Study Links MSG to Weight Gain

Individuals who consume 5 grams of monosodium glutamate (MSG) daily are 30 percent more likely to be overweight or obese than people who consume less than half a gram daily, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sought to examine the longitudinal association between MSG consumption and incidence of overweight. They examined data from 10,095 healthy Chinese adults aged 18 to 65 years who participated in the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS).

Diet, including MSG and other condiments, was assessed with a weighed food inventory in combination with three 24-hour recalls. Incident overweight was defined as a body mass index (BMI; in kg/m2) ≥ 25 or ≥23 based on World Health Organization recommendations for Asian populations. Multilevel mixed-effects models were constructed to estimate change in BMI, and Cox regression models with gamma shared frailty were used to determine the incidence of overweight.

After a 5.5-year follow-up, participants who ate the most MSG (roughly 5 grams a day) were 30 percent more likely to become overweight than those who ate the least amount of MSG (less than 0.5 gram a day).