I was looking for a new place to buy protein powder and I stumbled upon protienfactory. Looking at their
Caseinate product I was shocked to find out that this contained Glutamic Acid or MSG. This accounted for 20% of the protein! I checked around and this is a normal percentage amount for Caseinate products.
What the f*ck are we putting in our bodies?
In the pursuit of looking better and being healthier are we killing ourselves? I have checked out what the FDA said about MSG and they say it’s OK. But then again Viagra has killed more people than steroids and 22,000 people die every year from aspirin. So I am at a total loss on what to do.
Should I be worried about consuming up to 40 grams of Glutamic Acid a day every day? Is there any protein powders out there that have the Glutamic Acid content removed from them? How come no one has ever mentioned this?
Do you mean Monosodium Glutamate? Glutamatic acid is the precursor for glutamine. It sounds like you are a little misinformed. Yes, they do use MSG sometimes, and yes, many people have a reaction to it. 20% seems really high though. If you meant glutamtic acid (not MSG), that accounts for 50% of your skeletal muscle.
Glutamic acid is a nonessential amino acid that is converted into glutamine or gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Glutamic acid, the 2nd most abundant amino acid in the brain, is found in the hippocampus, the cranial nerves and other areas. It can be formed from aspartic acid, arginine, ornithine, proline or alpha-ketoglutarate.
erik: Are you mixing up Glutamic Acid with Monosodium Glutamate? I would be VERY surprised if the Protein Factory had a product that was 20% MSG! You WANT a protein product with a high concentration of Glutamate/Glutamic acid. This amino acid accounts for close to 50% of the intramuscular pool of free form amino acids and is found to be precipitously lost with extreme stess/exercise (eg resistance training), leading to decreased protein synthesis thereby a decrease in muscular growth.
I didn’t know Viagra had killed people! This is very worrisome. Did they go out with a smile on their face? Maybe they overdosed and they got whacked on the head by a giant hard weinie. This could turn into a whole new profession for Lorena Bobbett…oversized weinie-ectomies. Maybe we have unearthed Bary Bond’ secret weapon.
The difference is that in the protein, the gluatamic acid residues are within the protein chain, bonded to other amino acid residues on each side. This is not the situation with monosodium glutamate, which is instead the salt of the free form amino acid (not bonded within a chain of amino acids.)
An ex-g/f of mine was a neuroscientist PHD
candidate who did a lot of research on
excitatory neurotoxicity … hopefully I can
remember some of what I learned from here…
Monosodium glutamate readily crosses the
blood-brain barrier (BBB), and binds at the
glutamate receptor. Glutamate is an excitatory
neurotransmitter that is important for proper
brain function, but in excess quantities can
be neuro-toxic. SInce MSG readily crosses the
BBB, the body/brain doesn't effectively
regulate that amount of glutamate receptor
activity. So large quantities of MSG can
can cause neurons to literally burst due to
excessive glutamate receptor activity. The
difference with l-glutamine or glutamic acid
is that these do not readily cross the BBB,
and your brain carefully regulates the
conversion to glutamate from glutamic acid
or l-glutamine. Hence it is extremely
difficult to cause excessive glutamate
receptor activity from too much l-glutamine or
glutamic acid. But it is quite possible to
cause brain damage from excessive MSG intake.
BTW, glutamic acid and MSG are not the same
structural compound. The shape of the glutamic
acid molecule is different from MSG, and
therefore is not suited to binding to the
glutamate receptor. Bottom line: l-glutamine &
glutamic acid are safe so long as you don't
exceed some ridiculous amount like 50gm of
free-form amino per/day. (Even more if it is
bound in a whole protein like chicken.) But it's probably a good idea to avoid all but the
smallest amounts of MSG. Assuming you want
to avoid brain damage.