# Does MSG work by harming the tongue? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 3, 2000, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-msg-work-by-harming-the-tongue/27912 "2000-08-03T00:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-msg-work-by-harming-the-tongue/27912/1 "2000-08-03T00:00:00Z")
According to the mailbag article at [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mumami.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mumami.html), a taste receptor specifically for monosodium glutamate (MSG) was discovered in 1996. However, what I heard when I was growing up was that MSG worked by _stripping off a very thin layer on the top of the tongue_, thereby exposing more nerve endings. Supposedly, MSG was still regarded as “safe” because the tongue heals quickly. Is there any truth to this rumor? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-msg-work-by-harming-the-tongue/27912/2 "2000-08-03T02:22:33Z")
Well, FWIW, the FDA doesn’t say anything about it affecting the surface of your tongue. [http://www.fda.gov/opacom/backgrounders/msg.html](http://www.fda.gov/opacom/backgrounders/msg.html) ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-msg-work-by-harming-the-tongue/27912/3 "2000-08-03T02:37:03Z")
Well, I’ve been rummaging around a little bit, and offhand I don’t see anything that sounds like that. I’m gonna go with the Urban Myth, I think, if that’s OK with you. However, I did find this website, [http://www.truthinlabeling.org/adversereactions.html](http://www.truthinlabeling.org/adversereactions.html) that lists a whole host of possible MSG-sensitivity reactions, one of which was “swollen tongue”. Maybe that’s how the “strips off the top layer of skin cells” rumor got started. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-msg-work-by-harming-the-tongue/27912/4 "2000-08-03T06:43:26Z")
[Cecil’s column on MSG](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_086.html) may be of interest. In it he says, “critics say in its purified form it can be a potent neurotoxin, causing nerve cells literally to excite themselves to death.” Note that this is what **the critics of MSG** say, and is not Cecil’s opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-msg-work-by-harming-the-tongue/27912/5 "2000-08-03T13:24:28Z")
“MSG neurotoxin FDA” turns up a whole flock of health food sites, all of which pretty much repeat the factoid that “MSG is a neurotoxin”, some of them more breathlessly than others. Also, one of them points out that aspartame, in its pure form, is also a neurotoxin. Gee, something else to worry about… :rolleyes: Any bets on whether caffeine, “in its pure form”, is also a neurotoxin? We already know that nicotine and petroleum distillates are. How about aspirin? Tylenol? Chlortrimeton (which would be chloropheniramine maleate)? Looking through the medicine cabinet here…Tums? Shoe polish? Flea soap? Pepto-Bismol? Magic Markers?