So do we need a flavor enhancer

Rare housewife cooks without the use of spices and seasonings, greatly improving the natural taste of the dish. Sweet pepper, bay leaf, ginger and coriander ... these are "tasty", familiar from childhood names. Recently the list has replenished with an unusual chemical substance - sodium glutamate. Call it a spice in the full sense of the word can not, however, its impact on the food industry is colossal.

Why does one product seem more delicious than the other? The answer is simple: it's all about the ability of the components of a dish to affect the taste receptors of the papillae of the human tongue. The more intense this effect is, the brighter and more saturated the taste. For example, the composition of ordinary garlic includes a natural flavor enhancer. The highest concentration of this substance in fresh products, and then it gradually falls. Having understood the mechanism, many researchers have made every effort to find an artificial substitute, and one day it was found. He was an e621 taste enhancer, which is one of a whole list (600-699) of registered food supplements.

The history of sodium glutamate began in 1907, when a compound of glutamic acid and monosodium was synthesized at the University of Tokyo. This substance is involved in the process of impulse transmission by the nervous system, causing an excited state and being prescribed as a stimulant to some patients in psychiatry. The medicine is a medicine, but with its salt, called "taste enhancer", everything is much more complicated.

Physically, sodium glutamate is a readily soluble in water white or yellowish powder without taste and odor, but when added to food, it enhances its taste, irritating the receptors of the tongue. This means that in the production of meat dishes you can use very little meat, and the rest of the volume replaced with soy protein or even cheaper analogue and add a taste enhancer. A person who uses a similar product will be delighted with a rich meaty aroma. Thus, it is possible to impart a "second life" to even frankly poor-quality food. In fact, the modern food industry is impossible without it.

Currently, flavor enhancers are produced in quantities of over 200,000 tons per year. Sausage products, convenience foods, chips, crunches, small dried fish - that's far from a complete list of foods flavored with such substances. It would Seem, use the amp of taste and enjoy the new rich taste of habitual food. However, more and more authoritative scientists after conducting a series of experiments with laboratory rats, declare a possible danger. Glutamate sodium for daily use of more than 3 grams is considered dangerous. The researchers argue that this substance is not completely excreted from the body, but gradually accumulates in the tissues of the body and liver, subsequently causing serious health problems. The Japanese H. Oguro, who studied the question for a long time, came to the conclusion that the use of taste enhancers several times increases the likelihood of future problems with vision and opacification of the retina. Although the debates about the harm of such an additive have been in progress for a long time, it is proved that its use leads to addiction, and the natural taste of food seems to man to be insipid

Tourists, deceived by Chinese or Korean cuisine, probably after a visit to the restaurant experienced dizziness, nausea and general malaise. This is not surprising, because almost all dishes are added a large amount of sodium glutamate. In some Korean restaurants, a yellowish powder is served on the table in the same way as salt. For indigenous people, the high norms of the taste enhancer are familiar, because they absorbed the substance with the mother's milk.

Sharply increased in recent decades, the number of diseases can be associated, in particular, with the taste enhancers to which humanity is so used. Is it time to limit the use of harmful additives and carefully choose products?