Somehow, when I read the headline, Surprising Ingredient Causing Weight Gain I knew it would be MSG. I was right. It seems like there’s been a war on MSG for ages. Most people think of it as a scary chemical food additive but it’s actually a naturally occurring substance. As the article says, even “slow-cooking tends to cause small amounts of glutamic acid to be released from the protein sources (e.g., meat, chicken) in the recipe.” See? Natural. (However, it is often added to processed foods.)
It is true that MSG can trigger migraines in some people and it’s possible that they might be right about it causing weight gain but that seems just too perfect to me. The big crisis that the health nazis are currently all worked up about is obesity. That’s what we hear constantly – obesity, obesity obesity and how bad everything is – so it seems to me that someone must have been wanting to discover that MSG makes us fat.
I’m not saying that I love MSG. If it disappeared I probably wouldn’t notice. Or maybe I would. Since it’s a flavor enhancer maybe I’d notice that things suddenly didn’t taste as good as they used to but I can’t imagine a huge change. It’s just that I’m getting quite annoyed at the constant obsession with fat and health in general. It seems to me that we would all be healthier and happier if we just followed the simple rule, “All things in moderation,” and aside from that stopped obsessing over our health and found more interesting hobbies.
July 31st, 2009 - 8:26 am
YES. I am so tired of the almost-gleeful reporting about all the horrible stuff being overweight is supposedly doing to people’s bodies. It makes me INSANE.
I doubt there is actually any food additive “causing” obesity in the sense of screwing with people’s metabolisms. I know a lot of people talk about High-fructose corn syrup like it does that, too (and I do try to avoid it, just because it’s a concentrated source of sugar). I think the problem really comes down to a few things: less activity, larger portion sizes, fattening food being cheap, and just possibly in some cases, viruses or medications may play a role. Just as there’s no “magic bullet” that will take weight off, I don’t think there’s one that put all the weight on in the first place.
(You also have to remember – and this is never publicized – in 2002 or so, the CDC lowered the BMI/weight cutoffs for “overweight” and “obesity.” So more people “magically” became overweight when those cutoffs changed).
And some people are just genetically predetermined to be bigger. I think that’s me. With the exception of my mother, everyone in my genetic lineage is “peasant sized.” I suppose I could get down to a size 10 or so by an Herculean effort of starving myself and devoting all my free time to exercise, but honestly, why bother? I’m healthy enough as I am. (And even then, some people consider a size 10 “too fat.”)
And anyway, if the Mayans are right and the world ends in 2012, I’d rather enjoy chocolate now.
July 31st, 2009 - 11:13 am
Highly informative.