Glutamate is a neurotransmitter. MSG, or monosodium glutamate, is a common used flavour enhancer. Many of you may know the so called “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome”. Indeed, too much of it, some may feel dry mouth, others may have more uneasy feelings. It is just like lactose syndrome in some people who are no longer expressing lactase. However, the body information indicate that normal amount of glutamate is safe.

Glutamate is a highly abundant excitatory transmitter and is essential for learning and memory, and other brain function. A new study just published on Nature Medicine indicated that glutamate is important in the control of brain inflammation, MS. Scientists showed that when glutamate receptor mGluR4 was knocked out, the mice were markedly vulnerable to a model disease of human MS, with dominate inflammatory cells TH17 and reduced anti-IL-17 cytokine IL-27.

Glutamate was made from wheat gluten and seaweed historically, and now most produced from bacterial fermentation. As a matter of fact, fish soup and meat soup are good source of glutamate.