If you’re looking for a really scary sci-fi movie to ‘spook up’ your Halloween entertainment, I’d recommend a black-and-white flick from the late 1950s called “Fiend without a Face.”

It’s all about a scientist’s creation of “living thought projections” that become accidentally enhanced by radiation, resulting in invisible monsters that go around eating people’s brains.

While that film may be a bit hard to find these days, the same can’t be said for the invisible brain-eating substance lurking in some Halloween treats, as well as many other snack items – in fact, all kinds of processed food products.

It’s the “flavor enhancer” known as monosodium glutamate, or MSG. (one that’s on the 125 unwanted ingredients, or “No-No’s” in Wild Oats products).

And I’m not making up the part about eating people’s brains.  MSG is what some neuroscientists call an “excitotoxin” – a substance that destroys certain brain cells by literally exciting them to death. And kids, who don’t yet have a fully formed blood-brain barrier, can be especially sensitive to its effects, as well as older folks whose barrier may have been compromised.

But what MSG might do to your brain is only one of the reasons why you want to steer clear of the many foods containing this atrocious additive. Here are some more scary reasons, and why you want to make sure it’s out of your family’s diet.

• MSG can cause some very nasty gastrointestinal problems, including vomiting and other things that will necessitate frequent trips to the bathroom.
• It can result in tightness or pain in the chest, shortness of breath and asthma attacks (if you’re prone to them);
• It can put some people in the ER with things like atrial fibrillation, arrhythmia, palpitations or rapid heartbeat, and fluctuations in blood pressure;
• MSG can bring on all kinds of neurological problems, ranging from migraines and dizziness to panic attacks, disorientation and depression.

With a “rap sheet” of reactions that horrific, you’d think that food manufacturers would be going out of their way to avoid the presence of this insidious ingredient. But it’s a cheap, easy way to make food products seem to have flavor that’s really not there – because of the diabolical way it fools our brains and taste buds.

But you don’t have to be tricked into allowing this frightful fiend into your food. There are plenty of healthy foods, soups, and snacks you can enjoy that won’t spoil your day by putting you into a funk, into a panic or maybe even in the ER.

Or by slowly eating your brain.