[InSteady]

That is interesting about the manganese and glutamate-to-glutamine angle, although it's worth noting that manganese in foods has very poor bioavailability:

Humans absorb only about 1% to 5% of dietary manganese. Infants and children tend to absorb greater amounts of manganese than adults. In addition, manganese absorption efficiency increases with low manganese intakes and decreases with higher intakes

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Manganese-HealthProfession...

Another interesting tidbit from the links you provide, 90% of glutamine synthesis happens in muscle cells (from glutamate and ammonia). So in theory, building more muscle mass (while getting adequate dietary glutamine and glutamate) be beneficial for regulating glutamine-to-glutamate ratios. Although it doesn't look like this has been studied specifically as of yet.

On the other hand, over-training and extreme endurance training without proper protein intake leads to depletion of circulating glutamine levels. It is suggested that depleted glutamine may be the cause of increased risks of infection and chronic fatigue during periods of over-training (even in elite athletes).

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9562160/

[westurner]

TIL there are vegan sources of MSG, and that peas, tomatoes, and processed meats have high amounts of glutamate: https://www.webmd.com/diet/high-glutamate-foods

Muscles burn Lactic Acid before they burn glucose.

FWIU LAB Lactic Acid Bacteria use Glutamate to control pH by GABA production.

And GABA, well https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%93-Aminobutyric_acid :

> [GABA] is the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter in the developmentally mature mammalian central nervous system. Its principal role is reducing neuronal excitability throughout the nervous system.

So, IIUC, when you feed LAB glutamate, you get GABA?