More MSG please

[Rocket]

It makes my fur shiny

[Rocket]

@Andrew0409

@tango42

I think it can be generally accepted without examples that excessive amounts of anything can cause a reaction.

People may not have reaction to some MSG in some crackers, but when the cook uses a pour spout out of a bottle or pours from a plastic bag without measuring, dumping into a dish, wala.

The same could be said for salt or anything.

It seems like it would be easily documented but I’ve yet to find anything that indicates what excessive is and how MSG at excessive doses can cause side effects like headaches.

The aforementioned scam aside (which appears to be some kind of urban legend, apparently), the first actual clinical debunkers pretty much said that any of the reported systems could be written off to overdoing sugar, salt, and/or oil at a single sitting.

[Andrew0409]

Is MSG as bad as it’s made out to be?

It seems even tests done at much higher doses with just water and no food doesn’t do anything to people who claim the side effects.

Is MSG as bad as it’s made out to be?

[tango42]

That’s two studies (by who and for what purpose), out of probably hundreds, summed up by a BBC reporter, Bianca Nogrady, from a one sided perspective, without offering any research of alternative perspectives.

Too much of anything will cause a reaction, even water.

[finley]

I agree. In the Philippines they slather everything in MSG (“Magic Sarap”) and as a result they can’t taste anything except huge in-your-face flavours. Hong Kong food, although an order of magnitude better than food in the Philippines, does all taste a bit same-same. It’s one of my least favourite variants of Chinese food, and it seems to be the one that’s most reliant on MSG.

I’ve noticed Taiwanese cuisine uses little or no MSG except at the low end (bian dang shops etc).

MSG probably is harmless from a physiological perspective. But it sure does mess up the joy of eating.

[Wookie]

I do a lot of Cantonese style cooking and almost never add MSG.

There may be a lot in the oyster sauce and some other often used sauces though.

[Andrew0409]

@tango42

Too much of anything will cause a reaction, even water

But have a good idea on how much is too much. And we know what happens when that’s happens. It’s also not something the average person can do normally.

What you’re saying is quite vague.

[Taiwan_Luthiers]

I never use MSG. I do use bullion powders/cubes and I’m sure it contains some MSG.

Often on soy sauce dishes like ma po tofu I just mix soy sauce, sugar, and hot sauce and that does the job, no MSG needed. I don’t doubt that the hot sauce may contain some MSG.

I almost never add it by itself however.

And on vegetables, fermented tofu does wonder on flavor, and all you need is salt. Maybe fermented tofu contains some MSG too.

[eCanada]

MSG — The Special Ingredient That Makes Food Addictively Tasty...

[eCanada]

Why MSG allergy is fake science | Jeremy Goldkorn

Instant noodles form a big part of the diet of the country’s more than 20 million university students, and you certainly don’t hear any of them complaining about Chinese restaurant syndrome.

Nor do Italians complain about headaches after eating parmesan cheese (which tastes good because of the glutamates in it), Japanese don’t worry about eating too much seaweed or dried shrimp (ditto), and even in Britain you don’t often hear whining about adverse reactions to Marmite (ditto); you certainly don’t get warnings from your doctor about the dangers of human breast milk to babies (ditto).

The persistence of the Chinese restaurant syndrome myth is a symptom of the hypochondria that has become fashionable in contemporary Anglo-American culture, and the failure of our educational systems to teach people the difference between quackery and hard science.

[Rocket]

[eCanada]

@tango42

That’s interesting except that 99.9% of the people living today don’t know anything about that.

That’s just false. I’ve known about it and advocated for msg for years.
Everyone I talk to knows about it

[eCanada]

@tango42

People may not have reaction to some MSG in some crackers, but when the cook uses a pour spout out of a bottle or pours from a plastic bag without measuring, dumping into a dish, wala.

What study is this based on? All the research says that it’s not harmful

[eCanada]

Here’s one of the studies.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/10736382/

[tango42]

@eCanada

@tango42

People may not have reaction to some MSG in some crackers, but when the cook uses a pour spout out of a bottle or pours from a plastic bag without measuring, dumping into a dish, wala.

What study is this based on? All the research says that it’s not harmful

I didn’t say it’s harmful and I still don’t say it’s harmful. But some people have a reaction. Not an allergic reaction. Just a reaction like you would have to an excessive amount of anything.

[tango42]

@eCanada

@tango42

That’s interesting except that 99.9% of the people living today don’t know anything about that.

That’s just false. I’ve known about it and advocated for msg for years.
Everyone I talk to knows about it

Everyone you know talks is about a prankster doctor making a fake statement in the 1960s? OK.

So everyone you know bases their understanding of MSG from that beginning? OK.

[jimipresley]

@tango42

I didn’t say it’s harmful and I still don’t say it’s harmful. But some people have a reaction. Not an allergic reaction. Just a reaction like you would have to an excessive amount of anything.

Interestingly, they only seem to have a reaction if they know they’re eating it.
Psychosomatic.

[tango42]

@jimipresley

@tango42

I didn’t say it’s harmful and I still don’t say it’s harmful. But some people have a reaction. Not an allergic reaction. Just a reaction like you would have to an excessive amount of anything.

Interestingly, they only seem to have a reaction if they know they’re eating it.
Psychosomatic.

People eat food and know MSG is in a lot of the food but get dry mouth because the cook put too much MSG in it.

MSG is in lots of food in Taiwan. When there’s excessive amounts some might experience some reaction even a simple as dry mouth. And it’s not an allergic reaction. It’s just a reaction to an excessive amount.

Similar to eating a dish with too much salt. The reaction is to stop eating it because you taste the salt. But you don’t taste MSG so you keeping it and then the reaction is dry mouth or whatever.

[eCanada]

@tango42

Everyone you know talks is about a prankster doctor making a fake statement in the 1960s? OK

Yes, Chinese food syndrome. It was published and republished. It grew and that’s the reason Chinese restaurants have no msg signs in the window. That’s a fact.

@tango42

But some people have a reaction. Not an allergic reaction. Just a reaction like you would have to an excessive amount of anything.

That’s not really based in science. Are you saying like everyone will have a reaction if they drink too much water? If so, it’s a bad argument

[eCanada]

@jimipresley

Interestingly, they only seem to have a reaction if they know they’re eating it.
Psychosomatic

That’s exactly what the research shows.

And don’t get me started on these gluten sensitivity people