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Fri Jun 3
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Flavor-boosting MSG linked to unexplained weight gain
Enhancer often used in Chinese food could impact leptin, scientist suggests

excluding people who were overweight at the
start of the study, the risk rose to 33 percent.

Obesity is not as much of a problem in China
as it is in the United States, which might
suggest that MSG is not a significant culprit in
weight gain. But the Chinese tend to be
physically active, which might help offset the
pound-producing properties of the additive,
He said.

Why MSG and weight gain may be linked isn’t
clear, He added, but it may have something to
do with the hormone leptin, which regulates
appetite and metabolism. He’s group found
that people who consumed more MSG
produced more leptin. “MSG consumption may
cause leptin resistance,” He said, so that the
body cannot properly process the energy it
receives from food. That, He added, could
explain why people who ate more MSG gained
weight regardless of how many calories they
consumed.

But Ivan E. de Araujo, a Yale University
neurobiologist who has studied the effects of
MSG on leptin, was not convinced by the new
findings.

Leptin is released by fat cells, so as people
gain weight they have more leptin in their
blood, Araujo said. The effect of MSG on leptin
levels, then, may simply be a reflection of
growing body mass.

Araujo called the researchers’ suggestion that
prolonged exposure to high quantities of MSG
may trigger leptin resistance by damaging an
area of the brain called the hypothalamus,
“rather speculative, given the current lack of
direct evidence that” MSG in normal dietary
amounts could produce a physical injury to
that part of the brain.

Araujo added, it is “somewhat intriguing” that
moderate weight gain was only seen in the
group with the very highest MSG intakes.
People who consumed the most MSG also
consumed the most salt in their diets, Araujo
noted, which can itself cause water retention
and weight gain.

For a follow-up study, He and his colleagues
hope to see whether people who stop using
MSG experience any health benefits
attributable to the change in diet.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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Notes