- LONDON (Reuters) - High levels
of a flavor enhancer common in oriental and processed food can cause serious
eye damage and blindness in rats and possibly humans.
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- Scientists at Hirosaki University in Japan said rats
fed a diet high in monosodium glutamate, or MSG, suffered vision problems
and had thinner retinas than other animals.
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- Glutamate has already been shown to cause nerve damage
when it is directly injected into the eye but Hiroshi Ohguro, who led the
research team, said their study is the first to show that eating foods
containing high levels of MSG can cause eye damage.
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- "Lesser amounts should be OK," he told New
Scientist magazine Wednesday, "but the precise borderline amount is
still unknown."
-
- Ohguro believes his findings, which were reported in
the journal Experimental Eye Research, could explain why there is a high
rate of a particular type of glaucoma in eastern Asia but it could also
be due to genetics.
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- Glutamate is a neurotransmitter, or message-carrying
chemical. Ohguro and his team found high levels of MSG in fluid that bathes
the retina in the rats. They think it reduces sight by destroys some retina
cells and damaging others.
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- The scientists fed rats three diets containing different
levels of MSG. Rats which had the high and moderate levels of MSG had eye
damage.
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- The amount of MSG given to rats is much higher than people
would normally consume, according to Peng Tee Khaw, an eye expert at Moorfields
Eye Hospital in London.
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- "But if you're a sodium glutamate junkie, then you
could potentially run into problems with your retina," he said.
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