By Doris Obinna
Food experts have said food seasoning promotes healthy living by enhancing the flavour of food and reducing excessive salt consumption.
They stated that seasoning helps to reduce salt intake, identified as a precursor to hypertension because it is pure monosodium glutamate without salt or other impurities: “Food seasoning can be considered a healthier alternative to table salt, adding that it contains just one-third of the sodium.”
Speaking at the 12th Annual Symposium and Awards Ceremony of the Health Writers Association of Nigeria (HEWAN) held in Lagos recently, Corporate Communications Manager, Ajinomoto Foods, Francisca Ikediashi, said people should avoid excessive salt intake given its health adverse effects, affirming that AJI-NO-MOTO supports healthy meals.
Urging Nigerians to patronise the brand and ignore misinformation around it, Ikediashi pointed out that excessive salt consumption leads to hypertension, warning that hypertension is a major risk factor for heart failure, stroke and kidney disease which are currently on the rise in the country.
She said the safety of AJI-NO-MOTO MSG is guaranteed by many global authorities and as a result, consumers from over 100 countries across the world love to use it for their daily cooking.
Ikediashi said adulteration and lots of fake and cheap products in the markets are the problems the seasoning is facing and not safety issues.
A food biotechnology expert and Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Dutse (FUD), Jigawa State, Prof. Abdulkarim Muhammad, said: “What I can say from my side as a researcher is that this product has been extensively researched not only in Nigeria but in Asia and also in Europe because of the controversies.
“What the researchers found is that there is nothing to associate this particular product with any of the ill health that is being said to have caused.
“What you have in salt is just to enhance the taste of food but AJI-NO-MOTO is a neurotransmitter. MSG is used for a lot of electrical activities in your body. It is good for the brain.”
The researcher noted, “What we don’t want in food is anything that accumulates in your body. Salt does accumulate in your bloodstream which is why we have high blood pressure, etc. MSG is strictly used in the body; it doesn’t accumulate in the body. So, it is used up and it doesn’t accumulate like salt and so you don’t have any adverse effect or long-term effects considering this product.”
MD, Ajinomoto Foods, Mr. Noriyuki Ogushi, was conferred with an Award of Excellence by HEWAN at the event for his support for health journalism and the growth of the economy.
