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The results of some studies involving animal models of obesity induced by monosodium glutamate are not conclusive

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 67, page 228 (2013)Cite this article

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Dear Sir,

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a food additive that is widely used to promote flavour enhancement. Although a considerable amount of research has focused on the potential hazards of MSG ingestion on humans, the debate around this topic is still incredibly vivid.1 A rise in the percentage of the total population that is obese has coincided with an increase in the widespread use of glutamate. MSG-treated rats have been used frequently to study the effects of MSG, and both forward and reverse causalities have been proposed. However, epidemiological and experimental evidence concerning the effects of glutamate ingestion shows that MSG did not induce obesity or weight gain when it was used as an additive to rat diets.2 In addition, Beyreuther et al.3 concluded that the current use of MSG as a food additive is ‘harmless for the whole population’ in the consensus meeting paper ‘Monosodium glutamate—an update’, which was published in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology and College of Life Science and Food Engineering, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China

    X Wu, Y Yin & Z-Y Deng

  2. Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, China

    X Wu, C-Y Xie & Y Yin

Authors
  1. X Wu
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  2. C-Y Xie
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  3. Y Yin
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  4. Z-Y Deng
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Correspondence to X Wu or Z-Y Deng.

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Wu, X., Xie, CY., Yin, Y. et al. The results of some studies involving animal models of obesity induced by monosodium glutamate are not conclusive. Eur J Clin Nutr 67, 228 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2012.211

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2012.211

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