Bad Food Additives

Yeast extract = Monosodium glutamate!

Sunday, 22 March 2009 13:43

It's incredibly popular. But would you buy it if it's main ingredient was labelled at MSG?

Yeast extract starts from dead yeast. It is found in copius quantites at the bottom of wine and beer brewery vats. This dead yeast goes through a refinement process where it is soaked in a high Sodium Chloride (Salt) solution and often treated with hydrochloric acid to "hydrolyze" the proteins.

This process breaks the yeast down into smaller compounds, generally Glutamic Acid. The sludge is then heated to complete the break down of the yeast and filtered to remove the husks. The resulting ingredient is almost pure Glutamate which is the salt of Glatamic Acid.

Now, Glutamate/Glutamic Acid, the primary ingredient of Yeast Extract, is one of the most common amino acids found in nature. It is found in meat, fish, eggs, dairly products and some vegetables. Food producers will have us believe that this a "natural" product. However, Yeast Extract is a man made ingredient. It goes through a very unnatural process and it invariably contains unnatural contaminants.

In an early edition of the Code of Federal Regulations, the (US) Food and Drug Administration distinguishes between two classes of commercially manufactured glutamic acid used as a food additive (Code of Federal Regulations Food and Drugs 21: Parts 100-169, 1990; Code of Federal Regulations Food and Drugs 21: Parts 170-199, 1989).

1. When the product is refined to 99% glutamic acid, the FDA requires that the additive be identified on food labels as "monosodium glutamate".
2. When the refinement process results in a product that is less than 99% pure glutamic acid, the product is referred to as a "hydrolyzed protein product".

A common name for Hydrolized Proteins is "Yeast Extract".

Other names for Hydrolized Protein Product include (but are not limited to)

• Calcium caseinate
• Sodium caseinate
• Autolyzed yeast
• Hydrolyzed protein
• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein
• Hydrolyzed animal protein
• Textured vegetable protein

And the most misleading of them all;

• Natual Flavour.
  

All of the above contain commercially manufactured glutamic acid (MSG). The only factors that distinguishes these apart from MSG is the per cent of glutamic acid and the process of extraction.

The World Health Organisation, FSANZ and most regulatory bodies around the world rank MSG as a safe additive. However, the effects of MSG are well documented and a Google search will give you page after page of people describing the terrible experience they go through when consuming MSG. The affects on asthmatics is well documented.

MSG is also an excitotoxin. Which means it has an effect on brain cells and nerves and can stimulate hyperactivity in children. Studies also show a link between MSG and obesity and a lack of hunger control.

See our recent article here about MSG.

In the video below Dr Vincent Bellonzi described the shocking way Monosodium Glutamate affects not only our bodies but our brains as well. If you have time to watch, it is very informative and eye opening.

Article by John Pitchers

Some more reading about Yeast Extract / MSG
Truth in labelling - http://www.truthinlabeling.org/III.What%20is%20MSG.html
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeast_extract