MSG and Brain Damage?

I grew up eating mostly Eastern flavored food prepared by my parents (I can not cook) so the taste of sodium glutamate, or umami, comes almost as a second nature to me. My family always keeps a small jar of it in the kitchen to flavor our food. In some parts of Asia, sodium glutamate is rather quite expensive as compare to other substances like salt and sugar. Many restaurants in the Orient try to not use it as much because of the cost but my mom does not use much of it because she thinks it’s not safe in large amount.

I found that there is an ongoing debate about the whether the consumption of sodium glutamate (MSG) could pose a toxic risk to the body. MSG is highly soluble in blood so eating large amounts could increase MSG levels in blood tremendously. The structure of MSG is very similar to glutamic acid, a member of the excitotoxin groups which destroys neuron by overactivating the receptors for the neurotransmitter glutamate. What sparked the debate was an experiment done by a scientist about 30 years ago where he found that glutamic acid caused brain damages in rodents. Others scientists argue that since we are primates, not rodents, we would be less affected because of the great differences of our physiology. Until now, the issue of whether MSG is truly safe is still being discussed and argued by researchers. The FDA so far has classified MSG to be safe so everyone please remain calm and try not to panic about whether your brain cells are being destroyed. This entry is not written with the intention to persuade people from not consuming MSG but personally for me to gain some new perspectives on the fields of science. As a kid I’ve come to know the taste of umami. Now as a college student I’ve just realized that this taste that I’ve known all my life is derived from a compound called monosodium glutamate and is at the center of this heated debate about a potential effect it could have on the body. I will try to investigate more into this topic by trying to find actual studies done pertaining to the effect of MSG on the human body.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate - gives a general history of MSG that I find really interesting