Absurd Food Myths and Rumors

[mbh]

“Margarine is one molecule away from being plastic.”

Maybe. So what? Alcohol is one ion away from petroleum. Water is one ion away from hydrochloric acid. In chemistry, that “one little thing” can make a vast difference.

[WhyNot]

@Senegoid

MSG certainly seems to cause some unpleasant reactions for some people, this poster included, at least in large doses (as allegedly used in some Chinese restaurants). I don’t know if those reactions are technically “allergic”, depending on just what “allergic” means technically.

When I was a child, we ate often at a certain Chinese restaurant, and I always had bad reactions there. It certainly wasn’t a psychosomatic thing because, at the time, I knew nothing about it. (I don’t remember if I had ever even heard of MSG at the time, but I certainly had never heard of it being a problem for anyone.) I always thought the problem was something else, but I never knew what.

The symptoms I get typically include rapid-onset digestive upset (cramps and diarrhea), and lightheadedness.

Ever get a headache from an Italian restaurant? There’s more glutamate, on average, in an Italian restaurant meal than a Chinese restaurant meal.

[According] to a report by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, a typical Chinese restaurant meal will have between 10-1500 mg glutamate per 100 g food. Soy sauce has 400-1200 mg/100g. Vegemite (for my Australian readers) has about 1400 mg/100g. Parmesan cheese has around 1200 mg/100g. Tomatoes have around 200 mg/100g. In other words, your typical Italian meal (with tomato sauce and Parmesan) may provide more glutamate than your typical Chinese meal.

Almost everyone you hear who claim an MSG sensitivity do not base that on anything but their personal experience. An anecdote. They remember the one time that they might have had MSG, but forget all the times they felt fine after having sushi with soy sauce. Or a BBQ sauce that contains soy sauce and tomato sauce.

Here’s the thing, though. Chinese Restaurant Syndrome (Headache, racing heart, sweats, numbness around the mouth, flushing, etc.) does exist. You didn’t make that up. It’s just not the MSG causing it. They don’t know what causes it, although incense commonly burned in Chinese restaurants has been blamed. So has the carbohydrate and fat laden food itself. Consider that there are not widespread reports of headaches from sushi or from Thai food, but there’s just as much MSG used there (more these days, as so many Chinese restaurants have been forced to go MSG free for marketing reasons.)

Scientists have been looking for a connection between Chinese Restaurant Syndrome and other health problems and MSG since 1969, and they can’t find one.

But is there any evidence that MSG is dangerous to humans? In a word, no.

“Despite a widespread belief that glutamate can elicit asthma, migraine headache and Chinese Restaurant Syndrome (CRS), there are no consistent clinical data to support this claim. In addition, findings from the literature indicate that there is no consistent evidence to suggest that individuals may be uniquely sensitive to glutamate.“
“This review prevents a critical review of the available literature related to the possible role of MSG in the so-called ‘Chinese restaurant syndrome’ and in eliciting asthmatic bronchospasm, urticaria, angio-oedema, and rhinitis. Despite concerns raised by early reports, decades of research have failed to demonstrate a clear and consistent relationship between MSG ingestion and the development of these conditions.“
“Despite a widespread belief that MSG can elicit a headache, among other symptoms, there are no consistent clinical data to support this claim. Findings from the literature indicate that there is no consistent evidence to suggest that individuals may be uniquely sensitive to MSG. Nurse practitioners should therefore concentrate their efforts on advising patients of the nutritional pitfalls of some Chinese restaurant meals and to seek more consistently documented etiologies for symptoms such as headache, xerostomia, or flushing.”
“The results suggest that large doses of MSG given without food may elicit more symptoms than a placebo in individuals who believe that they react adversely to MSG. However, the frequency of the responses was low and the responses reported were inconsistent and were not reproducible. The responses were not observed when MSG was given with food.”
MSG is not correlated with obesity in men. (Note: there is a lot of evidence that MSG causes weight gain in mice and rats, possibly because of a different metabolic pathways.)
As for the excitoxin nonsense associated with MSG, there is just no evidence that glutamate can cross the blood brain barrier, and there is no evidence that excessive consumption of MSG actually raises the blood levels of free glutamate.

These review articles, which are meta-analyses of a large number of primary research articles, along with clinical trials, just don’t support the myth that MSG has an effect on anyone. There might be a small subpopulation of people who are sensitive to MSG, but even that has minimal support in scientific evidence.

It is possible that Chinese food itself causes CRS. The food is saltier. It is filling. It can be high in carbohydrates and oils. In other words, other substances within the food may have the same exact effect as what is claimed by MSG alone. Funny thing is that soy sauce is higher in free glutamate (as discussed above, the form of MSG in solution) than what is used by most cooks. So are tomatoes. So are dozens of other foods.

MSG — one of the largest food myths being pushed

@Siam_Sam

I was taught MSG naturally occurs in your brain and that you cannot be allergic to something that’s already in you anyway. Feel free to debunk that if it turns out not to be the case.

Close. Glutamate is made by your body as part of the Krebs Cycle (remember that thing you learned for the biology test on cellular respiration and then forgot about 5 minutes later? Body making energy from food, breakdown of glucose, mitochondria, ATP? Yeah, that.) Monosodium glutamate is the salt form of glutamate. It stores and transports and it easier to use in cooking that way (or as a table condiment, as is commonly used in Japan.) The instant it dissolves in the water in your food or the spit in your mouth, you’re left with a bunch of sodium (although less sodium than an equal weight of salt) and a bunch of glutamate.

[kayaker]

@Martin_Hyde

The biggest example is in the prison system, where inmates are known to fake being Muslim or Jewish to get the halal/Kosher meals respectively.

Wait. How does one “fake” a belief? Aren’t you what you claim to be? Yesterday I was Jewish. Today I’m a Mormon! Are my claims falsifiable? :dubious:

[Antigen]

@mumma

Eating an orange is the same as eating a spoonful of sugar.

You’re right - it’s closer to three teaspoons (per USDA calculator for “large” orange: 17g sugar). It’s got fiber and all that other good stuff in it, though, so there’s no need to avoid oranges. Fruits are sweet. It’s kind of their thing.

[Mangetout]

@kayaker

Wait. How does one “fake” a belief? Aren’t you what you claim to be? Yesterday I was Jewish. Today I’m a Mormon! Are my claims falsifiable? :dubious:

Conversion to some religions - Islam in particular - isn’t a simple matter of just saying you’re one.

[aruvqan]

@FairyChatMom

She acted as if grammy was force-feeding pixie stix to the kid.

:eek::p:p:p:p

@Martin_Hyde

I’ve also found it true of hot dogs, Kosher hot dogs to me typically taste better than most alternatives, but that’s probably because they typically seem to be all beef.

It could also be the flavor profile - different subcultures have different flavor profiles that they prefer. Back when I worked in the food service industry on the supply side we had lists of brand equivalents sorted by flavor profile so we could sub in the correct dog if we were out of one brand or another. It effectively depended on the regionality of the packing house’s origin [Austrian, Bavarian, Northern German, Alsatian and jew/nonjew and how americanized the packer was.] If you search the hot dog based threads here, you will see it sort of changes flavor profile between northern New England [or Boston if you prefer] New York/Coney Island/Alsatian and Jewish, Cincinati, Chicago/German, Texas/Bavarian and Wisconsin/Minnesota/nordic based.

Me? Northern German/nonJewish =)

German version:

[ul]
[li]3 feet sheep or small (1-1/2-inch diameter) hog casings[/li][li]1 pound lean pork, cubed[/li][li]3/4 pound lean beef, cubed[/li][li]1/4 pound pork fat, cubed[/li][li]1/4 cup very finely minced onion[/li][li]1 small clove garlic, finely chopped[/li][li]1 teaspoon finely ground coriander[/li][li]1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram[/li][li]1/4 teaspoon ground mace[/li][li]1/2 teaspoon ground mustard seed[/li][li]1 teaspoon sweet paprika[/li][li]1 teaspoon freshly fine ground white pepper[/li][li]1 egg white[/li][li]1-1/2 teaspoons sugar[/li][li]1 teaspoon salt, or to taste[/li][li]1/4 cup milk[/li][/ul]
In a blender or food processor, make a puree of the onion, garlic, coriander, marjoram, mace, mustard seed, and paprika. Add the pepper, egg white, sugar, salt, and milk and mix thoroughly.

Grind the pork, beef, and fat cubes through the fine blade separately. Mix together and grind again. Mix the seasonings into the meat mixture with your hands. This tends to be a sticky procedure, so wet your hands with cold water first.

Chill the mixture for half an hour then put the mixture thorough the fine blade of the grinder once more. Stuff the casings and twist them off into six-inch links. Parboil the links (without separating them) in gently simmering water for 20 minutes. Place the franks in a bowl of ice water and chill thoroughly. Remove, pat dry, and refrigerate. Because they are precooked, they can be refrigerated for up to a week or they can be frozen.

Though I also like Hebrew National franks if I am buying commercially prepared ones somewhere other than my favorite butchers [Salem Meat here in CT.]

[lieu]

Here’s one; I’d always heard you don’t eat the distal end of the shrimp tail, like the 6th abdominal segment just before the telson. However, posters here say they’ve done so for years with no ill effects. So was this an absurd myth?

[bump]

@Siam_Sam

It’s widely believed in Thailand that consuming durian and whiskey together can cause death.

I think they probably just make you smell dead, inside and out.

[bump]

@Martin_Hyde

It is believed that acetaldehyde, which is metabolized from ethanol, probably plays a much bigger role in hangovers than formaldehyde metabolized from trace amounts of methanol.

My gut feeling is that it’s a combination of acetaldehyde and dehydration for 98% of the hangover, and 2% is due to methanol, fusel alcohols and other stuff produced by yeast or present in the original fermentables.

[kayaker]

@Mangetout

Conversion to some religions - Islam in particular - isn’t a simple matter of just saying you’re one.

[QUOTE=Wikipedia religious conversion]
A person is considered to have converted to Islam from the moment he or she sincerely makes this declaration of faith, called the shahadah.
[/QUOTE]

Done. I’m a Muslim.

[Mangetout]

@kayaker

Done. I’m a Muslim.

And if you are not sincere in that assertion, you’re faking it. That is pretty much the definition of faking something. Difficulty of detecting whether or not you are sincere is irrelevant.

[Shodan]

@kayaker

Done. I’m a Muslim.

Congratulations - now we hate you, you terrorist.

Regards,
Shodan

[kayaker]

@Mangetout

And if you are not sincere in that assertion, you’re faking it. That is pretty much the definition of faking something. Difficulty of detecting whether or not you are sincere is irrelevant.

As-salamu alaykum, now gimme my halal meal, you religious oppressor!

/hijack, apologies.

[Martin_Hyde]

I’m not religious, if I just say I’m Jewish to get a kosher meal in prison I’m faking it. So yes, it’s 100% possible to fake being Jewish or Muslim. There is a difference between whether or not something can actually be faked and whether or not something can successfully be proven as faked.

[Quercus]

@kayaker

Wait. How does one “fake” a belief? Aren’t you what you claim to be? Yesterday I was Jewish. Today I’m a Mormon! Are my claims falsifiable? :dubious:

Well, maybe not 100% falsifiable to the extent that some other claims are, but if you have no Jewish relatives, were not raised as a Jew, do not go to Temple, observe the Sabbath or any other Jewish Holidays, do not put up mezzuzahs, do not eat Kosher (except in prison), and do not study Jewish religion, then I’d agree your claim to be Jewish is false.

[Siam_Sam]

@kayaker

Done. I’m a Muslim.

Mayhaps you missed the part about “sincerely.”

Lots of evangelists are faking it too, I’d wager.

[kayaker]

@Siam_Sam

Mayhaps you missed the part about “sincerely.”

Now my sincerity is being questioned. Ohhh the sting of religious persecution.

[Siam_Sam]

Come and see the inherent in the system! Help! Help! I’m being repressed!!

[Labrador_Deceiver]

You edited that and still missed the omitted word?

[QuickSilver]

@WhyNot

Myths:

Mushrooms can’t be washed or soaked in water, 'cause they absorb water like a sponge. You have to wipe them one by one with a damp paper towel or an $18 mushroom brush.

Searing meat seals in the juices and gives you a juicier steak/stew meat.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is even worse for you than regular sugar, but honey/agave syrup are good for you.

Cook your beans without salt or tomatoes, because salt and acid will prevent the beans from absorbing water and softening.

(Properly) deep fried food has tons of fat.

Fruit juice is a nutritious beverage, and a good way to get a serving of fruit.

Raw and fresh vegetables are healthier than frozen and/or cooked vegetables.

MSG causes headaches and/or lots of people are allergic to MSG.

Adding salt makes water boil faster.

Whipping cream and heavy cream are the same thing.

If your food is too salty, add a raw potato and simmer - it will absorb all the extra salt.

Kosher and halal meat are better quality than regular meat.

Alton? Alton Brown?? Welcome to the boards!