I wrote a book called “Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills” about the harmful effects of food additives. I included more information and evidence than had previously ever been amassed in one place.

I am pleased to say that the book saved a great number of people from a life of misery.

In that book and in several published scientific articles, I demonstrated how excitotoxins damage the brain and are linked to a number of neurological disorders.

One of the best known excitotoxic food additives is monosodium glutamate, also called MSG.

Now a recent study using rats has brought forth new and critical information about the damage done by MSG to the liver, kidneys, bone marrow, and brain.

But more importantly, it points the way to how you can protect yourself from such damage.

MSG from food is carried first to the liver and in its most concentrated form. There it can cause considerable oxidative injury.

But the researchers also found that MSG causes tremendous oxidative damage and lipid peroxidation within the kidneys and brain.

Earlier studies indicated that MSG causes oxidative damage to the brains of infant animals as well as adult animals.

This explains the impaired learning and memory in animals exposed to dietary MSG.

They then gave the animals either vitamin C, vitamin E, or quercetin. Vitamin C and quercetin both powerfully protected all organs from MSG damage, especially the brain. Of the three, vitamin E was the least effective.

Of special concern was the fact that for the first time it was shown that MSG damages the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow.

This type of damage to cells, called polychromatic micronucleated cells, is associated with a number of blood diseases, including malignancies of the bone marrow such as leukemia.

This shocking study clearly demonstrates that MSG is toxic to the DNA within the bone marrow.

Americans, especially the young, consume enormous amounts of MSG and related excitotoxins in forms that have maximum toxicity (liquids), as well as in the artificial sweetener aspartame.

Combining aspartame with MSG, which many people do, has a synergistic toxic effect.

Both vitamin C and quercetin prevented the damage to the bone marrow cells.

While avoiding excitotoxin food additives is the safest thing to do, it is not always the easiest, because these dangerous additives are added to an enormous number of foods.