Is MSG Bad for You?

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

I wonder why Cecil didn’t elaborate a bit more on this issue. I spent far too much time researching this a few years back, and I determined the following: 1) MSG, or, more correclty “free glutamate” DOES produce a reaction in a very small percentage of the public. Typically, the reaction is mild (symptoms such as burning sensation, hot flashes, respitory difficultes, headache) and short-lived, and can be brought on only after consuming unusually large quantities of glutamate in an especially soluable form (ie, in a warm liquid). Furthermore, this effect was mediated by whether the person had eaten something previously and other factors. The number of people who reacted was not much larger, but large enough to be statistically significant, than those complaining of reactions from a control group of people taking a placebo dose.

The most reasonable conclusions I have read regardingthese studies, are that if you have a sensetivity to MSG and you react to it when eating it, You probably are well aware of it by now and you should try to avoid free glutamate (which is rather difficult, since it is found naturally in tomatoes and hard grating cheeses, and is found in most processed foods. It’s exceptionally prominent in fast food, especially KFC chicken, but people seem to notice it only when they eat Chinese food. If you haven’t noticed any observable reaction by now, there’s no need to worry at this point. It should be noted that apart from the mild symptoms found in those who reacted, MSG is not linked to any chronic health problem and is considered safe by the FDA.

It seems that MSG gets a bad rap for a couple of reasons. First is old fashioned xenophobia, judging from the fact that people who eat a ton of KFC chicken happily then claim that MSG makes them sick when they eat Chinese food. The Chinese are held in suaspicion in general by our society, and their eating habits are often much maligned as well. Also, MSG suffers from a public relations problem in that it has no familiar name, just the chemical-sounding moniker “Mono-sodium glutamate.” If it were called “Umami” then it would probably gradually gain more acceptance. People seem to forget that salt and sugar are “chgemicals” as well, and if we called it simply “sodium chloride” instead of 'Salt" it would seem more pernicious. Studies seem to indicate that salt is problematic for just about everybody, and since MSG contains less sodium than salt and can enhance flavor, using it is a good way for most people to cut down on salt.

So those with major food issues and a general distrust of anything man-made or added to food will liable to continue to be suspicious of it, despite the fact that MSG is food derrivative that has been used for many years before modern chemical food additives were available.

2

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Is the food additive MSG bad for you?

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3

My neighbor sometimes encounters it while eating out, even though he asks ahead of time if any of the food contains MSG. He carries Benadryl with him, which so far has been sufficient to ease the breathing problems.

4

. . . I was under the impression that MSG “allergies” are not truly allergies at all, and do not cause a histamine reaction. Perhaps your friend is allergic to homething else?

5

because he is having a reaction to something, and I don’t know if he has ever been actually tested for whatever it is. I didn’t know that about MSG allergies, andros; thanks. I’ll e-mail this link to him, and maybe a link to a page at AltaVista to see what they have to say on the subject. From the few links I clicked on, histamine reactions are not mentioned in conjunction with MSG.

6

I used to LOVE msg. Well, not that particularly, but whenever my mother used to fry hamburgers, I would pour on the Accent, which I later found out was msg.
It seemed to make the burger taste better, but I think that was all in my head.

7

Well since umami means good flavor or good taste it seems likely it was indeed all in your head.
Your taste receptors are in your head after all.

8

What’s the polite way to express how much I resent that implication?

This adds one more challenge to the tact required to prevent my overactive immune system from bothering other people.

“Would you like my salad?”

“Thanks very much, but I really can’t help finish your apple pie.”

I can eat sausages and ramen noodles from the grocery store because the amount of sulfites and MSG they contain is very small. Same goes for KFC chicken. Better Chinese restaurants never caused problems.

Mom and pop outfits don’t get much regulatory oversight when it comes to food additives. The average health inspector is more concerned with finding vermin than with watching the staff fix the salad bar. Restaurant owners have a strong temptation to keep the greens fresh longer by tossing in more preservatives. The logic behind MSG overuse was that if a dash makes the dish taste good then ten dashes will make it better. MSG’s brand name, by the way, is Dash.

Much of the clinical research surrounding MSG has flawed methodology. The following two recent trials show that the case is anything but closed. You may need to cut and paste the URLs.

9

A. Some brand names may have MSG, but MSG doesn’t have a brand name. And the “Mrs. Dash” line of seasoning blends, though some or all of them may contain MSG, certainly are not made of MSG. You’re probably thinking of Accent.

B. The first report you cite says merely that some children have an MSG problem, one that, by the way, is not an allergy, and that it is associated with chronic urticaria, whatever that is. The second actually says that most people who think they have an MSG problem don’t, though some do.

C. MSG is not a preservative.

10

That’s right, John. Accent. Thanks for correcting me.

You’re also right that MSG isn’t a preservative. I was referring to sulfites, another one of my sensitivities. You wouldn’t want to know my allergic history.

Medline abstracts are narrow in scope. Fortunately MSG sensitivity seems to be a pretty rare problem. Although I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, rigorous research does confirm reactions in some people.

It’s disappointing that when MSG sensitivity was first noted in the late 1960s the literature called it “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.” Linking a physical reaction to an ethnic identity gives it a political charge that can hinder unbiased investigation.

11

I don’t think it was in your head. I think it’s pretty well established that MSG does affect taste.

As far as the general debate goes, my experience is that MSG always provokes a reaction in some (e.g., my wife!), never in others (e.g., me), and sometimes in a third group (depending on the level). I’ve seen no evidence that it’s bad for you per se.

One needs to be sensible. If the stuff gives you a headache, try to avoid foods that contain it. If it doesn’t, then don’t worry about it. It’s not like it’s concentrated PCBs.

12

Allergy is a common layman’s term that is used to describe adverse reactions to foreign substances. But in medical terms, allergy has a specific meaning. Often something that a layperson may call an allergy is actually not an allergy - it would be more properly called a sensitivity. In particular, the reactions discussed here (to MSG and sulfites) are technically not allergies, but sensitivities. Sometimes in the medical literature they are referred to as ‘pseudoallergies’.

An allergy is a response to some substance (called an “allergen”) that is recognized by the immune system. The immune system uses some goo called “immunoglobins” (Ig) to perform this. Along the way one of the bodily chemicals that gets generated is our old friend called “histamine”, which is responsible for the inflammation characteristic of an allergic reaction.

Reactions to substances that do not follow this pathway of mediation by Ig and release of histamine are not allergies.

So why is all this mumbo jumbo important? Who cares what the metabolic pathway is, if the upshot is that I am sensitive to foods that contain X?

It matters because the medicine for how we would treat and prevent the problem is different. For example, if histamine is not released, then an antihistamine (such as diphenhydramine, brand name Benadryl) won’t help the reaction, although it may make you drowsy and remove nausea. Also, any breakthrough treatments or preventions of allergies probably won’t benefit folks with MSG or sulfite sensitivity, or vice versa.

scampering gremlin, I don’t mean at all to seem disparaging of your sensitivities. If you have had them described to you by a Dr. as “allergies”, then hopefully it was done as a simplification so you could get a handle on your condition. I just thought it may be helpful for you to understand a few of the medical principles behind the distinction.

Note also that glutamate is an essential amino acid. You have to ingest at least some minimal amount of it, or you will die. As a building block of proteins, you are made of glutamate.

As a final note, I would love to learn how the researchers in the studies cited by scampering gremlin managed to keep the studies “blind”. Couldn’t the subjects taste the difference and therefore tell that MSG was present?
-m