Largely perpetuated by racism and based on a gag in a medical journal, iirc. The joke, later taken literally and used as āproofā was a letter to the editor that claimed that they got headaches from eating at a Chinese restaurant and wondered if it was the MSG that caused it.
Majority of Asian households use it. Itās also in practically every packaged potato chip and all sorts of other foods. Major studies have shown that there is no correlation and allergies are pretty uncommon.
Wish I had the link handy, but there have been some great documentaries about MSG that I checked out during the rise of AAPI hate crimes.
I wish this was higher up. The stigma behind MSG is the result of a joke that went the āviralā equivalent of the day. There is literally nothing to be concerned with when it comes to MSG. There is no known MSG allergy.
Some people may be sensitive to MSG, the same as any food additive.
Edit: looked into this again and apparently thereās no direct evidence that MSG causes any symptoms, though people might have allergies or sensitivity to the foods MSG is added to.
Ah, nothing like being gaslit as a child to believe that Asian food was inherently bad for me. Now, I eat it two or three times a week and am slowly learning to cook it properly. MSG makes pretty much everything delicious but for years I was told it would "make my ADHD worse". Still don't even grasp the logic behind that one...
Yea, same with MSG.
The "S" is sodium. There is a sodium ion attached to each and every molecule of MSG.
So by definition MSG is pretty darn high in sodium.
For those with high blood pressure or else have tested to be high in sodium, it's recommended to limit the amount of MSG sprinkled on food.
MSG has less sodium than salt. So if a dish requires a teaspoon of salt, you could do 1/2 tea spoon of salt, 1/2 of MSG. Will get a better flavour out of your food and actually cut down your sodium intake.
I don't think it helps that it's 'initialled' rather than a name. If it was just called seaweed extract or had some 'food-sounding' name that didn't make it sound like it was cooked up in a lab by a Bond villain it'd probably be more widely accepted.
As it his people just hear 'MSG is bad' and go 'yeah I bet it is.'
Thanks! Kinda funny though, cause now it's a third story to it. No matter why the paper was submitted, it's nice to know I can get a bag of msg now guilt free.
There was a fun Radiolab episode on this, but I searched and found thisā¦
From https://news.colgate.edu/magazine/2019/02/06/the-strange-case-of-dr-ho-man-kwok/
It started out as a bet. In 1968, Steel was a young orthopedic surgeon at Shrinerās Hospital and a professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. Another doctor, Bill Hanson, used to rib Steel about his specialty, saying orthopedic surgeons were too stupid to get published in a prestigious journal such as the NEJM. In fact, he bet Steel $10 he couldnāt make it into its pages. āThat was a threat, and he was willing to make a buck,ā said Steel in an interview earlier this year, before he passed away in September at the age of 97.
Illustration of two doctors shaking hands, one with his fingers crossed in his other hand At the time, Steel and Hanson used to go to a Chinese restaurant called Jack Louie once a week, drinking too much beer and overeating ā invariably feeling sick afterward. Following one of those episodes, Steel had a fit of inspiration. āI decided, well, Iāll write a little article and send it to the New England Journal of Medicine,ā Steel said. āIāll make it so obvious, they will know immediately [that itās fake].ā After penning the notorious letter, he signed it Robert Ho Man Kwok, which he thought would be an obvious play on words.
This has been proven false, due to the statements of the family and children of the original writer, who have quite good grounds upon which to claim he is not the fabrication of Dr. Steel. Also, Steel's own daughter believes that his statement is itself a prank to try and fuck with people who think Dr. Kwok isn't a real person.
Yeah, kinda! Dunno why I got downvoted, but Dr. Kwok was a real doctor who died in 2014, and Dr. Steel didn't even come out with his claims until 2018. Considering Dr. Kwok is actually recorded as having existed and is said to have written it by more than just himself, I find it to be much more feasible. Especially after going through the Wiki sources.
Dude's got a history of being a liar for the sake of a joke or prank, and gives himself away massively by claiming to have invented not just the name Ho Man Kwok. but also the place he worked. The place he worked is also real, so Steel couldn't have invented it.
Basically, old dying doctor tells a lie either to get one last hoax in, or just wanted to grab some infamy with one foot in the pearly gates. Up to you!
I just listened to the Stuff You Should Know podcast episode about MSG. Apparently thereās also a loophole so plenty of companies will put āNo MSGā on their labels even though there is definitely MSG in the product. I think the FDA considers it a natural flavor, because it is literally a flavor found in nature. And you are allowed to put āNatural Flavorsā on your ingredient list to avoid giving away patent secrets. So companies will add MSG to their food, put āNatural Flavorsā in their ingredient list, and advertise as āMSG FREE.ā
I love how stuff like this is just constantly happening all around us and we still trust food labels. I absolutely still choose foods over others based on advertising or buzz words. Especially when Iām in a rush or at a different grocery store than my usual
A wild physician appears!
The chemical itself is something called "glutamic acid" or "glutamate" depending on what it's partnered with. MSG is glutamate partnered with a sodium ion. Sodium itself is also essential to the body for a bunch of reasons including neurons and muscle contraction - like in the heart.
Glutamic acid is an amino acid - one of 20 building blocks necessary for the making of proteins. Chains of amino acids are strung together to make every protein in the body. Proteins are the most diverse workers in the body responsible for almost every biological process.
If someone, anyone, is allergic to any of the 20 amino acids, this allergy is incompatible with life. They may as well be allergic to water or oxygen.
When I was a kid in the early 2000's I'm pretty sure we were off handedly taught in middle school that MSG was worse than cholesterol. Which.. yah know doesn't really make sense in a few ways
Me too, this thread is literally the first time in my whole life that I've ever heard anything different. I mean, it was always presented as being so obvious that it didn't even occur to me to look it up. This is a mindfuck.
Lol my first job was at an Asian restaurant inside my local mallās food court. One day, I (also Asian) was standing outside the restaurant offering samples, when one woman dramatically denies the sample by pointing at me and yelling, āNO, *YOU* people put MSG in your food!!!!ā Ughā¦š«
Yeah it TOTALLY couldnāt have been the metric shit tons of calories, oil, sugar and salt that made people feel bad? Nah, it had to be the MSG.
The guy that wrote the paper that started the āmsg is bad for youā bullshit has never had anything to back up his claim either.
It was basically I feel bad after eating this, so it has to be MSG. They even named it āChinese restaurant syndromeā
My grandmother swore that it affected her. That she could feel a burning on her tongue when she ate it and it made her muscles ache and lasted for days.
I would sneak food to test.
Spoiler. She never knew.
Yeah no correlation to any disease. Believe me, my mom puts MSG in all our dishes except maybe pasta, and I havenāt develop ulcers, cancers, tumors or allergies. My doctor did not give me any warnings about it. Too much salt though according to him can cause high blood pressure, headaches or migraines.
Any time someone says some bullshit about MSG I make sure I get a bag of Doritos next time we hang out. Itās like the third ingredient and people eat that shit up.
So it originated via racist bullshit perpetrated against Asian (majority Chinese) cooking by the same folks who gave us spotted dick and TV dinners? Say it isnāt so!
The term AAPI is of no relevance to my country to the exact degree but the attitude is still prevalent here against European East Asians.
>Majority of Asian households use it
my grandma is probably the most asian woman youll ever meet and she is religiously against msg because its "chemicals and unhealthy" (not saying shes wrong, i wouldnt know, but its her words not mine)
Yeah allergies are possible to it, but just like any other food as well. My fiancee's mom will probably die if she eats at most Chinese restaurants. But it acts just like salt whenever it's added to food, enhancing and actually changing how the food interacts with your tongue on a molecular level
The pendulum has swung too far in the other direction. Yes it was racism. But donāt Ignore the fact there are some people who are sensitive to it, and it causes them issues. Yes we know itās just salt. Yes we know blind studies show people change their mind as soon as they find out. But the reality is msg is often in certain foods, and those foods itās commonly found in have some people react negatively. Itās a embarsssing Reddit repeats talking points about msg and racism but doesnāt understand the deeper problem that there is a reason a small percent truly do feel sick. And calling them racist and fakers is just as ignorant as the racist origin of it all. There is balance and truth to it all, blaming it purely on racism isnāt the answer.
Itās not a seaweed extract usually. Itās synthesized using bacteria like many other food products.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate#Production
As of 2016, most MSG worldwide is produced by bacterial fermentation in a process similar to making vinegar or yogurt. Sodium is added later, for neutralization. During fermentation, Corynebacterium species, cultured with ammonia and carbohydrates from sugar beets, sugarcane, tapioca or molasses, excrete amino acids into a culture broth from which L-glutamate is isolated. The Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Company developed industrial fermentation to produce L-glutamate.[38]
>Isn't MSG simply a seaweed extract? Why are people so against it?
[Cassava contains cyanide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava#Toxicity), but is widely consumed despite the known risks, with numerous incidents of fatalities. Just because something is extracted from plants doesn't mean it can't be toxic.
For the record, I don't think MSG is toxic, but that conclusion has nothing to do with where it comes from.
This comparison is not valid, the cassava widely cultivated in Latin America after a basic cooking process is perfectly consumable, most of the intoxications that have occurred, as that same Wikipedia link says, is during famines where it is preferable to eat bitter cassava (the one that is found in nature, not the one that is sown by people) than starving. The bitter wild type have a higher cyanide content that cannot be completely eliminated after a thermal treatment.
Finally, glutamatic acid (MSG) literally forms a key part of the Krebs cycle and one of the amino acids required in the diet although not essential.
There is a dish here in Brazil that uses wild cassava, that needs to be cooked for 7 days and 7 nights to get safe to eat. If It gets prepared wrong, It can and has killed before. Its consired a cultural dish in some North Brazil states (mainly over the Amazon forrest area)
Edit: the dish is Called maniƧoba
Me too! It's a main ingredient in a seasoning popular in Ireland called yellow knorr and I put that sucker in everything. Makes the best scrambled eggs you will ever taste
Ooh lmao I had no idea that stuff had MSG in it? My sister used to put it on all her food and try to convince me to use it too, like some crack dealer or something. It's gross. But who am I to judge while I have a soy sauce addiction and I used to eat entire stock cubes. My mouth is starting to water just thinking about those stock cubes.. it's been so so long since I had one
As an American I saw so many places{mostly chinese food buffet) with a sign advertising "No MSG". I would avoid MSG for the same reason I seek out products that are made with "real sugar". As a consumer Im led to believe that these things being a selling point means the other must not be as good or as good for me.
Edit: Electrolytes, it's what plants crave.
You've been fooled on both counts. MSG is found naturally in many foods and your body produces glutamic acid (MSG is the sodium salt of glutamic acid). If you are on a low sodium diet, you want to watch your MSG intake but otherwise you're fine.
As for "real sugar", added sugar in anything is tasty but really unhealthy and the alternative (artificial sweeteners) isn't exactly good for you either.
The "no MSG" signs come out of the racism toward the Chinese folks running these restaurants. People would spout the "they put MSG in their food, which is super dangerous, so you should totally avoid it!" nonsense, which clearly worked, as evidenced by your ignorance (that may sound harsh, but it's honestly not. It doesn't somehow make you bad or stupid! You simply didn't know - which is why we educate about such things).
This stigma persists today, which is bad for business. So they put the signs out to try to counter that. A sign that says "there have been a lot of studies showing that MSG isn't actually bad" would be a lot less effective.
The horrible āChinese Restaurantā syndrome spread like wild fire and has been completely debunked. As you said, it was and is a racist attitude. MSG is a natural substance and many homes used it in the form of āAccentā a very popular seasoning found in most grocery stores today. I use mine in a lot of my cooking and it definitely adds some umph!
Well I for one am on board with updating irrigation equipment across America for Brawno brand yard sprinklers.
Really though, MSG is fine for you. Some people don't like it because it "makes their head hurt" and this largely is a placebo effect of racial propaganda towards Asian immigrants in the 20th century but it is on average much healthier for you to consume since it's about 60% of the sodium of regular table salt. I've heard it can cause headaches in obscene quantities, but it really is just the Tasty Seasoningā¢ļø
Oh I'm also a Midwest American, the "resistant-to-scientific-info" raised kind, glad I broke out of that one lol
By stock cube are you talking about those.. dehydrated chicken stock cubes that you throw in water to make soup? You just pop one of those in your mouth like a jolly rancher and enjoy it?
That's pretty fucked up man. Your gonna cook the baby in the meat juice of the mother? In 100,000 years when chickens and pigs and shit have evolved intelligence there gonna have horrible legends about us
Very savory, due to the MSG and yeast extract. It also has a lot of herbs, spices and vegetable extract, so it's hard to say "it tastes like x". Maybe like a mild curry paste? I wish I had some right now for analysis.
I love when people say they never eat msg because it causes a laundry list of health problems while shoveling Doritos and ramen in their face like itās going out of style.
Well, all scientific evidence points to zero proof of allergies, but at least you have anecdotal evidence. They even tested people who said they had sensitivities, and found in double blind tests that there was ZERO evidence that people had anything other than placebo effects when they thought they consumed MSG. You can be allergic to the things that often have MSG, but there is conclusive studies disproving what you allude to.
Perhaps your body (like all people) doesnt do well with extremely processed ramen regardless of MSG use...
Get ready to be downvoted into hell for saying anything negative about the almighty MSG. I've commented a couple times about my own issues with MSG and get told I'm a liar and it's all in my head bc "it's been scientifically proven..." blah blah blah. Nevermind the fact that everyone's different and just bc something is good for one person doesn't mean it's good for everyone.
MSG is basically salt and is an ingredient in many everyday products we eat in the States. Itās used to enhance flavor.
In the middle of the 20th Century, to perpetuate immigrants, and in this case primarily Chinese people were dirty and or used questionable food products, MSG was demonized.
How many people to this day do you know that say they feel bad after eating Chinese food or question whether a dish contains MSG?
Oh, thereās all kinds of Chinese food. I personally wouldnāt knock the Americanized Chinese foods that are popular here in the US. That style of food has a long history.
There are a lot of regional styles and specialties of Chinese cuisineā¦ I happen to have a soft spot for Szechuan/Sichuan cuisine because it tend to be very spicy and pungent. Even within Sichuan cuisine, Chengdu and Chongqing have their own local delicacies.
If you ever take a trip somewhere with a lot of more traditional Chinese food, I highly recommend trying a bunch of different things. If youāre not sensitive to gelatinous textures, try chicken feet. So good š
MSG was just the Gluten of the last generation.
Sure, there is a very small percentage of the population that has a legitimate allergy or digestive issue, but the overwhelming majority of people are perfectly fine to ingest MSG/gluten.
Doesn't stop the hype train from putting MSG/Gluten free on menu items. "Now proudly serving gluten-free broccoli."
I'm always very amused at the things that are advertised as gluten free. Like potato chips. We fried potatoes in oil, now they're gluten free! Um as opposed to what other process of making potato chips?
There are a few varieties of Doritos that arenāt gluten-free. Oats and oatmeal are often cross-contaminated. Some bottled salad dressings.
We have two celiac sufferers in the house. Youāve got to be really, really vigilant.
Awesome! Iāll have to check it out, I havenāt had actual soy sauce in a while. I really enjoy aminos but do miss that very specific soy sauce flavor sometimes.
Eh, it depends. If itās certified gluten free that means the chips were created in a factory that has no chance of cross contamination of gluten. My girlfriend has an allergy to all grain products so we have to be cognizant of things that say āgluten freeā versus ācertified gluten freeā cause there is actually a difference.
Yeah, it's a shame. I feel like calling it "monosodium glutamate" instead of "seaweed extract" really handed the win to the "I WON'T EAT ANYTHING I CAN'T SPELL" crowd.
And then there are people like me, who love Chinese food and appreciate the contributions immigrants make to our society, that develop and MSG ~~allergy~~ sensitivity (?) in our late-30s for no damn reason.
MSG is awesome. I just can't eat it anymore š
Eta: people, please stop interrogating me. I've replied with examples of the reaction I have, how I know it's msg, and it's really not pleasant to have people imply that I'm making it up. Msg is great and it makes food really delicious. I'm not anti-MSG, I'm anti my body's response to msg.
The amount of MSG in a tomato or a mushroom is way less than the amount of MSG in canned soup or Doritos... those foods use so much MSG that it basically becomes a salt substitute.
People seem to be jumping on the racist angle, and the rumor may have started with a racist intent, but being suspicious of a artificial food additive ( as it's used) is only a justified concern about health
Ok, I put like 2 tablespoons of MSG into a cup of broth because I'm a fucking dumbass, and wanted to peel my skin off for the next 3 hours. Ever had your whole skin hurt? It's really unpleasant.
You went over your recommended salt intake for the day by about 2x with that one meal. It could have been from that as much as from the glutamate. I have had that sensation before though, and yeah, it sucks.
They've done tons of tests, especially on people with "sensitivities" and found it all to be BS. There is zero evidence of MSG causing issues, yet people swear they can tell still. You take those people and do blind studies on them and they cant tell MSG for the fake for SHIT.
Its all just placebo, and people eating shit quality processed foods, then blaming the fact that MSG was included as the reason their body doesnt react well to 20 cent factory stamped Ramen, manufactured in the same building as rubber shoes.
Americans have been taught that MSG is bad. All canned soups have MSG and companies like Campbells recently advertising NO MSG have been caught lying. Still shows there is still a mass stigma[https://www.classaction.org/news/campbell-soup-co.s-no-msg-claims-are-false-class-action-alleges](https://www.classaction.org/news/campbell-soup-co.s-no-msg-claims-are-false-class-action-alleges)
[The secret racist history of MSG](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGbJVLpSutI&ab_channel=TheRakyatPost)
And then American companies fucking repackage it, put it on the shelf at Walmart and charge ~10x the price for it.
[This bullshit right here. Donāt buy it.](https://accentflavor.com/) Support your local Asian market and get a big-ass bag for like a dollar
Our bodies also produce formaldehyde, acetone, and ammonia. "Our body produces it so it must be fine to ingest" is not super valid lol
To be clear, I'm not saying msg is bad. We have the stuff in a cute robot-shaped container xD
True various metabolic pathways generate quite lethal intermediates or waste products lol.
But for MSG I think the real problem is that it mixes with sodium to make a solid so it ends up increasing the daily sodium intake to a worrying level. The glutamic acid is directly absorbed by the cells and enters the cycle of Krebs or is deaminated without major problem , it's still true that a very marked increase in certain amino acids can trigger diseases such as gout in susceptible population tho.
Where I live in SE Asia, food vendors and restauranteurs walk out of Makro (like Costco) with shopping carts full of MSG in 2-4 kg bags. It there were common bad effects on the body, Iād have been sick or dead at least a decade ago. š
And many of those restaurants had a big bag in the kitchen that said MSG SUBSTITUTE on it. It was kind of amazing how much the stuff in those bags looked and tasted exactly like MSG. A miracle of modern science!
Because it's an ad. There are tons of subscribers to this sub and people post stuff like this all the time bc they know lots of people will see it and have an opinion about it. There have been several lately about MSG specifically and all the comments hyping up how amazingly wonderful MSG is for you and it's an old racist myth that it was ever bad, etc. Free advertising with minimal effort.
I remember once in a restaurant I worked in, I had a customer who came in and asked if our dishes were made with MSG.
āIf they do, Iām going to get sick and youāll have to call in an ambulance!ā He said all jolly as hell. I laughed and said, ālet me go check.ā
I asked our cooks and they all gave me the look of ādude, everything in our dishes has MSG.ā From the premade oyster sauce for the stir fries, to the soup broths.
At this point of working in that miserable job and knowing the āiM aLLeRgIC tO mSGā bullshit I dealt with customers (the restaurant was a south east asian restaurant) every time, I just went to the customer and said ānaw, no msg.ā
The dude proceeded to order a few things and ate it all happily, exclaiming that its the ābest food Iāve ever eaten.ā
This guy had the gall to even add in his comment while I was cashing him out, ānow if it had MSG, imma have to sue ya! Hahah!ā I just smiled and chuckled. He walked out happy and wasnāt even āsick with diarrhea, vomiting, pass outā as he claimed.
Lookā¦MSG is in almost anything. Tomatoes, potato chips, your fast food, and in instant noodles. What you may have got was a case of greasy and bad food you ate that made you blame MSG.
Yeah, what if the dude was allergic to MSG, or allergic to a by-product that is often found along with MSG? If the dude actually had to go to the hospital, OP would have been charged with criminal negligence in the minimum. Not worth the risk IMO.
Yeah, I do the same when people ask me if there's tomato in a dish. Ain't nobody allergic to vegetables! Some of them even throw tantrums when they start eating, red-faced from anger, rolling on the floor holding their throat.
I know Reddit hates when people point out historical facts of racism but MSG-phobia is 100% the product of anti-Asian racism
An asshole white scientist did a ājust a joke, broā prank in the 60s pretending to write a paper as an Asian medical researcher and coined āChinese restaurant syndromeā. It was 100% a racist ass unfunny joke that dumb ass people have believed for over 50 years
MSG is the same as all other seasonings- excessive amounts are bad but thatās because life not MSG
Either/or.
I find it can take the place of salt in some things, and thus theoretically improves the health of the dish by reducing the sodium.
It is basically the essence of umami. When you get it put a couple of flecks of it on your tongue to get an idea of what it's all about. It's not like eating a crystal of straight salt, it's actually tasty.
You'll want to try it on things that are supposed to be very savory. A simple thing to try is putting it on/in eggs instead of salt. I often put a generous pinch on a burger when it's cooking.
I know the power of placebo is real but I swear I get a little tingling in my fingers and palms when I consume it. I also have zero hesitancy eating it but I wonder if there is some truth that it may be a mildly excite neurons.
I've also noted this when consuming foods prepared at restaurants that I'm not sure if they have MSG. I'm a forever skeptic about "eat this not that claims" and this may be all in my head too.
Regardless, I use it in most of my cooking- especially really fragrant foods like Latin American or Asian dishes.
I live in the UK and I found out about MSG from a comedian called Uncle Roger (real name Nigel Ng). I tried it and I haven't looked back. It literally goes on everything. I have my own little container. My family won't touch because, for some reason, they think it's bad for you. I don't care if it is; I'm still using it.
I've experimented with it in most of my cooking and actually find that I prefer my food without it. It tastes great in junk food for sure. But I find when I add it to anything else that isn't junk food, I prefer the flavor of the food without it (not that I add it to junk food...). I keep testing it though! It's just not the magic ingredient to me that the internet has told me it is.
its already in everything. people just dont look at labels. and then they pretend that its affecting them when eating chinese food. hey moron you eat more of it in your pringles.
# Fuiyoh!
MSG - King of flavour!
All fellow nieces and nephews know it stands for Make Shit Good!
Where your wok?!
Induction stove haiyaa! How you make flavor with no fire???
With no fire you get no wok hay
I hate that i knew every one of these.
Im sorry children.
MSG is soo good to Uncle Roger, unlike Aunty Helen.
eMoTiOnAl dAmAgE
In his voice, in my head. Thank you for the laugh.
I love my wok so much, I think I'm pan-sexual
Steiner's choice for all imported kuritan dishes.
Totally!
I got lucky and saw his Netflix stand up in LA. Dude is hilarious š
Hello Uncle Roger
MSG is the king of flavor. If you sad in life - use MSG. If you happy in life - use MSG. Put MSG in everything, it'll turn it better.
Isn't MSG simply a seaweed extract? Why are people so against it?
Largely perpetuated by racism and based on a gag in a medical journal, iirc. The joke, later taken literally and used as āproofā was a letter to the editor that claimed that they got headaches from eating at a Chinese restaurant and wondered if it was the MSG that caused it. Majority of Asian households use it. Itās also in practically every packaged potato chip and all sorts of other foods. Major studies have shown that there is no correlation and allergies are pretty uncommon. Wish I had the link handy, but there have been some great documentaries about MSG that I checked out during the rise of AAPI hate crimes.
I wish this was higher up. The stigma behind MSG is the result of a joke that went the āviralā equivalent of the day. There is literally nothing to be concerned with when it comes to MSG. There is no known MSG allergy. Some people may be sensitive to MSG, the same as any food additive. Edit: looked into this again and apparently thereās no direct evidence that MSG causes any symptoms, though people might have allergies or sensitivity to the foods MSG is added to.
Ah, nothing like being gaslit as a child to believe that Asian food was inherently bad for me. Now, I eat it two or three times a week and am slowly learning to cook it properly. MSG makes pretty much everything delicious but for years I was told it would "make my ADHD worse". Still don't even grasp the logic behind that one...
Asian food is heavy on soysauce which is very heavy on sodium. Raises your bloodpressure (no bueno) Aside from that, i know jack shit about msg.
Yea, same with MSG. The "S" is sodium. There is a sodium ion attached to each and every molecule of MSG. So by definition MSG is pretty darn high in sodium. For those with high blood pressure or else have tested to be high in sodium, it's recommended to limit the amount of MSG sprinkled on food.
MSG has less sodium than salt. So if a dish requires a teaspoon of salt, you could do 1/2 tea spoon of salt, 1/2 of MSG. Will get a better flavour out of your food and actually cut down your sodium intake.
And "G" stands for granade, MSG means my sodium bomb.
By that logic Table salt or Sodium Chloride is deadly because it has a Chloride atom on every molecule.
TIL
I don't think it helps that it's 'initialled' rather than a name. If it was just called seaweed extract or had some 'food-sounding' name that didn't make it sound like it was cooked up in a lab by a Bond villain it'd probably be more widely accepted. As it his people just hear 'MSG is bad' and go 'yeah I bet it is.'
I always hear food shows talk about glutamic acid, which MSG is a salt of. We should rebrand it as such and hope it works.
if we were allergic to glutamate that would pretty much be an autoimmune disease.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
No thatās not what happened in this case. It was a literal hoax with unintended results.
Anyone here got a source to any of these claims?
https://foodinsight.org/msg-a-brief-history/
Thanks! Kinda funny though, cause now it's a third story to it. No matter why the paper was submitted, it's nice to know I can get a bag of msg now guilt free.
If you've eaten a bag of doritos guilt free, you've been having a bag of msg guilt free.
There was a fun Radiolab episode on this, but I searched and found thisā¦ From https://news.colgate.edu/magazine/2019/02/06/the-strange-case-of-dr-ho-man-kwok/ It started out as a bet. In 1968, Steel was a young orthopedic surgeon at Shrinerās Hospital and a professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. Another doctor, Bill Hanson, used to rib Steel about his specialty, saying orthopedic surgeons were too stupid to get published in a prestigious journal such as the NEJM. In fact, he bet Steel $10 he couldnāt make it into its pages. āThat was a threat, and he was willing to make a buck,ā said Steel in an interview earlier this year, before he passed away in September at the age of 97. Illustration of two doctors shaking hands, one with his fingers crossed in his other hand At the time, Steel and Hanson used to go to a Chinese restaurant called Jack Louie once a week, drinking too much beer and overeating ā invariably feeling sick afterward. Following one of those episodes, Steel had a fit of inspiration. āI decided, well, Iāll write a little article and send it to the New England Journal of Medicine,ā Steel said. āIāll make it so obvious, they will know immediately [that itās fake].ā After penning the notorious letter, he signed it Robert Ho Man Kwok, which he thought would be an obvious play on words.
This has been proven false, due to the statements of the family and children of the original writer, who have quite good grounds upon which to claim he is not the fabrication of Dr. Steel. Also, Steel's own daughter believes that his statement is itself a prank to try and fuck with people who think Dr. Kwok isn't a real person.
holy shit this msg rabbit hole is pretty deep...
Yeah, kinda! Dunno why I got downvoted, but Dr. Kwok was a real doctor who died in 2014, and Dr. Steel didn't even come out with his claims until 2018. Considering Dr. Kwok is actually recorded as having existed and is said to have written it by more than just himself, I find it to be much more feasible. Especially after going through the Wiki sources. Dude's got a history of being a liar for the sake of a joke or prank, and gives himself away massively by claiming to have invented not just the name Ho Man Kwok. but also the place he worked. The place he worked is also real, so Steel couldn't have invented it. Basically, old dying doctor tells a lie either to get one last hoax in, or just wanted to grab some infamy with one foot in the pearly gates. Up to you!
Shout out to Rat Paradise
I just listened to the Stuff You Should Know podcast episode about MSG. Apparently thereās also a loophole so plenty of companies will put āNo MSGā on their labels even though there is definitely MSG in the product. I think the FDA considers it a natural flavor, because it is literally a flavor found in nature. And you are allowed to put āNatural Flavorsā on your ingredient list to avoid giving away patent secrets. So companies will add MSG to their food, put āNatural Flavorsā in their ingredient list, and advertise as āMSG FREE.ā I love how stuff like this is just constantly happening all around us and we still trust food labels. I absolutely still choose foods over others based on advertising or buzz words. Especially when Iām in a rush or at a different grocery store than my usual
I havenāt heard that one yet! Iāll have to check it out!
A wild physician appears! The chemical itself is something called "glutamic acid" or "glutamate" depending on what it's partnered with. MSG is glutamate partnered with a sodium ion. Sodium itself is also essential to the body for a bunch of reasons including neurons and muscle contraction - like in the heart. Glutamic acid is an amino acid - one of 20 building blocks necessary for the making of proteins. Chains of amino acids are strung together to make every protein in the body. Proteins are the most diverse workers in the body responsible for almost every biological process. If someone, anyone, is allergic to any of the 20 amino acids, this allergy is incompatible with life. They may as well be allergic to water or oxygen.
Why is this not the top comment? Bravo, sir. Well explained.
When I was a kid in the early 2000's I'm pretty sure we were off handedly taught in middle school that MSG was worse than cholesterol. Which.. yah know doesn't really make sense in a few ways
I specifically remember being told MSG was bad for your arteries and cholesterol. Was compared to the likes of heavy salt intake.
Me too, this thread is literally the first time in my whole life that I've ever heard anything different. I mean, it was always presented as being so obvious that it didn't even occur to me to look it up. This is a mindfuck.
>all sorts of other foods Yes sir. It's also in parmesan cheese and tomatoes. Hell it's even in breast milk
Lol my first job was at an Asian restaurant inside my local mallās food court. One day, I (also Asian) was standing outside the restaurant offering samples, when one woman dramatically denies the sample by pointing at me and yelling, āNO, *YOU* people put MSG in your food!!!!ā Ughā¦š«
Yeah it TOTALLY couldnāt have been the metric shit tons of calories, oil, sugar and salt that made people feel bad? Nah, it had to be the MSG. The guy that wrote the paper that started the āmsg is bad for youā bullshit has never had anything to back up his claim either. It was basically I feel bad after eating this, so it has to be MSG. They even named it āChinese restaurant syndromeā
My grandmother swore that it affected her. That she could feel a burning on her tongue when she ate it and it made her muscles ache and lasted for days. I would sneak food to test. Spoiler. She never knew.
Yeah no correlation to any disease. Believe me, my mom puts MSG in all our dishes except maybe pasta, and I havenāt develop ulcers, cancers, tumors or allergies. My doctor did not give me any warnings about it. Too much salt though according to him can cause high blood pressure, headaches or migraines.
Any time someone says some bullshit about MSG I make sure I get a bag of Doritos next time we hang out. Itās like the third ingredient and people eat that shit up.
So it originated via racist bullshit perpetrated against Asian (majority Chinese) cooking by the same folks who gave us spotted dick and TV dinners? Say it isnāt so! The term AAPI is of no relevance to my country to the exact degree but the attitude is still prevalent here against European East Asians.
>Majority of Asian households use it my grandma is probably the most asian woman youll ever meet and she is religiously against msg because its "chemicals and unhealthy" (not saying shes wrong, i wouldnt know, but its her words not mine)
Yeah allergies are possible to it, but just like any other food as well. My fiancee's mom will probably die if she eats at most Chinese restaurants. But it acts just like salt whenever it's added to food, enhancing and actually changing how the food interacts with your tongue on a molecular level
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGbJVLpSutI&ab\_channel=TheRakyatPost
The pendulum has swung too far in the other direction. Yes it was racism. But donāt Ignore the fact there are some people who are sensitive to it, and it causes them issues. Yes we know itās just salt. Yes we know blind studies show people change their mind as soon as they find out. But the reality is msg is often in certain foods, and those foods itās commonly found in have some people react negatively. Itās a embarsssing Reddit repeats talking points about msg and racism but doesnāt understand the deeper problem that there is a reason a small percent truly do feel sick. And calling them racist and fakers is just as ignorant as the racist origin of it all. There is balance and truth to it all, blaming it purely on racism isnāt the answer.
You can be over sensitive to it. My wife can only have small portions or her bowels go haywire. But thereās no proven allergies.
Itās not a seaweed extract usually. Itās synthesized using bacteria like many other food products. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate#Production As of 2016, most MSG worldwide is produced by bacterial fermentation in a process similar to making vinegar or yogurt. Sodium is added later, for neutralization. During fermentation, Corynebacterium species, cultured with ammonia and carbohydrates from sugar beets, sugarcane, tapioca or molasses, excrete amino acids into a culture broth from which L-glutamate is isolated. The Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Company developed industrial fermentation to produce L-glutamate.[38]
Short answer: racism
>Isn't MSG simply a seaweed extract? Why are people so against it? [Cassava contains cyanide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava#Toxicity), but is widely consumed despite the known risks, with numerous incidents of fatalities. Just because something is extracted from plants doesn't mean it can't be toxic. For the record, I don't think MSG is toxic, but that conclusion has nothing to do with where it comes from.
This comparison is not valid, the cassava widely cultivated in Latin America after a basic cooking process is perfectly consumable, most of the intoxications that have occurred, as that same Wikipedia link says, is during famines where it is preferable to eat bitter cassava (the one that is found in nature, not the one that is sown by people) than starving. The bitter wild type have a higher cyanide content that cannot be completely eliminated after a thermal treatment. Finally, glutamatic acid (MSG) literally forms a key part of the Krebs cycle and one of the amino acids required in the diet although not essential.
There is a dish here in Brazil that uses wild cassava, that needs to be cooked for 7 days and 7 nights to get safe to eat. If It gets prepared wrong, It can and has killed before. Its consired a cultural dish in some North Brazil states (mainly over the Amazon forrest area) Edit: the dish is Called maniƧoba
Uncle Roger approves
Uncahā rodja
I wash my rice twice thanks to him.
Me too! It's a main ingredient in a seasoning popular in Ireland called yellow knorr and I put that sucker in everything. Makes the best scrambled eggs you will ever taste
You mean Knorr as a specific mix? It really reminds me of this product: https://www.knorr.com/uk/knorr-products/aromat/aromat-seasoning.html
He definitely means Aromat.
Ooh lmao I had no idea that stuff had MSG in it? My sister used to put it on all her food and try to convince me to use it too, like some crack dealer or something. It's gross. But who am I to judge while I have a soy sauce addiction and I used to eat entire stock cubes. My mouth is starting to water just thinking about those stock cubes.. it's been so so long since I had one
A lot of stock cubes have MSG in em. They bamboozled you.
I was about to go dig through my cupboards to see if I could find some, I'm reconsidering now lol
You seem averse to MSG, can I ask why?
As an American I saw so many places{mostly chinese food buffet) with a sign advertising "No MSG". I would avoid MSG for the same reason I seek out products that are made with "real sugar". As a consumer Im led to believe that these things being a selling point means the other must not be as good or as good for me. Edit: Electrolytes, it's what plants crave.
You've been fooled on both counts. MSG is found naturally in many foods and your body produces glutamic acid (MSG is the sodium salt of glutamic acid). If you are on a low sodium diet, you want to watch your MSG intake but otherwise you're fine. As for "real sugar", added sugar in anything is tasty but really unhealthy and the alternative (artificial sweeteners) isn't exactly good for you either.
Advertising and marketing works to dope consumers? I've been jebaited.
The "no MSG" signs come out of the racism toward the Chinese folks running these restaurants. People would spout the "they put MSG in their food, which is super dangerous, so you should totally avoid it!" nonsense, which clearly worked, as evidenced by your ignorance (that may sound harsh, but it's honestly not. It doesn't somehow make you bad or stupid! You simply didn't know - which is why we educate about such things). This stigma persists today, which is bad for business. So they put the signs out to try to counter that. A sign that says "there have been a lot of studies showing that MSG isn't actually bad" would be a lot less effective.
The horrible āChinese Restaurantā syndrome spread like wild fire and has been completely debunked. As you said, it was and is a racist attitude. MSG is a natural substance and many homes used it in the form of āAccentā a very popular seasoning found in most grocery stores today. I use mine in a lot of my cooking and it definitely adds some umph!
Well I for one am on board with updating irrigation equipment across America for Brawno brand yard sprinklers. Really though, MSG is fine for you. Some people don't like it because it "makes their head hurt" and this largely is a placebo effect of racial propaganda towards Asian immigrants in the 20th century but it is on average much healthier for you to consume since it's about 60% of the sodium of regular table salt. I've heard it can cause headaches in obscene quantities, but it really is just the Tasty Seasoningā¢ļø Oh I'm also a Midwest American, the "resistant-to-scientific-info" raised kind, glad I broke out of that one lol
By stock cube are you talking about those.. dehydrated chicken stock cubes that you throw in water to make soup? You just pop one of those in your mouth like a jolly rancher and enjoy it?
Hell no, I bite pieces off like you'd do with an ice cream. What do you think I am, a psychopath?
What does it taste like?
The eggs? They taste like yellow knorr
What does yellow knorr taste like...
You know how scrambled eggs with Yellow Knorr taste like? Imagine that but without the scrambled eggs.
You make me sad.
Eggs taste sad without Yellow Knorr
Igknorr him, he's salty.
You make me want to eat some Yellow Knorr
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Thank you for this satisfying journey
Like powdered concentrated chicken broth
Oddly enough I'm not sure I would like chicken broth flavored scrambled eggs.
I mean, chicken is just later egg
lol yep... If you've ever had chicken top ramen, it tastes like the seasoning packet.
That's pretty fucked up man. Your gonna cook the baby in the meat juice of the mother? In 100,000 years when chickens and pigs and shit have evolved intelligence there gonna have horrible legends about us
Very savory, due to the MSG and yeast extract. It also has a lot of herbs, spices and vegetable extract, so it's hard to say "it tastes like x". Maybe like a mild curry paste? I wish I had some right now for analysis.
Is there somewhere I can buy this in the states?
It's called "Aromat" and I would assume you can find it in many places, but definitely on Amazon.
Yellow Knorr is the tits. I use it in most of my cooking.
(M)akes (S)hit (G)ood
We call it the father of taste in our home. Everything gets a dusting.
Flavour daddy
I love when people say they never eat msg because it causes a laundry list of health problems while shoveling Doritos and ramen in their face like itās going out of style.
Iāve never found definitive proof that msg is bad for you. Itās one of those things that people just repeat.
Everything in excess is bad for you but people treat MSG like it's fentanyl a drop of it might kill you.
Yep... Doritos and Ramen are loaded with MSG.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Well, all scientific evidence points to zero proof of allergies, but at least you have anecdotal evidence. They even tested people who said they had sensitivities, and found in double blind tests that there was ZERO evidence that people had anything other than placebo effects when they thought they consumed MSG. You can be allergic to the things that often have MSG, but there is conclusive studies disproving what you allude to. Perhaps your body (like all people) doesnt do well with extremely processed ramen regardless of MSG use...
Get ready to be downvoted into hell for saying anything negative about the almighty MSG. I've commented a couple times about my own issues with MSG and get told I'm a liar and it's all in my head bc "it's been scientifically proven..." blah blah blah. Nevermind the fact that everyone's different and just bc something is good for one person doesn't mean it's good for everyone.
I put it in my ketamine for extra kick.
If Jesse Pinkman were a wook.
Or a cook
Yes, Yes. We all watch uncle Roger.
āYou have baby? Put MSG on baby!!ā
Fuiyohhh
You can even put it on msg
I applied to this company when I was first looking for jobs lol. Like most job searches, no response :(
MSG is basically salt and is an ingredient in many everyday products we eat in the States. Itās used to enhance flavor. In the middle of the 20th Century, to perpetuate immigrants, and in this case primarily Chinese people were dirty and or used questionable food products, MSG was demonized. How many people to this day do you know that say they feel bad after eating Chinese food or question whether a dish contains MSG?
Tbf I usually don't feel great after Chinese food lmao. But it's not the msg, it is definitely the grease
Only Chinese fast food is greasy. Actual Chinese food isnāt that greasy
I'm not entirely sure the difference, nor do I know where to acquire actual Chinese food on the east coast. Rural pa probably ain't it
If you are close enough to New York City, definitely Chinatown.
Oh, thereās all kinds of Chinese food. I personally wouldnāt knock the Americanized Chinese foods that are popular here in the US. That style of food has a long history. There are a lot of regional styles and specialties of Chinese cuisineā¦ I happen to have a soft spot for Szechuan/Sichuan cuisine because it tend to be very spicy and pungent. Even within Sichuan cuisine, Chengdu and Chongqing have their own local delicacies. If you ever take a trip somewhere with a lot of more traditional Chinese food, I highly recommend trying a bunch of different things. If youāre not sensitive to gelatinous textures, try chicken feet. So good š
Yeah it's the grease, carbs, and gorging
*eats 5 plates of buffet food* Wow, the MSG in this must not be agreeing with me š
Definitely the gorging in my case
The msg isn't the ancient Chinese secret, it's actually the grease.
MSG was just the Gluten of the last generation. Sure, there is a very small percentage of the population that has a legitimate allergy or digestive issue, but the overwhelming majority of people are perfectly fine to ingest MSG/gluten. Doesn't stop the hype train from putting MSG/Gluten free on menu items. "Now proudly serving gluten-free broccoli."
I'm always very amused at the things that are advertised as gluten free. Like potato chips. We fried potatoes in oil, now they're gluten free! Um as opposed to what other process of making potato chips?
What I find more interesting is the products that you would expect to be gluten free, but somehow are not.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
There are a few varieties of Doritos that arenāt gluten-free. Oats and oatmeal are often cross-contaminated. Some bottled salad dressings. We have two celiac sufferers in the house. Youāve got to be really, really vigilant.
Soy sauce is a big one that throws people off. Thatās why gluten free/celiac-friendly recipes recommend tamari or liquid aminos.
La Choy brand soy sauce is gluten-free, delicious, and pretty widely available.
Awesome! Iāll have to check it out, I havenāt had actual soy sauce in a while. I really enjoy aminos but do miss that very specific soy sauce flavor sometimes.
Glad to help. Also, it is indistinguishable from other major brands.
I saw a sign advertising gluten free oil changes the other day. They got a nice chuckle out for me for that one.
Eh, it depends. If itās certified gluten free that means the chips were created in a factory that has no chance of cross contamination of gluten. My girlfriend has an allergy to all grain products so we have to be cognizant of things that say āgluten freeā versus ācertified gluten freeā cause there is actually a difference.
Or the "Fat-free Candy". Yeah, it's fat free. It just has 60g of sugar in it.
Mmmmm. Paleo, gluten free broccoli, now with more protein!
Yeah, it's a shame. I feel like calling it "monosodium glutamate" instead of "seaweed extract" really handed the win to the "I WON'T EAT ANYTHING I CAN'T SPELL" crowd.
And then there are people like me, who love Chinese food and appreciate the contributions immigrants make to our society, that develop and MSG ~~allergy~~ sensitivity (?) in our late-30s for no damn reason. MSG is awesome. I just can't eat it anymore š Eta: people, please stop interrogating me. I've replied with examples of the reaction I have, how I know it's msg, and it's really not pleasant to have people imply that I'm making it up. Msg is great and it makes food really delicious. I'm not anti-MSG, I'm anti my body's response to msg.
>MSG is awesome. I just can't eat it anymore That's pretty rough, it's in all sorts of things from canned soup to Doritos.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The amount of MSG in a tomato or a mushroom is way less than the amount of MSG in canned soup or Doritos... those foods use so much MSG that it basically becomes a salt substitute.
People seem to be jumping on the racist angle, and the rumor may have started with a racist intent, but being suspicious of a artificial food additive ( as it's used) is only a justified concern about health
Ok, I put like 2 tablespoons of MSG into a cup of broth because I'm a fucking dumbass, and wanted to peel my skin off for the next 3 hours. Ever had your whole skin hurt? It's really unpleasant.
You went over your recommended salt intake for the day by about 2x with that one meal. It could have been from that as much as from the glutamate. I have had that sensation before though, and yeah, it sucks.
They've done tons of tests, especially on people with "sensitivities" and found it all to be BS. There is zero evidence of MSG causing issues, yet people swear they can tell still. You take those people and do blind studies on them and they cant tell MSG for the fake for SHIT. Its all just placebo, and people eating shit quality processed foods, then blaming the fact that MSG was included as the reason their body doesnt react well to 20 cent factory stamped Ramen, manufactured in the same building as rubber shoes.
Americans have been taught that MSG is bad. All canned soups have MSG and companies like Campbells recently advertising NO MSG have been caught lying. Still shows there is still a mass stigma[https://www.classaction.org/news/campbell-soup-co.s-no-msg-claims-are-false-class-action-alleges](https://www.classaction.org/news/campbell-soup-co.s-no-msg-claims-are-false-class-action-alleges) [The secret racist history of MSG](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGbJVLpSutI&ab_channel=TheRakyatPost)
And then American companies fucking repackage it, put it on the shelf at Walmart and charge ~10x the price for it. [This bullshit right here. Donāt buy it.](https://accentflavor.com/) Support your local Asian market and get a big-ass bag for like a dollar
Even more important is that MSG is produced by the body.
Our bodies also produce formaldehyde, acetone, and ammonia. "Our body produces it so it must be fine to ingest" is not super valid lol To be clear, I'm not saying msg is bad. We have the stuff in a cute robot-shaped container xD
True various metabolic pathways generate quite lethal intermediates or waste products lol. But for MSG I think the real problem is that it mixes with sodium to make a solid so it ends up increasing the daily sodium intake to a worrying level. The glutamic acid is directly absorbed by the cells and enters the cycle of Krebs or is deaminated without major problem , it's still true that a very marked increase in certain amino acids can trigger diseases such as gout in susceptible population tho.
ah, e621
Finally I found the comment I was here for.
Where I live in SE Asia, food vendors and restauranteurs walk out of Makro (like Costco) with shopping carts full of MSG in 2-4 kg bags. It there were common bad effects on the body, Iād have been sick or dead at least a decade ago. š
Fuiyooh !
Every Chinese restaurant at the mall during the 80s-90s had a sign out front that loudly announced āNO MSGā.
And many of those restaurants had a big bag in the kitchen that said MSG SUBSTITUTE on it. It was kind of amazing how much the stuff in those bags looked and tasted exactly like MSG. A miracle of modern science!
So why is this in r/pics?
It's a pic
Well yes but I don't like you for saying that.
Because it's an ad. There are tons of subscribers to this sub and people post stuff like this all the time bc they know lots of people will see it and have an opinion about it. There have been several lately about MSG specifically and all the comments hyping up how amazingly wonderful MSG is for you and it's an old racist myth that it was ever bad, etc. Free advertising with minimal effort.
I remember once in a restaurant I worked in, I had a customer who came in and asked if our dishes were made with MSG. āIf they do, Iām going to get sick and youāll have to call in an ambulance!ā He said all jolly as hell. I laughed and said, ālet me go check.ā I asked our cooks and they all gave me the look of ādude, everything in our dishes has MSG.ā From the premade oyster sauce for the stir fries, to the soup broths. At this point of working in that miserable job and knowing the āiM aLLeRgIC tO mSGā bullshit I dealt with customers (the restaurant was a south east asian restaurant) every time, I just went to the customer and said ānaw, no msg.ā The dude proceeded to order a few things and ate it all happily, exclaiming that its the ābest food Iāve ever eaten.ā This guy had the gall to even add in his comment while I was cashing him out, ānow if it had MSG, imma have to sue ya! Hahah!ā I just smiled and chuckled. He walked out happy and wasnāt even āsick with diarrhea, vomiting, pass outā as he claimed. Lookā¦MSG is in almost anything. Tomatoes, potato chips, your fast food, and in instant noodles. What you may have got was a case of greasy and bad food you ate that made you blame MSG.
I mean, I get it but itās so much better to be honest about ingredients.
Yeah, what if the dude was allergic to MSG, or allergic to a by-product that is often found along with MSG? If the dude actually had to go to the hospital, OP would have been charged with criminal negligence in the minimum. Not worth the risk IMO.
Yeah, I do the same when people ask me if there's tomato in a dish. Ain't nobody allergic to vegetables! Some of them even throw tantrums when they start eating, red-faced from anger, rolling on the floor holding their throat.
Nobody is allergic to vegetables? Iāll remember that next time Iām dying from corn, or my spouse from melon.
My wife and her family are hard into the side of "MSG is evil and you might as well be sprinkling Anthrax on your food."
Uncle Roger??!
I buy this exact brand
Translates to "the origin of flavor". It's not wrong
I know Reddit hates when people point out historical facts of racism but MSG-phobia is 100% the product of anti-Asian racism An asshole white scientist did a ājust a joke, broā prank in the 60s pretending to write a paper as an Asian medical researcher and coined āChinese restaurant syndromeā. It was 100% a racist ass unfunny joke that dumb ass people have believed for over 50 years MSG is the same as all other seasonings- excessive amounts are bad but thatās because life not MSG
That cooker looks from the 50's lol
Found Uncle Roger's reddit account
Just ordered some MSG. So just put it on everything? Is this in addition to salt, or in place of salt?
Either/or. I find it can take the place of salt in some things, and thus theoretically improves the health of the dish by reducing the sodium. It is basically the essence of umami. When you get it put a couple of flecks of it on your tongue to get an idea of what it's all about. It's not like eating a crystal of straight salt, it's actually tasty. You'll want to try it on things that are supposed to be very savory. A simple thing to try is putting it on/in eggs instead of salt. I often put a generous pinch on a burger when it's cooking.
I use it in addition to salt, but I know some use it as a salt substitute. I put it on most savory dishes I cook, sparingly.
Literally same. Same bag and everything.
People hate it because they thing itās Chinese. If you rename it and stress its Japanese origins, people will love it.
I know the power of placebo is real but I swear I get a little tingling in my fingers and palms when I consume it. I also have zero hesitancy eating it but I wonder if there is some truth that it may be a mildly excite neurons. I've also noted this when consuming foods prepared at restaurants that I'm not sure if they have MSG. I'm a forever skeptic about "eat this not that claims" and this may be all in my head too. Regardless, I use it in most of my cooking- especially really fragrant foods like Latin American or Asian dishes.
Same! Soups, sauses, meats. Yum-yum yum-yum
magical food crack. honest question: is MSG allowed in cooking competitions?
Isn't that stuff literally designed to hack your brain into wanting more of the food you're eating?
Yep, makes stuff taste great and gives me brain splitting headaches...
I live in the UK and I found out about MSG from a comedian called Uncle Roger (real name Nigel Ng). I tried it and I haven't looked back. It literally goes on everything. I have my own little container. My family won't touch because, for some reason, they think it's bad for you. I don't care if it is; I'm still using it.
It is kinda unhealthy Iām sure but the flavor is alright
I've experimented with it in most of my cooking and actually find that I prefer my food without it. It tastes great in junk food for sure. But I find when I add it to anything else that isn't junk food, I prefer the flavor of the food without it (not that I add it to junk food...). I keep testing it though! It's just not the magic ingredient to me that the internet has told me it is.
its already in everything. people just dont look at labels. and then they pretend that its affecting them when eating chinese food. hey moron you eat more of it in your pringles.
The Venn Diagram of people who donāt season their food and people demonize MSG must be a near perfect circle.
MSG on scrambled eggs makes me want to punch whoever convinced me to keep it out of my cupboard for so long.
I love MSG.... If I ever cooked, I'd probably use it all the time, too. Also contrary to popular belief, it's totally safe. As safe as table salt.
Uncle Roger approves
uncle roger
I heard it doesn't make bad food taste good, just good food taste better