MSG, you may think it’s only an ingredient in Asian food, but you’re wrong; it’s everywhere. From restaurants to your grocery to your kids’ cafeterias, even your baby’s formula. Monosodium glutamate s a flavor enhancer that’s been big in the U.S. since the 50s. It’s supposed to make your food taste better, but research shows MSG is making us fat. Dr. Russell Blaylock has studied these common flavor enhancers that many experts believe are hazardous to your health. He calls them Exitotoxins: The Taste that Kills. An exitotoxin is a big word for any substance like MSG that over excites cells to the point of damage, acting as a toxin. Hence the term exitotoxin, a form of poison.

Headache specialist Dr. David Buchholz is certain MSG causes migraines for literally millions of people. MSG can directly worsen autism, attention deficit disorder, and hyperactivity. MSG can cause the brain to be miswired especially in the womb and the first few years of life. That damage to brain connections can mess up any aspect of brain function from the control of hormones, to behavior, and intelligence.

That’s what happens with infant mice. After being fed MSG, they show no signs of mental damage until they’re older and begin to fail at complex tasks. Bluntly put, they become stupid. And humans are five times more sensitive to MSG than mice. Infants even more so. Blaylock believes that the entire education system suffers as a result. Even the ability of students to get along with each other. But what about MSGs impact on brain afflictions in older adults. Blaylock says MSG may only be a contributing factor in starting brain diseases, but it definitely can make neurological afflictions worse. Alzheimer’s Disease, ALS also called Lou Gehrig’s Disease, multiple sclerosis, strokes, Parkinson’s disease – they all involve exitotoxins doing harm.

It’s in all sorts of commercially processed food products that wouldn’t taste like much if the didn’t have this flavor enhancer added to them. And it’s not always labeled as MSG or monosodium glutamate it’s labeled as hydrolyzed protein or naturals flavors and you’d never suspect it.

Blaylock says even moderate levels of MSG can cause harm partly because specific organs have actual biological triggers called glutamate receptors. A group of these receptors in the heart controls heart rhythm. “It can induce a fatal arrhythmia, that is the heart beats abnormally and people can die from it. Well Arrhythmia is the number one cause with heart attack. It’s been noted in medical literature for decades that people who die of sudden cardiac death frequently do so after a meal. -Blaylock”