by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

John Erb wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive obesity epidemic.
He was a research assistant at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and spent years
working for the government.

He made an amazing discovery while going through scientific journals for a book he was writing
called "The Slow Poisoning of America". 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 the scientists have to create them. They make these morbidly
obese creatures by injecting them with MSG when they are first born.

MSG is the sodium salt of the amino acid glutamic acid and a form of glutamate. It is sold as a
fine white crystal substance, similar in appearance to salt or sugar. It does not have a distinct
taste of its own, and how it adds flavor to other foods is not fully understood. Many scientists
believe that MSG stimulates glutamate receptors in the tongue to augment meat-like flavors.

Glutamate is derived from glutamic acid, a major building block for proteins. It is found
naturally in our bodies and in protein-containing foods, such as cheese, milk, meat, peas, and
mushrooms. MSG is one of several types of glutamate. When glutamate is released during breakdown of
the protein molecule, "free glutamate" is formed. It is only in this free form that
glutamate can enhance a food’s flavor.

The flavor enhancing effect of hydrolyzed protein products, including soy sauce, is due to the
presence of free glutamate. Hydrolyzed proteins, or protein hydrolysates, are prepared by using food
grade acid or enzymes to chemically digest proteins from soy meal, wheat gluten, corn gluten, edible
strains of yeast, or other food sources. These protein foods are rich sources of glutamate. When
proteins are broken down, bound glutamate is converted into free glutamate.  Therefore, when
you read "hydrolyzed protein" on the label, think MSG.

The key here is that MSG makes food with low nutritional value taste satisfying to the consumer.
When our customers receive crops from Muhammad Farms they tell us how much better our produce tastes
than those bought at the store. We know why our produce tastes better. We grow it without using high
doses of fertilizer, pesticides or irrigation water. Therefore our crops have a chance to grow
normally. We may not get as much volume per acre or the size of our vegetables may not be as large,
but they are good representatives of their species.

Each crop has its own distinct flavor because it pulls up different minerals from the ground and
combines them with water, air and sunlight in slightly different ways to form specific amino acids
and vitamins for our bodies. Taste is a side-affect of these differences and helps our bodies
distinguish between these crops to satisfy a specific need of the cells in our bodies.

However when food is grown fast and then is further denatured by over-processing, it has less
nutritional value and less taste. To hide these loses they add stuff like MSG to trick the body. So
it tastes good, but provides no nutrition to our cells. Our cells are still hungry and tell our
brains that we need more food. We therefore continue to eat more and get fat.

MSG is in almost every processed food including: potato chips, wieners, canned pastas, vegetable
juice, salad dressing, frozen entrees, seasoned mix, soy sauce, bouillon cubes, nachos, bologna,
canned chili, dried sour mix, frozen cured meats, frozen diet entrees, cheese puffs, ice cream,
pasta helpers, flavored crackers, canned soup, ramen noodles, canned meats, frozen potatoes, gravy,
jerky, sour cream and flavored rice.

MSG is extensively used in most of our fast food restaurants. So they keep you coming back for
more junk. We like to call MSG the "nicotine of food" (smile).