This flavor enhancer worsens Acid Reflux 39.9%

Glutamate isn’t just a flavor enhancer found in your favorite snacks and restaurant meals.

It’s also a key chemical messenger in your body that helps your nervous system function.

Since your digestive system is closely connected to your nervous system, the authors of this study – publishing in Frontiers in Immunology – suspected that glutamate might play a role in digestive issues like acid reflux.

To find out, they conducted a genetic study, rather than simply observing people’s diets and health outcomes.

First, they gathered genetic information about 20 different amino acids from thousands of people.

This data showed how much of each amino acid was present in their bloodstreams based on their genetic makeup.

Then, they looked at acid reflux data from two massive databases: one from Finland with 28,859 patients and 350,064 healthy controls, and another from the UK with 29,975 patients and 390,556 controls.

The researchers used advanced statistical methods to determine whether genetic variations that affect amino acid levels could predict who would develop acid reflux.

Here’s what the numbers revealed:

1. In the Finnish database, people with higher glutamate levels had a 17.5% increased risk of developing acid reflux.

2. In the UK database, the risk was even higher, at 39.9%.

3. When both studies were combined, higher glutamate levels were linked to a 22.7% increase in reflux risk overall.

4. Of all 20 amino acids tested, glutamate was the only one that consistently increased reflux risk in both databases.

5. The researchers also performed a reverse analysis to test whether acid reflux might be causing elevated glutamate levels. They found no evidence of that — supporting glutamate as a likely cause, not an effect.

From this, they concluded that glutamate may increase the risk of developing acid reflux and may worsen its progression.

Since glutamate is naturally present in many healthy foods you should eat — like dairy, tomatoes, soy sauce, fish, and mushrooms — it’s better to reduce or eliminate added glutamate instead.

This means cutting back on processed foods, restaurant meals, and anything with monosodium glutamate (MSG) on the label.

But it’s also possible to eliminate acid reflux for good.

Here are the exact steps thousands of readers have used to rid themselves of acid reflux permanently…