I'm a self proclaimed vietnamese food addict. I try a lot of different restaurants, and I tend to eat pho once or even twice a week. I was under the impression that the food was fairly good for you as it's full of healthy spices, but I recently learned that MSG happens to be a more integral part to the dish than I had imagined. After having not eaten any vietnamese food for a week, or really any asian food (fried rice, sauteed vegetable dishes, etc.), I noticed that my chest and back acne have started to heal. I don't know for sure if this is the cause, but I'm starting to connect the dots - I have been eating lots of asian food for the last couple of years, which also coincides with the start of my body acne.
Interestingly enough, after using Retin A on my face, I don't seem to get many bad breakouts on my face. When I say that I have body acne, I am talking about large, painful cysts combined with whiteheads all along the center of my chest. I happen to practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu very often, and wear tighter polyester clothing, which certainly does not help my situation, but I feel as though my breakouts are rapidly disappearing after being more conscious of my diet by staying away from MSG. It's hard to stay away from all of it in college, without a kitchen, though I try my best. The only thing that helps my skin besides possibly staying away from MSG happens to be sunlight, which could be why my face does not break out anymore; however, my chest and back are covered in the winter.
Any other information from people who may have a sensitivity to MSG? My mother has Rosacea and claims that since she has cut back on MSG almost entirely, her face is starting to clear up quite a bit, and her breakouts coincide with eating foods high in MSG.
I don't know about its relation to acne, but MSG is not something you want to ingest--for any reason--acne or not. It has many awful side-effects. It's great that you realized you were having a reaction to it and can now stay away from it. There are some Asian restaurants that are aware of its harmful effects, so you might call around and see if you can find some that don't use it in their recipes. Of course, I wouldn't fully take someone's word for it, so definitely monitor how your body reacts!
It's another day into avoiding as many products as I can with MSG and related products (yeast extract, autolyzed proteins, etc.), and I've noticed that not only are there no new breakouts, but the sores themselves that were particularly inflamed are fading quicker than before. It's pretty exciting that every time I look in the mirror, something is healing or completely flattening/not nearly as red as it was before. So far it's a little bit past the 1 week mark of having much less MSG in my diet.
Good for you! I honestly don't know why MSG is still allowed, it's an excitotoxin, why add it to food? Since you've been eating lots of asian foods, you may also want to look into soy.
Interestingly enough, I was told I have a mild soy allergy when I was a kid. I generally didn't see any problems after eating soy, but who knows, that could be something contributing to my acne all these years. It's hard to avoid it in college like I've been saying, but next year I'll probably have an apartment, and I plan on mostly eating homemade food with lots of rice, vegetables and fruits. It's disgusting, the more I look up about MSG, how horrible it is for one's body. I'm looking forward to being able to wear a V-neck again without worrying about my acne if this is the main problem.
Either way, I will keep updated often if I can, as this has been an ongoing problem of mine since my early teenage years. In fact, I first found this website in 8th grade, and had an account, but since forgot the login information. Hopefully this could be a solution to my particular problem and of course many other people's acne issues as well.
It had probably been about 2 weeks since I consumed a large meal containing MSG. The results are about the same - gradual improvement and very small, insignificant breakouts (mostly caused, I believe, by irritation from the clothing worn in Jiu-Jitsu and the nature of the sport) that really have almost stopped entirely on my chest. This is one of the few times in probably two years that my skin is noticeably clearing up on my chest - I believe MSG really was one of the biggest causes of my body acne.
Oddly enough, I always considered my diet fairly clean. I would avoid fast food for the most part, checked ingredients frequently and tried to eat a balanced diet - it wasn't until recently that I realized MSG is disguised by many, many different names, and even when you see a product that claims it does not contain MSG, it may very well contain free glutamic acid. The list of names can be found here: http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html
When I select my food, I'm now starting to look out especially for "yeast extract", "hydrolyzed protein" and "gelatin", as this all contains free glutamic acid. It's disgusting just how horrible this stuff is for your body, and I believe it can be a huge acne causing agent as well. I hope this helps somebody besides myself.
Dean,
Thank you for sharing that website! My sister and I were talking just the other day about how MSG is "hidden" in so many things, and I was wanting to know more about that - great list and website.
Absolutely! If you want, this website is pretty good too: http://www.msgexposed.com/
It's more of a blog type website that's updated with some various popular restaurants and what have you, and even if you aren't a fast food eater, it's still worth a read. As it turns out, I can actually still eat Subway (that's a lifesaver for my freshman year of college) as long as I pick and choose the correct toppings...they use MSG in ham, but not in turkey, and certain fresh vegetables are not pickled, nor do they contain nitrates, nitrites or MSG/autolyzed yeast/hydrolyzed proteins. Until I get a kitchen, that's the best I can really do.
This is interesting. As I live in an asian country, the food in general here usually has MSG in it be it restaurants or street food. Most canned foods have them as well as far as I know. Its in almost everything unless you use all natural organic ingredients to cook. Even then, some soy sauces have MSG as well.
This is interesting. As I live in an asian country, the food in general here usually has MSG in it be it restaurants or street food. Most canned foods have them as well as far as I know. Its in almost everything unless you use all natural organic ingredients to cook. Even then, some soy sauces have MSG as well.
I imagine it's incredibly difficult to find food without MSG then! I definitely recommend not eating any large meals full of MSG and just eating simple, whole foods or to make your own food for even a short week. It's possible you'll see a slight difference in a short time if you try it. I'm pretty amazed that for the most part, my chest is clearing up (besides the scars 
) and that the area is much, much less sore than it was. Unfortunately I think the MSG problem spans a lot of countries at this point, it seems to be in everything.
I thought I'd post here again to update everybody on what's going on. Unfortunately, my body acne has not been cured, but I think that it is strongly linked to consumption of glutamic acid; however, my breakouts have become much less sore and tend to occur shortly (meaning a day or two) after I eat something that contains a high amount of glutamic acid. Cutting out the majority of processed glutamic acid is incredibly difficult, but I think that this is a large trigger for me, but it may not be the only trigger I currently face.
I recently started taking showers that were much shorter in order to reduce the amount of irritation on my skin - I found that this has actually reduced my breakouts significantly as well and caused my skin to be much less red during a breakout. It's all fairly basic stuff, but definitely something I'm looking into more and more. I will get back to you all with more information on how things are going as soon as I can. Another thing I am trying is drinking large amounts of orange juice (not from concentrate, organic OJ of course! ) during the day. Orange juice and citrus fruits can irritate some people, but I also read in multiple places that large doses of vitamin C actually dilute the effects of MSG in the body. Whether or not this is true, vitamin C is great for building collagen and keeping skin healthy as well as boosting one's immune system, so I'm going to try it. So far, I haven't really noticed any breakouts that I can reliably link to orange juice, but are probably linked to having eaten something else.
I recently started taking showers that were much shorter in order to reduce the amount of irritation on my skin - I found that this has actually reduced my breakouts significantly as well and caused my skin to be much less red during a breakout. It's all fairly basic stuff, but definitely something I'm looking into more and more. I will get back to you all with more
You should see this thread about irritation-prone skin: http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/topic/314390-acne-prone-skinsebum-deficient-in-linoleic-acid-possible-topical-solution/
Also, there are other, better sources of vitamin C. Especially than drinking high GI orange juice throughout the day.
Stop eating processed food and you won't have to worry about this stuff at all anymore. Unless you create natural MSG from heating the food up too much... (avoided by eating mostly raw)
I know, it's really hard for me to avoid considering I'm on a weight-gain diet right now. I don't really eat processed foods as it is, nor do I use processed condiments (the only hot sauce I use is McIlhenny's Tabasco, which contains some distilled vinegar - I simply cannot avoid it all), but there's always something that pops up that may contain the odd source of glutamate here or there. Attempting to eat 3000+ calories a day is fairly difficult between class, being on the mats during jiu-jitsu and trying to avoid MSG. As a disclaimer, no, I do not take any supplements for weight gain.
I wanted to revive this thread - I have had quite a bit of success in healing part of my acne from eliminating processed foods - however, I have noticed that my skin is basically extremely sensitive to processed foods now and it's so extremely difficult to stay away from anything processed - I can't go to delis and get a gyro now and then, I have to buy extremely expensive food, make everything on my own, etc. It's time consuming and expensive and albeit healthy, there are so many restrictions considering that I can't eat dairy/use supplements and need a high calorie diet as I am in the midst of working towards becoming a semi-professional athlete - does anybody else have any idea as to what may be causing my chest acne? It always recurs at the same spot, low on my chest between my two pecs and it tends to progress upward toward my neck if the breakout gets particularly bad. I find it very odd that there is somewhat of a pattern to this, the acne almost always occurring in the same spot. If you have a guess, throw it out here, because I'm open to anything. I just want to be completely clear once and for all.