLP-1

I found this cute little study today, if you follow the link from pubmed and click on the PDF you can get the full text for free.

In the study they made people drink test meals containing alot of carbohydrate and protein, and added either 2g MSG or some salt to them. The group that drank the test meal spiked with MSG had reduced postprandial glycemia ( good ) and significantly increased GLP-1 secretion ( good )

How quaint!

Ive blogged thousands of times on the beneficial effects of GLP-1 with respect to body weight control, glucose tolerance etc so im not gonna bother rehash its merits here, suffice to say that I think all the controversy surrounding MSG is overblown and false. Ive never had a problem with it myself, and I absolutely love things like parmesan cheese, soy sauce, marmite etc etc.

So does this mean consuming MSG may actually be beneficial? MAYBE. Indulge in self-experimentation is what I would say.

suppversity also has a very comprehensive post on MSG.

4 comments:

  1. this is a surprise.... are the VMH-damage studies using outlandishly-high in MSG?

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    1. Is dietary MSG really a significant cause of VHM damage in humans? You would think there would be strong conclusive studies showing this if this was the case, and you would expect asian's who use loads of MSG to be some kind of fat zombie brain damaged nation.

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    2. :-) i don't know -- asked you first! ...i thought there was evidence for brain problems, but at the least, Donaldson wrote it does dreadful things to the stomach. i never worry about "naturally-occurring" glutamates, but avoid the other stuff as best i can.

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  2. Hmmm this may explain my love of parmesean, and bouillon broths. I get migraines and hve heard MSG can trigger these, but it hasn't been true for me. Hmmm you've given me something to read and ponder upon.

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