Well, first of all, MSG needs only be used in small, or correct, and proportional amounts. It doesn’t benefit from overuse or over-seasoning, it is much like salt in that way. So most “places” that use it, like Chinese restaurants, probably aren’t “pouring on the powder”, they use miniscule and expert measurements, as that is all that is needed for its seasoning effect.
I don’t go out of my way to avoid it, but my mother is extremely sensitive to it (migraine headaches and vomiting). She really can’t go out to eat anywhere. Things you would never suspect of containing MSG are loaded with it; the strangest one I can think of right now is the marinara sauce at a local restaurant (they use chicken stock as a base).
Thats fine and dandy. But that still doesnt answer the question does it? How much occurs naturally in a given food?
IIRC glutamate is the most abundant amino acid in proteins (certainly it is one of the most abundant). Proteins consist, basically, of 20 different amino acids in varying proportions, so more than one twentieth of most food proteins (probably quite a bit more than a twentieth in many cases) is likely to be glutamate.
In the protein itself it is compounded with the other amino acids, but it gets turned into free glutamate, indeed, into free sodium glutamate, in your gut before it gets into the bloodstream.
So, anyone with a normal healthy diet is getting quite a lot of sodium glutamate, quite regardless of any additives or seasonings.
And that’s a good thing.
double post
And that still doesnt quite answer the question (well it answers the amount part). Because the seasoning gets into your bloodstream very quickly (I would think). The naturally occuring stuff in that chunk of meat has to be digested first. Hmmm, maybe that why some people react to MSG. Its that intial spike that gives them trouble, kinda like sugar or carbs or a litter of wild turkey for some people.
Sometimes, I wonder if that new diet Powder, namesd Sensa, that one sprinkles on their food to affect a sated feeling isn’t just some glutamic compound. Anyone, know what is in that stuff?
Their website claims it is not:
But note that some glutamic acids can be placed under natural flavors. If I were marketting a diet compound and needed glutamates, that’s what I’d do.
Also, to describe the taste: it’s an oily, buttery sensation. I know it’s that taste as I’ve tasted it in products that do not have any fat whatsoever. (Personally, I love Cavender’s, and use it instead of black pepper.)
The only thing that gives me pause is that I can never taste it in tomatoes.
I’d actually be looking at the “soy and milk ingredients” for my glutamic acids.
I didn’t vote, 'cause I don’t really KNOW that it’s bad for me, but I do notice a certain…sluggishness and mind-fog if I eat cheap chinese more than a couple times a week, most noted during occasions I ate it 7 days a week a couple of times.
So, no, I don’t avoid it, but I do avoid overdoing it.
Add me to the list of Cavender lovers, though I’ve never parsed the ingredients beyond ‘Yum!’.
Even if that’s so, all it proves is that there’s something in Chinese food that makes you drowsy. Heck, maybe you have that reaction to too much rice.
Hehe, maybe, I don’t eat much rice though. I tend toward the chicken and veggie type things. About the only time I want rice is if I’m sick.
Oh, and the soups! I love me some special soup, and hot and sour is the bomb.
Yea, I’ve had that stuff, and some other “Greek Seasoning Salts”. I personally love the very real Greek Oregano that is a major component. “American”, off the shelf oregano, doesn’t compare.
It’s a very prominent flavor in very ripe, off the vine, tomatoes. Maybe that’s why you never taste it in tomatotes… supermarket and restaurant mass produced tomatoes are really never ripe, and are bred for appearance rather than taste and flesh.
Since I am a Kings fan, I usually go to the Staples Center in LA…
Small pinch of MSG and salt on sunny side up - - perfect! Egg tastes much better.