My father is a chef and I grew up in a household with great food. My parents always tried to cook healthy dishes using as little oil as possible and always trimming fat. However, my parents did use MSG to help flavor our authentic Chinese dishes, as do most Chinese food restraunts here in the USA. I have never experienced these “headaches” or “burning sensations” that people attribute to MSG.
Recently, I read a chapter titled: “Why doesn’t everybody in China have a headache?” from Jeffery Steingarten’s book, “It Must’ve Been Something I Ate.” In it, he proceeds to debunk the idea that MSG is “bad for you.” Some of his arguments include the main point of the title–MSG is not only used in cheap Chinese cuisine here in the USA, but also in China, where billions of people eat it daily. Why don’t these people constantly experience these headaches? Have MSG studies been done on populations of the Chinese?
I question Cecil’s 1990 column about MSG. He takes the maybe/maybe not stance but personally, I believe that MSG is not bad for you. However, I concede that perhaps bad quality Chinese food contains an above threshold amount of MSG that could cause sickness, whereas the average Chinese person in China usually consumes an amount below that level. Also, as a scientist in training, I question how addition of too much of a single amino acid into your diet could have such drastic rammifications–especially to your nervous system. Does anyone have a mechanistic explaination?
Perhaps this is another instance of eating “in moderation” where a small amount of something won’t wreck your health, but eating too much of it definitely will. What does everyone think?
Harold McGee, in his definitive book on food, states that the MSG hysteria was caused by some people’s allergic reaction to MSG. He says that MSG is perfectly fine and safe for everyone else-- although those watching their sodium should use it sparingly.
There are a number of over-diagnosed “conditions,” “allergies,” and “diseases” out there.
A few of my favorites:
Bee stings. Most people think they’re allergic to them. But very few (less than 1%) are.
Wool. How many people have told you they’re allergic to wool? While it might be true some people are allergic to the conditioning residue left over on the wool during processing, no one is allergic to wool.
MSG. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard someone claim MSG made them sweat, or cause heart palpitations, or whatever. Unbeknownst to them, a lot of food contains MSG.
Olestra. Everyone thought this fat-substitute gave them diarrhea.
There is a distinction that should be made between an “allergic” reaction and a “hypersensitivity” reaction. Allergies are a type of hypersensitivity, but not all hypersensitivities are allergies. Allergies specifically involve an over-reactive immune response to a substance. MSG sensitivity, for instance, is not an allergy.
Sensitivity to wool, or more specifically, wool alcohol (lanolin or a component thereof) is actually fairly common. Try doing a PubMed search for “dermatitis AND wool”; this will get you the abstracts (and in a few cases the full text) of relevant scientific and clinical articles. Note that it’s not the fiber itself, it’s the goo that coats the hairs that causes problems (this is stuff produced by the sheep, not “conditioning residue”). So well washed wool cloth is generally less of a issue than are cosmetics and skin care products that contain lanolin (used as a moisturizer).
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the sodium salt of the amino acid glutamine. In mammals, including humans, glutamine is widely used as a neurotransmitter (chemical signal sent between nerves). High doses of MSG can raise the glutamine concentration of the blood and extracellular fluid (although this is mainly true of the pure substance, not when diluted in food), and this may result in increased nerve firing, which will then cause all sorts of other symptoms such as headache, fever, increased heart rate, etc. Really high doses (more than you could ever eat, delivered by injection) will cause epileptic seizures, kidney damage, and liver damage in experimental animals (e.g., rats). There is also a possible connection between MSG and appetite control; rats fed very high amounts of MSG become obese (e.g., see here: abstract-only for nonsubscribers).
The dose of MSG is certainly a factor in the presence or absence of a sensitivity response; there are apparently also differences in sensitivity between individuals. There are various possible reasons why some people might be more sensitive to MSG than the general population, although at this point it’s mainly hand-waiving; the research hasn’t been done. (None of the relevant articles appear to have free full-text; if you don’t have the good luck to be associated with a university or other subscribing institution you could start with the Wikipedia article.)
Note that nearly all proteins contain some glutamine, but due to the relatively slow and drawn-out digestive process it is difficult to get a big hit of glutamine from eating a hamburger, for instance. MSG provides a concentrated source, and is therefore more likely to cross whatever threshold exists between “taste enhancer” and “signal overload”, especially when eaten in the context of a low-bulk food such as soup.
MSG - is almost everywhere.
chinese food -with msg - must contain somewhat more…
when i intake msg, or at least too much msg ( a restraunt with MSG in their food, chinese), I go insane. Crazy. I feel weird, and do some crazy amounts of physical things. so here i avoid MSG, and avoiding it for me has explained alot of past dealings. i can eat a little little bit of it, without really noticing anything. Glad to be alive.
even… beef jerky and such food from the store has an affect on me.
ADD - i take something called Attend. - it’s not a Med…
Er…Im pretty sure it really did give me diarrhea, though Im willing to concede that it might have been some other chemical commonly used together with it that did that. At least, I never had that problem after eating non-Olestra potato chips.
I live in China and my wife’s extended Chinese family do not have msg in their homes nor do they care about healthy eating. And they did this before I was in the picture.
I sure notice when I get MSG in the restaurant. And certainly not all restaurants use MSG. I’ve noticed the cheaper restaurants use MSG a lot more.
My reaction is a “furry mouth” and I don’t like the taste.
I keep MSG in my home, and will add it in judicious amounts to foods. I am also diabetic and have in the past made pastries and desserts using equal and splenda [I find acetaK has a vinyl taste I find unpleasant so don’t have any in my house.]
I have had people eat at my house of food I have made for myself that had aspartame or MSG and had absolutely no problem with it [specifically aspartame sweetened no bake cheesecake, which is sort of a staple holiday offering here, and a tofu dish I like that is something I make about once a week] and 2 particular friends raved over for months. Since they are not cooks, they were totally disinterested in the recipes.
We went out to dinner. They both screamed at the waiter about no msg, it will kill me … and then when coffee time came around and I grabbed the equal [no splenda available there] they both exclaimed how they get the worse migraines from equal and that is probably why I get migraines [despite the fact they both know I have gotten migraines since I was a teen lo these many decades ago.] So I helpfully explained how I happen to cook with both aspartame and MSG, and they have frequently eaten it at my house … in their favorite foods. When they berated me for feeding it to them, I mentioned they never once said anything about food allergies and I specifically asked them if they had any food allergies. I personally consider MSG or aspartame a food allergy. I also pointed out they never once came back to me and asked me what I cooked with because they always had a migraine after they left [or any other symptom]
I have a real allergy to mushrooms. I go into anaphylaxis. I make it perfectly clear that I am allergic to it. I don’t claim I am allergic to something if I am avoiding it because either I don’t like it [okra. zucchini, eggplant] or dont like the result it has on my body [onions give me gas like you wouldnt believe … respirator mask quality gas, and whatever is in McDonalds fry oil gives me the runs.] I avoided olestra because I would rather eat less of something that use a crutch to let me pig out. I use splenda/equal because I am diabetic and would like a little something sweet in my life, but I dont use the splenda as an excuse to pig out on sweet foods like people were doing with the olestra-chips.
A well-documented history of MSG. It was originally extraced from seaweed, but is today mass produced through a process of fermentation. It also has uses as a industrial fertilizer for crops.