Monosodium Glutamate Contributes To Obesity

Monosodium Glutamate(MSG) is a widely popular food enhancer. Its consumption is associated with several health problems, particularly obesity. Other disorders which could be induced by MSG include severe headaches, chest pains, asthma, diarrhea, and a lot more. But I would like to give more focus on the relation between MSG and obesity because it is a major health issue today especially in America. Two out of three American adults are either overweight or obese, and one out of two American children is either overweight or obese. Being obese could also result in having diabetes, hepatitis, high blood pressure, or heart disease among others. So what has MSG has to do with obesity? Monosodium Glutamate causes a condition in our body where the pancreas produces too much insulin. When insulin mixes with blood sugar it will result to body fat. Therefore, those who eat more MSG weigh more.
There was a study made sometime ago among 752 men and women in 3 villages in China. About 80 % of the people in those villages include MSG as ingredient in their cooking. The result of the study found out that one-third of the people who used the most MSG, where almost three times as likely to be overweight. The North Carolina University professor, Dr. Ka He, who led the research, says the study established an association not a casual relationship. He also mentioned that the study is a warning that we should be cautious.
For a bit of history, the process of making MSG was invented by a Japanese scientist in 1909, Dr. Ikeda. After acquiring a patent for his invention, he soon established the company Ajinomoto. The product was later introduced in America in 1948.
Today, the factory created food additive MSG is present in almost in every processed food in the supermarket. Sometimes you may not even know that the food you have purchased has MSG in it, although you are trying to avoid it because you already know the consequences of consuming it. You might need to have a degree in chemistry nowadays to understand most of the ingredients on every item on the supermarket shelves.

Quit Smoking, the most caring X'mas gift to your kids

We all already knew smoking is not good for the body, yet many people still would not kick the habit. It maybe because the temptation is too strong that they cannot resist the urge, especially when they are with their also smoker friends, or they just ignore the health warnings and enjoy what they are doing.
The consequences of smoking tobacco do not only take its toll on the smokers. The second-hand smoke they exhale and smoke from the tobacco itself hugely affects non-smokers as well. Just recently, a report was published on the British Medical Journal which says 600,000 people worldwide are killed every year by second-hand smoke. The study also found that 40% of children and 30% of non-smoking men and women breath-in second-hand smoke. The breakdown of deaths from passive smoking: 379,000 deaths from heart disease; 165,000 deaths from lower respiratory disease; 36,900 deaths from asthma and 21,400 deaths from lung cancer. According to Armando Peruga, a program manager at the World Health Organization and who led the study, the 165,000 people who died of smoke-related respiratory infection are children, mostly from Southeast Asia and Africa. These reports are alarming. The study also noted that children whose parents smoke have a higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome, ear infection, pneumonia, bronchitis and asthma. Their lungs may also grow more slowly than kids whose parents do not smoke.
The reports should make smokers realize that their continued puffing of cigars and cigarettes do not only put their lives in danger but also the lives of their own children. I know how hard it is to kick off the habit of smoking permanently. I myself was once hooked on cigarettes and had tried so many times to quit until I finally did it.
This coming Christmas there is no better way to give your kids a valuable gift which could preserve their health and yours too than by quitting smoke.