Warning: Soapbox time
I know a research assistantat the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. In hundreds of studies around the world, scientists were creating obese mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes test studies. No strain of rat or mice is naturally obese, so scientists have to create them. They make these creatures morbidly obese by injecting them with
MSG when they are first born.
The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing rats (and perhaps humans) to become obese. They even have a name for the fat rodents they create: 'MSG-Treated Rats.'
Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity, it is an addictive substance.
Even the propaganda website sponsored by the food manufacturers lobby group supporting MSG explains that the reason they add it to food is to make people eat more.
A study of the elderly showed that older people eat more of the foods that it is added to. The Glutamate Association lobbying group says eating more is a benefit to the elderly, but what does it do to the rest of us?
'Betcha can't eat [just] one,' takes on a whole new meaning where MSG is concerned! And we wonder why the nation is overweight!
MSG manufacturers themselves admit that it addicts people to their products. It makes people choose their product over others, and makes people eat more of it than they would if MSG wasn't added.
I'm not an idiot. I know that you want to do everything you can to win a comp. I also know that BBQ is not a health food.
However, MSG is a poison and I would no more use MSG in my cooking than I would mix anti-freeze in with my cocktails to make them sweeter or mix cocaine in with my rub.