5 ms·

> there are people that legitimately have a glutamate allergy Glutamate is an amino aid and a neurotransmitter, your body produces it. Per [1], "It is used by

by kop316 7y ago

> there are people that legitimately have a glutamate allergy Glutamate is an amino aid and a neurotransmitter, your body produces it. Per [1], "It is used by every major excitatory function in the vertebrate brain, accounting in total for well over 90% of the synaptic connections in the human brain." Per [2], "Glutamate itself is ubiquitous in biological life." I don't legitimately see how someone can have an allergy to it. It seems to be a basic building block of biological life. It's like saying you are allergic to DNA. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamic_acid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamic_acid [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamate_(neurotransmitter) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamate_(neurotransmitter) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamate_flavoring#Natural_occurrence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamate_flavoring#Natural_oc...

buran77 7y ago
My throat burns when I eat more than just a dash. I wasn't diagnosed with an allergy though. So YMMV.
akiselev 7y ago
Just because the human body produces small quantities of it at a time doesn't mean that you can flood the digestive tract with orders of magnitude more and expect no ill effect.
- kop316 7y ago
  An amino acid is a building block for proteins. It isn't something you produce small quantities of, it's a basic component of how organic life is made. I say that to say you make a lot of them. And you eat a lot of them whenever you eat organic matter. And to your point, even water can be deadly if you drink too much too fast. That doesn't mean you have a water allergy.
  - akiselev 7y ago
    Monosodium glutamate is a salt not an amino acid. It does not disassociate perfectly (or instantly) in the gut and uptake through the digestive system is slow [1]. There are several steps before your metabolic system can turn MSG into amino acids and surprise, surprise: until then it behaves like a different chemical. [1] https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Monosodium-glutamate https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Monosodium-glutama...
    - kop316 7y ago
      The first sentence in Section 10.2 (Absorption, Distribution and Excretion): "Glutamate is absorbed from the gut by an active transport system specific for amino acids." I'm not convinced you read what you just cited.

by kop316 7y ago

buran77 7y ago

My throat burns when I eat more than just a dash. I wasn't diagnosed with an allergy though. So YMMV.

akiselev 7y ago

Just because the human body produces small quantities of it at a time doesn't mean that you can flood the digestive tract with orders of magnitude more and expect no ill effect.

kop316 7y ago
An amino acid is a building block for proteins. It isn't something you produce small quantities of, it's a basic component of how organic life is made. I say that to say you make a lot of them. And you eat a lot of them whenever you eat organic matter. And to your point, even water can be deadly if you drink too much too fast. That doesn't mean you have a water allergy.
- akiselev 7y ago
  Monosodium glutamate is a salt not an amino acid. It does not disassociate perfectly (or instantly) in the gut and uptake through the digestive system is slow [1]. There are several steps before your metabolic system can turn MSG into amino acids and surprise, surprise: until then it behaves like a different chemical. [1] https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Monosodium-glutamate https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Monosodium-glutama...
  - kop316 7y ago
    The first sentence in Section 10.2 (Absorption, Distribution and Excretion): "Glutamate is absorbed from the gut by an active transport system specific for amino acids." I'm not convinced you read what you just cited.