I'm thinking of submitting the following as a "letter to the editor"- not
sure where. Ideas?

Maddy Mason
Hudson Valley, NY

By now nearly everyone has heard about the gentleman suing the fast food
giants for being responsible for his obesity, claiming he didn't know that
fast foods were unhealthy and fattening. (If anyone wants the links to this
story, email me privately. Including links with my post apparently screws up
the format.)

When I first heard about this lawsuit, I just blinked, and thought, "I have
to ponder over this one." Well, maybe I'm just getting old, and it's taking
me longer to think, but now I am truly astounded that this is even happening.
Given Americans' predilection to sue, sue, SUE, perhaps I shouldn't be so
surprised. Right now it seems ludicrous, but that's because I'm simply
assuming this nonsense is just going to get tossed out of court. Egads! What
if this fat guys actually WINS? The take-home message will be:

"No American has to take any responsibility for any action anymore; just
blame someone else! And, worse, you can SUE, and get lots of money for your
misguided behavior!"

Everybody old enough to buy his own maxi-burger, super fries and quart-sized
soda pop to wash it all down should know that this food is fattening. Some
say it's the fat, some argue it's the carbohydrates, and some insist it is
only the calories that count, regardless of its composition. But what really
angers me is the one ingredient hardly anyone talks about, and few are even
distantly aware of- and that is MSG and its derivatives.

I am an "MSG responder." That is to say, I get migraine headaches if I eat
foods laced with this excitotoxin- sometimes. And therein lies the rub. By
some estimates, at least 25% of Americans are sensitive to this additive, but
the amount it takes to set off a reaction varies greatly among individuals,
and is not even consistent in the same person from one exposure to another.
But what IS consistent is the sheer number of foods "enhanced" with MSG and
the reason it is there.

Nearly everyone thinks of MSG as being used exclusively in Chinese food, and
many of us go to Chinese restaurants, telling the waiter "No MSG please!" In
recent years I have been repeatedly assured, "We don't use MSG in any of our
food anymore." Not true, claim the folks from the organization, NOMSG
(National Organization Mobilized to Stop Glutamate). It seems this hidden
taste enhancer appears to some degree in virtually every processed food you
didn't grow in your own back yard.

With the awareness many people have about how nasty MSG is, food
manufacturers have found very sneaky ways to get it into their foods without
having to list it as an ingredient. Again, according to NOMSG, the following
foods and additives can actually contain enough MSG to be known as common
MSG-reaction triggers:

Calcium caseinate, whey protein isolate, vegetable gums, natural flavors and
flavorings, soy sauces and extracts, gelatin, autolyzed yeast, broths, malt
extract or flavoring, anything hydrolyzed, enzyme modified, fermented,
protein fortified, or ultra-pasteurized.

These are just a few; there are many others. I had to go to a health food
store to finally locate a single brand of unsalted butter that did not
contain added "natural flavors". Just as the nicotine in cigarettes gets you
hooked and coming back for more, MSG enhances the flavors of foods, which
makes you eat more, and want more. No one knows quite how it works, but every
food manufacturer knows that it DOES work, and works exceedingly well.

Nobody is getting fat chowing down on celery or hard boiled eggs or
grapefruit! We get fat because we overeat foods that tickle our taste buds
with sugar, salt, fake fats, and taste enhancers that we don't even know are
in our foods. Some blame the "supersizing" of portions in restaurants and
packaged foods. This is part of the problem, but this has happened because we
American food addicts demand larger and larger portions. Why? Because the
increasingly addictive taste of these foods gets us hooked. It's a vicious
cycle.

Yes, I believe there SHOULD be a major lawsuit, but not to win money. There
should be a lawsuit against all food manufacturers, to force them to disclose
the inclusion of MSG and its derivatives on the labels of every food sold in
stores or restaurants. AND, there should be a statement on the container such
as we now see on cigarette packages, indicating that the food contains a form
of MSG, and warning that it may cause adverse reactions in certain people.
Since virtually every processed food contains this additive, I cannot imagine
that an honest label would have any serious impact on the incomes of the food
giants, but it would go a long way towards protecting the rights of those
wishing to avoid the consumption of MSG.

We Americans should start taking responsibility for our own actions, but we
should also have the right to the full disclosure of ingredients on food
labels in stores and restaurants, so we can make educated choices about the
foods we consume.