The substance is the flavor enhancer known as MSG, or monosodium glutamate. (The Food and Drug Administration admits that whether we call the substance MSG or monosodium glutamate, or even the chemical names, glutamic acid, L-glutamic acid, or simply glutamate, they’re all the same thing, so  I’ll refer to it simply as MSG.)

Using MSG allows food producers to cut down on quality; they can make up for the loss of flavor when they omit “real” ingredients by adding flavor “enhancers.” Our taste buds, and our brains, don’t notice the lack of real food-in fact, they’re being tricked into thinking the product is even tastier than it would have been without the tinkering.

Now, here’s the scary part: For decades, MSG has been used by medical researchers to cause brain damage, especially brain lesions, in young rats and mice, even in primates. Their work has shown that rats fed MSG from birth could not find their way through mazes as well as rats not fed MSG.

And for decades, MSG has been used by medical researchers to cause obesity in young laboratory animals.

In fact, those who have done extensive research on the MSG-obesity connection, such as Russell Blaylock, M.D., author of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, says our current childhood obesity epidemic mirrors exactly the MSG-induced obesity in experimental animals, noting that children (and adults) will crave foods that contain MSG over those without it. Dr. Blaylock wrote that there is “overwhelming evidence” that MSG causes not only childhood obesity but metabolic syndrome, as well.

Schools have a responsibility to keep our kids healthy by offering MSG free lunches and snack in schools. There are plenty of MSG free options that are on budget.

The fight against MSG needs to start here - if parents and school team up against it the giant food manufacturers like Kraft and Frito Lay will follow suit!