Number of words: 284

MSG, made from the Seaweed Kombu (sea tangle), has been used for thousands of years by Japanese cooks to enhance the taste of foods. After World War II, military officials heard through the grapevine that American GIs were raving that Japanese military rations were truly edible, even delicious. The military, interested in learning how to improve the palatability of military K – rations, met in 1948 with factory – food executives to discuss the flavour enhancer MSG. At this meeting, they learned that this additive enhances any flavor it’s added to. If you want a cheeseburger to be more beefy and cheesier, add MSG. If you want ice cream to be creamier, add MSG. If you want chicken broth to be richer, add MSG. And so the light bulbs went on. Food executives understood that they could boil spaghetti noodles to mush, add some crummy sauce made from nutrient-deficient, tasteless tomatoes, and let their concoctions languish for months in a tin can, if they added some handy-dandy MSG to spark up the flavor. Since that watershed meeting, the food industry has continuously increased the quantity of MSG added to factory fare so that today it permeates our food chain.

But right after military and food bigwigs met in 1948, scientist began to note freaky experiments that should have halted the addition of MSG to our food supply. In one of the original experiments, conducted by a Japanese scientist in 1950s, MSG was repeatedly injected into a dog’s brain. Each time the dog fell down convulsing uncontrollably. The conclusion: the amino acid glutamate caused the dog’s neural cells to become overexcited, firing out of control.

Excerpted from pages 46-47 of ‘Death by Supermarket’ by Nancy Deville