Interesting although I don’t believe it’s the only cause. During my last trip back to the UK a few years ago I was amazed how many children/young adults (sub 20) were overweight. It’s possibly because they are often raised on processed foods with MSG.

When we were “animals” our weight was pretty much self-regulating as fat animals don’t catch / source as much food. Nowadays we don’t have to expend much energy in our daily lives but still like to eat. MSG appears to make the desire to eat even greater. As we get older our muscle mass reduces and we burn even less calories – hence the fat in the later years. We end up with a positive balance of calories and store it as fat (1 kg of Fat = 7600 cals). Burning a few hundred cals per day more than you eat is the key to losing weight. Too great a calorie deficiet is not sustainable / healthy – another reason why so many diets fail.

What would be on the food labels here?
Mononatriumglutamat ?
Any other German names for it?

The name for MSG in German is Natrium Glutamat, or in umbrella term is Geschmacksverstaerker.
Nowadays you can find MSG in almost every pack of stock, ready made sauces, soups, etc.
I have intolerance against MSG and suffer from various symptoms like dizziness, jaw /
throat tightness, dry mouth, urticaria on the palate when I eat foods containing this substance.
Unfortunately quite a number of restaurants in Austria use sauces (products from Maggi, Knorr, etc) containing MSG for their dishes 😥 so it is not so easy to avoid the Natrium Glutamat if you often go eating out.