You have probably noticed that we skipped Part 2 of this 4-part series. Unfortunately, the videos on You Tube were mismarked and we are still searching for Part 2! However, each of the videos can stand by themselves and the information is important to know.

This is a transcript of the above video. The original video was produced as a 4-part series by Christian Broadcast Network as was made available to the public via You Tube. All efforts have been made to accurately transcribe the videotape.

Pat Robertson: Well this is a series about something that appears in food all over our society. It’s in grocery stores, it’s in restaurants; almost everywhere you eat. It’s called monosodium glutamate or MSG. One of the most common food additives in America. In fact, it’s so common that most people in America don’t know they’re eating it. But this flavor booster is now being linked to cancer and heart disease. Here’s medical reporter Gailon Totheroh with Part 3 of our series on MSG.

Gailon Totheroh: Monosodium glutamate is adding flavor to your food but many researchers believe it’s also subtracting many years from your life. Jack Samuels wonders how he’s dodged the MSG bullet for nearly 30 years.

Jack Samuels: I began to collapse towards the end of certain meals in restaurants and frankly I thought I was dying.

Gailon Totheroh: And he could have. A physician diagnosed him with atrial fibrillation.

Jack Samuels: That is my heart becomes like Jell-O and just beats all over the place. And it sometimes takes me up to five or six days to get over the attack.

Gailon Totheroh: But how could MSG be responsible? Dr. Russell Blaylock says it’s because glutamate gets into the blood quickly and stays there. So a person eating MSG throughout the day can raise glutamate blood levels dangerously high.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD: With each meal, it rises, it stays elevated until you eat another meal, then it rises even further and you eat another meal and it rises even further and then it stays elevated through a good portion of the night.

Gailon Totheroh: Blaylock says even moderate blood levels of MSG can cause harm partly because specific organs have actual biological triggers called glutamate receptors. A group of these receptors in the heart controls heart rhythm.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD: You can induce a fatal arrhythmia, that is the heart beats abnormally, and people could die from it. Well, arrhythmia is the number one cause of death with heart attack. It’s been noted in the medical literature for decades that people who die of sudden cardiac death frequently do so after a meal.

Gailon Totheroh: And Samuels, a retired hospital administrator, says ER doctors…

Jack Samuels: …immediately recognize that it may have been an MSG reaction. Sadly, that knowledge has not gone up beyond the first floor.

Gailon Totheroh: In other words, most cardiologists don’t know about the connection to MSG. 2006 animal research shows that MSG damages blood vessels with substances known as free radicals that can lead to clogged, weak arteries and blood clots.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD: With humans consuming it everyday, not just a single injection but everyday, they’re constantly increasing the free radical generation inside the walls of their blood vessels.

Gailon Totheroh: That’s how most heart attacks and strokes come about. Research shows MSG attacks over 40% of the population in some obvious way: migraines, throat swelling, diarrhea, vomiting, irregular heartbeats. But what about the less obvious, even silent, damage?

Glutamate receptors on the lungs could explain the rising affliction of juvenile asthma.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD: This is one of the things agreed by everybody is that it will produce worsening of asthma, even fatal asthma.

Gailon Totheroh: And don’t forget the nasty plague of diabetes affecting tens of millions of Americans. There are glutamate receptors on the pancreas, which can lead to diabetes or loss of diabetic control once the disease is present.

Blaylock has also studied cancer extensively and written a book for cancer patients (Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients). In the last five years, researchers have found many cancers have glutamate receptors.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD: The total picture is that if you’re consuming a diet with glutamate in it, particularly high levels, you’re making your cancer grow very rapidly. I refer to it as cancer fertilizer.

Gailon Totheroh: The cancers of this type include several brain cancers, colon cancer, breast cancer, and others as well. For Samuels and others who are concerned about avoiding MSG’s impact on health, there is hope. As hard as navigating the grocery to avoid MSG is, safe shopping is doable if you read food labels carefully.

Gailon Totheroh, CBN News

Pat Robertson: Well if that doesn’t scare you I don’t know what will. Isn’t that horrible?

Anchorwoman: It’s exhausting, Pat, because as I’m watching this story, my brain is just spinning thinking what’s in my cabinet.

Pat Robertson: Well, what’s healthy? You want to have a nice healthy salad, right? Salads are good. So you want to get Hidden Valley Ranch Light Buttermilk…

Anchorwoman: I just bought that.

Pat Robertson: Would you mind reading the label, madam?

Anchorwoman: Alright.

Pat Robertson: Just read a few of those things.

Anchorwoman: Alright. Artificial flavors, something gum, then it says monosodium glutamate.

Pat Robertson: That’s MSG. It’s in your salad. And here’s something…

Anchorwoman: I just bought that.

Pat Robertson: Well you better throw it away. Here’s something. Ken’s Steakhouse Light Asian Sesame with Ginger and Soy. Doesn’t that sound delicious? 60% less fat, 40% fewer calories, and what does Ken put in his Asian Sesame sauce?

Anchorwoman: Monosodium glutamate.

Pat Robertson: The same.

Anchorwoman: And I’ve got that one in my fridge, too. Because I’m thinking I’m eating very healthy when I eat my salads so I have an array of salad dressings.

Pat Robertson: Well, here’s one. It sounds nice. Gerard’s Light Caesar Dressing. 50% less fat. Doesn’t that sound good?

Anchorwoman: It sounds luscious.

Pat Robertson: Alright. Tell me what it’s got in that.

Anchorwoman: I’m assuming…yeah…monosodium glutamate. MSG, MSG, and more MSG.

Pat Robertson: And here’s another one. Marzetti. Here’s one I never heard of. It’s Ranch Creamy with Buttermilk but it has…

Anchorwoman: Say it with me.

Pat Robertson: Monosodium Glutamate. I understand that there are a few but if you would like the Lone Ranger to come to the rescue tad a…

Anchorwoman: Olive oil. I can’t stand the taste of olive oil on my food, though.

Pat Robertson: You better start developing a taste. Put this in with it.

Anchorwoman: What is that?

Pat Robertson: It’s…

Anchorwoman: Vinegar? Vinegar and olive oil?

Pat Robertson: That’s it. It’s good for you.

Anchorwoman: It’s good for you but I…

Pat Robertson: It’s in my salad in my diet program.

Anchorwoman: You know what’s even better?

Pat Robertson: What’s that?

Anchorwoman: A little squeeze of lemon. Put some lemon on a salad and call it a day.

Pat Robertson: But the olive oil is so good for you. This is a very…

Anchorwoman: It’s very pure.

Pat Robertson: Extra virgin. Doesn’t it sound good? OK. That’s the good stuff. All this and practically everyone that you see…Now I understand that Paul Newman…Paul Newman has done so much. He gives away – he’s got about a 60 million dollar business and he gives all the profit away to charity.

Anchorwoman: Does he really? Wow.

Pat Robertson: Yeah, Newman’s Own and I’m told that they don’t put MSG in that. So we tip our hat to this outstanding actor. And he’s helping, not only charity, but he’s helping the American people. So if you can find Newman’s Own, use it on your salads but if you really want to make yourselves healthy, take about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar and it would be better.

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This is the second part of yesterday’s transcript and video, originally produced by Christian Broadcast Network and made public by You Tube. All efforts were made to be accurate.

Gailon Totheroh: That’s what happens with infant mice. After being fed MSG they show no signs of mental damage until they’re older and begin to fail at complex tasks. Bluntly put, they become stupid.

And humans are five times more sensitive to MSG than mice, infants even more so. Blaylock believes the entire education system suffers as a result, even the ability of students to get along with each other.

But what about MSG’s impact on brain afflictions in older adults? Blaylock says MSG may only be a contributing factor in starting brain diseases but it can definitely make major neurological afflictions worse.

Alzheimer’s disease; ALS, sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease; multiple sclerosis; strokes; Parkinson’s disease. They all involve excitotoxins doing harm.

Blaylock has written the only book on excitotoxins for the general public. He’s updated that information in a book on health and nutrition secrets. He says the key is staying away from MSG but that’s not as easy as it sounds.

Dr. David Buchholz, MD: It’s in all sorts of commercially processed food products that wouldn’t taste like much if they didn’t have this flavor enhancer added to them. And it’s not always labeled as MSG or monosodium glutamate. It’s labeled as hydrolyzed protein or natural flavors and you’d never suspect it.

Gailon Totheroh: But Strouss does suspect it. He and his wife have learned the names that hide MSG.

Terry Strouss: Learning how to do the grocery shopping, reading labels, knowing what types of food to choose, what types of food not to choose.

Gailon Totheroh: Of course, any ingredient with the word glutamate, plus aspartame, autolyzed yeast, broth, caseinate, hydrolyzed protein such as hydrolyzed soy. And for the public, Blaylock says there’s a simple truth: avoiding MSG could be the best thing you’ll ever do for your brain. And, he adds, don’t be surprised when medical organizations and government agencies defend MSG as safe. He says they simply don’t understand the complex vulnerability of the brain.

Gailon Totheroh, CBN News.

Pat Robertson: Ladies and gentlemen, we’re not here to scare you but we sure are here to warn you and Gailon is here with us. Gailon, this is an absolute horrible, frightening report.
Gailon Totheroh: It is and it’s much worse than we originally thought. Years ago we discussed these topics but the research is showing more and more problems, more and more areas of the body and so everyone is vulnerable in a sense.

Pat Robertson: Does MSG trigger an appetite response, where people want to eat more food if it’s flavored with MSG?

Gailon Totheroh: Yeah, it does. It’s basically a drug affect on the tongue. Not a true flavor, in a sense, so they do want to eat more and that’s partly due to the direct taste affect and also partly what it does to the brain.

Pat Robertson: Does the MSG make people fat directly or is it because it triggers more of a desire to eat food?

Gailon Totheroh: Well, it’s really a secondary affect. It’s partly the food and partly the hormones are messed up in the body, including leptin, and there’s been a lot of discussion about that.

Pat Robertson: Gailon, if a nursing mother, not the nursing mother but a pregnant woman, like, you think, Campbell’s – Campbell’s Chicken and Herbs. I mean, how safe and how wonderful could it be if you’re pregnant, to eat something like this?

Gailon Totheroh: It sounds just delightful on the surface but that baby, who’s very tiny, is getting a larger dose than the mother is getting.

Pat Robertson: And what the research – what Dr. Blaylock was saying, it starts out that you don’t notice it but a child gets to 8, 9, 10 years old, his brain isn’t functioning. He’s stupid?

Gailon Totheroh: That’s right. You don’t notice these things because the child isn’t faced with complex tasks. When they start speaking, when they start going to school – sometimes it’s that late before you notice. They can’t do these complex tasks as well or sometimes at all.

Pat Robertson: But the ADD, which is so prevalent today, they hit the kids with Ritalin and that’s supposed to be the answer. But is ADD caused by this, you think?

Gailon Totheroh: It’s part of the cause because it can cause miswiring of the brain from early on, from the womb in early age -

Pat Robertson: It’s awful.

Gailon Totheroh: – and beyond.

Pat Robertson: I held this up and we had a hard time with the Japanese. Agi-no-moto and monosodium glutamate and – what does that mean? Agi-no-moto?
Gailon Totheroh: The essence of taste. That’s the Japanese name for MSG and that’s the name of the company but this is made right here in the United States.

Pat Robertson: So they put this in everything, essentially.

Gailon Totheroh: Well, different forms of it. See, that’s the tricky part of it. Sometimes it’s added directly as this and then it’s labeled. You see monosodium glutamate. But it’s portions of autolyzed yeast extract and hydrolyzed protein and broth. It all sounds OK.

Pat Robertson: Broth?

Gailon Totheroh: It can but not always. See – that’s the – because the government hasn’t required the proper labeling so we don’t even know. So you’re going to taste that may harm you? Or you might say I’m going to avoid that product. Probably you’re going to say –

Pat Robertson: I mean, you have got to be a food detective to – well hydrolyzed protein sounds pretty benign.

Gailon Totheroh: It does. Well, we’re all supposed to get protein, right? We’re supposed to, maybe, lower our carbs and increase protein but unfortunately a lot of the proteins in all kinds of things – energy bars, etc – are all broken down proteins releasing this glutamate and related substances.

Pat Robertson: Well, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve been talking about Nutrasweet and what a devastating affect it has on memory and brain function. That’s another excitotoxin. But this thing is serious. I know that it’s a pain in the neck to look at the fine print on a box of Knorr’s Tomato and Basil soup that you add water to and you think “Isn’t this going to be wonderful?” and –

Gailon Totheroh: Well, people shouldn’t be discouraged because the fact is when I learned about this stuff we went through the grocery and sometimes there was two products, same thing next to each other, one did and one didn’t. So you just kind of develop your system. Once you have a system you can go through your grocery pretty safely.

Pat Robertson: I got all these things out of my own kitchen cabinet that my own sweet wife brought home and I think these are all destined for the garbage can. But, ladies and gentlemen, if enough consumers begin to object to this then the manufacturers will find some other way of making their food taste good.

We’ve got two more of these pieces coming up, Gailon.

Gailon Totheroh: Yes, we sure do. We’re going to talk about heart disease, sudden death heart attack included, and cancer. This stuff acts like fertilizer for cancer. And our final story then is how do you navigate all this.

Pat Robertson: Well, and things that go bump in the night. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got more information on MSG. You can get it by going to our website CBN.com

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This is a transcript of the above video. The original video was produced by Christian Broadcast Network as was made available to the public via You Tube. All efforts have been made to accurately transcribe the videotape.

Pat Robertson: What we’re going to show you is shocking. And Kristy, I’m going to ask you if – I don’t know if you’ve got your glasses – I have Knorr’s Cream of Spinach Soup in an interesting mix. I don’t know quite what the recipe makes. You mix it in with various things and it sounds so delicious. Would you read to me what is in there?

Kristy: Some of the ingredients?

Pat Robertson: Yeah.

Kristy: Alright. Hydrogenated soybean oil, maltrodoxatrin, chicken fat, monosodium glutamate –

Pat Robertson: You stop right there. And what is that, monosodium glutamate?

Kristy: Monosodium Glutamate –

Pat Robertson: MSG.

Kristy: Oh –

Pat Robertson: That’s what that is. Now that’s one type of soup. Here’s another type of soup. Tomato and basil. It just sounds wonderful. You can mix chicken and stuff with it and if you look at the label it also has –

Kristy: Monosodium glutamate?

Pat Robertson: You guessed it.

Kristy: MSG. This one really gets me because I don’t have any of these in my cabinet but I do have that.

Pat Robertson: Well this is reduced sodium. You know the sodium in soup for one serving is 870mg and would you kindly read that one?

Kristy: I’m scared.

Pat Robertson: That is Campbell’s.

Kristy: Well alright. We have salt – that’s funny because it’s reduced salt – yeast extract, sodium chloride, monosodium glutamate.
Pat Robertson: Campbell’s – you give this to your kids. They advertise it for children. It’s got MSG in it.

Kristy: Well, you know what gets me, Pat, is when I think of MSG I instantly think of Chinese food so if I stay away from Chinese food then I’m safe from MSG.

Pat Robertson: Well, I’ll show you what it looks like in its purest form. This has been sold since about 1909. Ajo-no-mor – it’s Japanese.

Kristy: What is it?

Pat Robertson: It’s monosodium glutamate and it says what you’re supposed to do with it, where you’re supposed to use it. You see all those things –

Kristy: Well, it’s in Chinese. I can’t read it.

Pat Robertson: What’s the matter with you? I’m sorry I thought you were a – no, just kidding.

But it’s for soups, it’s for chicken, it’s for various sauces and many restaurants put this stuff in. Now, when you were pregnant with your child –

Kristy: Yes –

Pat Robertson: Did you eat a lot of this soup?

Kristy: Well I can’t say yes or no because I can’t remember but I think I did – I don’t remember, which maybe means I did have the soup. But I’m serious, this is really really scary and we do not understand the impact of MSG.

Pat Robertson: From birth, the child in the womb, if the mother – pregnant mother – has a lot of MSG food – eats Chinese, eats this other stuff – the child will have permanent impairment of the brain according to some of these studies and will grow up, like 10 years old, stupid. Not to mention fat.

Well the federal government is supposed to warn us of potentially dangerous food additives but monosodium glutamate doesn’t come with a warning label, even though it could lead to migraines, memory loss, Alzheimer’s, and, what I was talking about, birth defects. ADD, etc.

In part 2 of our series on MSG, Gailon Totheroh looks at how this flavor booster could be damaging your brain.

Gailon Totheroh: Your diet could be your brain’s biggest enemy. Why? Consider this. Could the yogurt Granny eats send her into premature Alzheimer’s? Could your baby’s diet be putting him on a path toward Attention Deficit Disorder? Or could your daily soup slam you with migraines?

Dr. Russell Blaylock says all those outcomes are possible because of the flavor enhancer known as MSG. All of those afflictions happen to lab animals that consume monosodium glutamate and humans are much more sensitive, especially when consuming it over a lifetime.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD: Instead of just giving a few doses early in life, we give it throughout the entire life of the animal. When we do that, we see dramatic damage to that animal’s brain. Not just to the obesity centers but to centers that control memory, learning, social interaction, social control.

Gailon Totheroh: And pain. Terry Strouss was about 10 when the headaches began.

Terry Strouss: I started having severe migraine headaches. The pain was just unbearable. There were many many days where I would come home from school nauseous, sick. I would go straight to bed and just stay there til the next morning.

Gailon Totheroh: That trauma continued through his teen years with doctors suggesting he’d grow out of it. He didn’t. Eventually they put him on a drug. He could work but it was far from a normal life. Things began to change when he saw a news program on MSG causing migraines. He began avoiding anything he knew might contain MSG.

Terry Strouss: I noticed within a month that the headaches had subsided, that they were not there, that they were not as severe when I would get them later. My wife was amazed. She said, “You were right. We need to continue this.”

Gailon Strouss: Headache specialist Dr. David Buckholtz is certain MSG causes migraines for literally millions of people.

Dr. David Buckholtz: That’s exactly right. It’s an excitotoxin that turns on this headache mechanism that makes you hurt like heck.

Gailon Totheroh: An excitotoxin is any substance that overexcites its cells to the point of damage, acting as a toxin. There may be more to this public poison. MSG can directly worsen autism, ADD, and hyperactivity. MSG can cause the brain to be miswired, especially in the womb and the first few years of life. That damage to brain connections can mess up nearly any aspect of brain function, from the control of hormones to behavior and intelligence.

The second half of this video will be posted tomorrow with its transcript.

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