However, I did look up MSG, in one the books that, occasionally, has given me answers on questions I've had in the past: Healing with Whole Foods - Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition, Paul Pitchford.
Here's what it says: "Small amounts of the flavor-enhancer monosodium glutamate (MSG) have been shown to cause nerve and brain damage in young laboratory animals.* Its heavy-handed application in Chinese and other East Asian restaurants has been alarming; fortunately, there are a growing number that no longer use it, or will withhold it upon request."
*(Hunter, B.T. Fact/Book on Food Additives and Your Health, New Canaan, CT: Keats Pub., 1972, pp 70-74)
Thank you so much for your comment. Unfortunately, those studies from the 70s are based on flawed science and have been routinely debunked by modern studies.
I'm cautious of blindly buying into (what I call) speculative science. Due to increasingly common privatized research for corporate profit aims, sometimes even ‘science’ can be for sale.
Notably, questionable research results are sometimes publicly amplified if they favor the corporate product; and, conversely, accurate research results can be suppressed or ignored if they are unfavorable to business interests, even when involving human health.
Also, big-corporation lobbyists tend to pull corpocratically orientated Western governments, especially those of Canada and the U.S., by the nose.
Once in power, established political parties will kowtow to big business’s threats of transferring or eliminating jobs and capital investment, thus economic stability, if corporate ‘requests’ aren’t accommodated.
In any event, such lobbyist manipulation does not belong in any government body, such as Health Canada or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, that was established to protect consumers’ safety and health rather than big businesses’ insatiable profit goals.
Interestingly, in regard to the integrity of scientific research, findings and commercialization, Prof. Eva Mendez, of Carlos III University of Madrid, was quoted in the May 29, 2023, edition of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly [Perspectives, Global Newsstand, El Pais/Madrid] as pointedly asking/stating:
“How can a researcher publish a scientific study every 37 hours? … How can … universities and governments pay huge sums of money to get a researcher to change their affiliation? These are just some of the many questions I’ve been asked since EL PAIS reported on cases involving a lack of scientific integrity, in which Saudi Arabian universities paid large stipends to European academics to get them to swap their affiliations. ...
“The issues of integrity and commercialization in the field of science – which we’re seeing today at an accelerated pace – are reflective of an outdated, ineffective and underfunded scientific system. … ‘Publish or perish’ has given rise to unethical conduct. … To prevent the current system from sinking even further … researchers, institutions and other parties have to break the deadly cliques and commercialization within science.”
[Cont.] Canadians’ public-health authority gives big harmful-product corporation lobbyists too much health-regulation manipulation leeway, including those working for the pharmaceutical industry.
Health Canada was established to act in Canadian consumers’ best interests, and quite rightfully so when considering that it’s funded entirely by taxpayers; yet it (like its U.S. counterpart, the FDA) is seriously susceptible to corporate lobbyist manipulation.
Notably, Health Canada permitted novelty-flavored vaping products to be fully marketed — even on corner stores’ candy counters — without conclusive independent scientific proof that the product, as claimed by the tobacco industry, would not seriously harm consumers but rather help nicotine addicts wean themselves off of the more carcinogenic cigarette means of nicotine deliverance.
A few years before that, the oversight body had sat on its own research results that indicated seatbelts on buses would save lives and reduce injury; it wanted even more proof of safety through seatbelts before ordering big bus manufacturers to install them in every bus.
Clearly, maximizing profits by risking the health or lives of product consumers will likely always be a significant part of the nature of the big business beast.
With Canada’s virtual corp-ocracy, it's enabling the biggest of businesses get unaccountably even bigger, defying the very spirit of government rules established to ensure healthy competition by limiting mass consolidation.
As it is, corporate lobbyists actually write bills for our (Canada's) governing representatives to vote for and have implemented, supposedly to save the elected officials their own time.
Thanks for writing this excellent piece. I've always been a fan of MSG, but did not know the letter that started all the fear mongering was FAKE! Wow. I'm off to sprinkle some on tofu....
My 70+ yo father-in-law had a medical issue on a cruise a few years ago where he passed out and had some heart palpitations and numbness in his neck and arms, and his doctors fully told him he probably ate too much MSG at the buffet 🤦🏻♀️
Sarah, I'm sorry to hear that. MSG often gets a bad rap, but it's generally considered safe for the majority of people, except for those who might have a specific sensitivity to it.
However, symptoms like passing out and heart palpitations are quite serious and could potentially suggest underlying issues beyond dietary factors. It might be a good idea for him to continue monitoring his health and perhaps get a second opinion if similar symptoms occur again. It's always better to be cautious, especially with heart-related symptoms. How is he doing now?
Thanks for your concern—this was a few years ago and he’s doing well now. Believe me, all of his adult children told him that “diagnosis” was BS and he needed to get thoroughly checked out!
What a fascinating story! I've always heard that MSG is "bad" but there was never an explanation for it. These days people are so quick to hear something negative about food and believe it without further research. Thanks for the article!
Funny! I just bought a bag of MSG and tonight made some pico de gallo and added 1/2 tsp to it….it transformed it from tomato, onion, garlic, cilantro to a deeply flavorful homogeneous thing! It’s like magic kitchen sprinkles. 🤓
Thank you so much for this. One of my (gen z) family members who loves to cook, and cooks well, uses MSG. I was surprised when I found out, because this human cooks "real" food and I'd been brought up to think of MSG as a dirty and dangerous additive. They explained to me that this was another of those racist tropes that - as an anthropologist - I ought to have dug into long ago, instead of taking it face value. Yup. The full story is worse than I could have imagined. Undoing our racist mythologies is a lifetime's work.
My daughter-n-law says she gets headaches from MSG, and figured it out through process of elimination. So my child, her husband, can't have Chinese food, or other stuff, with MSG in it. Or he only indulges in Chinese food when she goes to the beach with her girlfriends. When we had them over for dinner, I examined every food label to avoid it.
Perhaps sharing this article will help? Maybe?
Meanwhile, I have to tell you, Michelle, that your Italian Style Pasta Salad from Party Grub (even though I'm not a social mofo) is one of my favorites. Well, the dressing, because I change up the ingredients a bit. Last time I made it with cucumbers and diced roma tomatoes. Because I had to have some pasta salad, tomatoes, and cucumbers last week.
Anyhow, I added 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid to the dressing and ...WOW! I already thought it was pretty dang good, but adding the citric acid caused a flavor explosion in my mouth and I COULD NOT EAT IT FAST ENOUGH. I had to force myself to slow down and make it last a few days. I'm making another batch tomorrow. I make the dressing a day ahead and leave it sit on the counter to do that flavor mixing, marrying, infusing, whatever.
Now I don't think I could make that salad without it. Thanks, so much, for that "secret ingredient."
GeezerWench (funny name!), it sounds like you're doing a wonderful job accommodating your daughter-in-law's sensitivity to MSG—such attentiveness is surely appreciated for sure. It's interesting how different bodies react to various food additives, and being mindful of these differences is important in ensuring everyone enjoys their meals without discomfort. It’s always exciting to hear when someone takes a recipe and makes it their own, especially when they discover a new “secret ingredient” that elevates it to a whole new level.
Yup, bought a bag of MSG last year after reading about this and never looked back! I find it particularly helpful to sub for parmesan rinds in soup, of which I never have enough.
Thanks Michelle. Excellent article and knowledge boost. I knew MSG wasn't the villain it was portrayed as, but I had no clue as to it's origin. Guilt by association is correct! I also read recently that human beings are the only mammal that continues eating dairy beyond infancy. Marketing and advertising are the reason; in my opinion, and it is as powerful as any religion. "We can't scrap the dairy industry, think of all the lost jobs." Despite dairy being a culprit in our poor overall health.
Absolutely! Dairy is one of the most common food allergies in the world and yet its push on everyone like it’s water. It’s not a sustainable product but the powers that be don’t care. Our food system is deeply flawed but all of us learning more and demanding better will help fix it!
I have a theory that homogenized milk is a culprit in the increased risk of heart disease and clogged arteries us Americans have. Although I doubt there will ever be a study done about it.
Wow it always seems to come down to racism & bigotry. The real original sins. Thanks as always. Liking these info pieces very much (but not as much as your recipes!!!)
I really liked this, and it makes a lot of sense.
However, I did look up MSG, in one the books that, occasionally, has given me answers on questions I've had in the past: Healing with Whole Foods - Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition, Paul Pitchford.
Here's what it says: "Small amounts of the flavor-enhancer monosodium glutamate (MSG) have been shown to cause nerve and brain damage in young laboratory animals.* Its heavy-handed application in Chinese and other East Asian restaurants has been alarming; fortunately, there are a growing number that no longer use it, or will withhold it upon request."
*(Hunter, B.T. Fact/Book on Food Additives and Your Health, New Canaan, CT: Keats Pub., 1972, pp 70-74)
I just wanted to share this with you.
Thank you so much for your comment. Unfortunately, those studies from the 70s are based on flawed science and have been routinely debunked by modern studies.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6952072/
Thanks for the link.
I'm cautious of blindly buying into (what I call) speculative science. Due to increasingly common privatized research for corporate profit aims, sometimes even ‘science’ can be for sale.
Notably, questionable research results are sometimes publicly amplified if they favor the corporate product; and, conversely, accurate research results can be suppressed or ignored if they are unfavorable to business interests, even when involving human health.
Also, big-corporation lobbyists tend to pull corpocratically orientated Western governments, especially those of Canada and the U.S., by the nose.
Once in power, established political parties will kowtow to big business’s threats of transferring or eliminating jobs and capital investment, thus economic stability, if corporate ‘requests’ aren’t accommodated.
In any event, such lobbyist manipulation does not belong in any government body, such as Health Canada or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, that was established to protect consumers’ safety and health rather than big businesses’ insatiable profit goals.
Interestingly, in regard to the integrity of scientific research, findings and commercialization, Prof. Eva Mendez, of Carlos III University of Madrid, was quoted in the May 29, 2023, edition of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly [Perspectives, Global Newsstand, El Pais/Madrid] as pointedly asking/stating:
“How can a researcher publish a scientific study every 37 hours? … How can … universities and governments pay huge sums of money to get a researcher to change their affiliation? These are just some of the many questions I’ve been asked since EL PAIS reported on cases involving a lack of scientific integrity, in which Saudi Arabian universities paid large stipends to European academics to get them to swap their affiliations. ...
“The issues of integrity and commercialization in the field of science – which we’re seeing today at an accelerated pace – are reflective of an outdated, ineffective and underfunded scientific system. … ‘Publish or perish’ has given rise to unethical conduct. … To prevent the current system from sinking even further … researchers, institutions and other parties have to break the deadly cliques and commercialization within science.”
[Cont.] Canadians’ public-health authority gives big harmful-product corporation lobbyists too much health-regulation manipulation leeway, including those working for the pharmaceutical industry.
Health Canada was established to act in Canadian consumers’ best interests, and quite rightfully so when considering that it’s funded entirely by taxpayers; yet it (like its U.S. counterpart, the FDA) is seriously susceptible to corporate lobbyist manipulation.
Notably, Health Canada permitted novelty-flavored vaping products to be fully marketed — even on corner stores’ candy counters — without conclusive independent scientific proof that the product, as claimed by the tobacco industry, would not seriously harm consumers but rather help nicotine addicts wean themselves off of the more carcinogenic cigarette means of nicotine deliverance.
A few years before that, the oversight body had sat on its own research results that indicated seatbelts on buses would save lives and reduce injury; it wanted even more proof of safety through seatbelts before ordering big bus manufacturers to install them in every bus.
Clearly, maximizing profits by risking the health or lives of product consumers will likely always be a significant part of the nature of the big business beast.
With Canada’s virtual corp-ocracy, it's enabling the biggest of businesses get unaccountably even bigger, defying the very spirit of government rules established to ensure healthy competition by limiting mass consolidation.
As it is, corporate lobbyists actually write bills for our (Canada's) governing representatives to vote for and have implemented, supposedly to save the elected officials their own time.
Thanks for writing this excellent piece. I've always been a fan of MSG, but did not know the letter that started all the fear mongering was FAKE! Wow. I'm off to sprinkle some on tofu....
one of my favorite personality traits is telling people their fear of MSG is rooted in racism and fake science.
It’s a power move 💅
This is excellent - informative and fascinating
My 70+ yo father-in-law had a medical issue on a cruise a few years ago where he passed out and had some heart palpitations and numbness in his neck and arms, and his doctors fully told him he probably ate too much MSG at the buffet 🤦🏻♀️
Sarah, I'm sorry to hear that. MSG often gets a bad rap, but it's generally considered safe for the majority of people, except for those who might have a specific sensitivity to it.
However, symptoms like passing out and heart palpitations are quite serious and could potentially suggest underlying issues beyond dietary factors. It might be a good idea for him to continue monitoring his health and perhaps get a second opinion if similar symptoms occur again. It's always better to be cautious, especially with heart-related symptoms. How is he doing now?
Thanks for your concern—this was a few years ago and he’s doing well now. Believe me, all of his adult children told him that “diagnosis” was BS and he needed to get thoroughly checked out!
lololol, well that doctor phoned it in huh?
What a fascinating story! I've always heard that MSG is "bad" but there was never an explanation for it. These days people are so quick to hear something negative about food and believe it without further research. Thanks for the article!
I’m so glad you liked it. So many twists!
Funny! I just bought a bag of MSG and tonight made some pico de gallo and added 1/2 tsp to it….it transformed it from tomato, onion, garlic, cilantro to a deeply flavorful homogeneous thing! It’s like magic kitchen sprinkles. 🤓
Jenny, that sounds delicious! MSG really can be like magic in the kitchen, enhancing flavors and bringing dishes together.
I loved this article!! On a similar vein, https://open.substack.com/pub/emikodavies/p/on-a-sugar-high?r=wqa8q&utm_medium=ios this is a great article about debunking myths around sugar, the links within it are also incredibly interesting and worth a read!
Thanks for the link!
Thank you so much for this. One of my (gen z) family members who loves to cook, and cooks well, uses MSG. I was surprised when I found out, because this human cooks "real" food and I'd been brought up to think of MSG as a dirty and dangerous additive. They explained to me that this was another of those racist tropes that - as an anthropologist - I ought to have dug into long ago, instead of taking it face value. Yup. The full story is worse than I could have imagined. Undoing our racist mythologies is a lifetime's work.
Exactly, once we know better, we have to do better. Time to spread the word!
My daughter-n-law says she gets headaches from MSG, and figured it out through process of elimination. So my child, her husband, can't have Chinese food, or other stuff, with MSG in it. Or he only indulges in Chinese food when she goes to the beach with her girlfriends. When we had them over for dinner, I examined every food label to avoid it.
Perhaps sharing this article will help? Maybe?
Meanwhile, I have to tell you, Michelle, that your Italian Style Pasta Salad from Party Grub (even though I'm not a social mofo) is one of my favorites. Well, the dressing, because I change up the ingredients a bit. Last time I made it with cucumbers and diced roma tomatoes. Because I had to have some pasta salad, tomatoes, and cucumbers last week.
Anyhow, I added 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid to the dressing and ...WOW! I already thought it was pretty dang good, but adding the citric acid caused a flavor explosion in my mouth and I COULD NOT EAT IT FAST ENOUGH. I had to force myself to slow down and make it last a few days. I'm making another batch tomorrow. I make the dressing a day ahead and leave it sit on the counter to do that flavor mixing, marrying, infusing, whatever.
Now I don't think I could make that salad without it. Thanks, so much, for that "secret ingredient."
GeezerWench (funny name!), it sounds like you're doing a wonderful job accommodating your daughter-in-law's sensitivity to MSG—such attentiveness is surely appreciated for sure. It's interesting how different bodies react to various food additives, and being mindful of these differences is important in ensuring everyone enjoys their meals without discomfort. It’s always exciting to hear when someone takes a recipe and makes it their own, especially when they discover a new “secret ingredient” that elevates it to a whole new level.
Ughh, just print the article out and leave it on the table lol.
I’m so glad that citric acid pushed that pasta salad over the edge! I love that recipe and now I’ve got to try it this way. Just in time for summer
It's the same reason why Ina Garten adds a splash of lemon juice to dishes right at the end. A little acid kicks up the flavor a notch or two!
She was a maximalist:) I am a much more clean flavored eater. But you know, everything in its place.
Absolutely! No flavorless meals at your house, unlike mine growing up. I love it
My mom put msg, lawry's seasoned salt and Lipton onion soup on everything I ate growing up.
And my dad was addicted to hot sauce. Between the two of them I am a mess 😎
Lawry's. yes!
Oh my, that’s a move. How are your tastebuds now?
Yup, bought a bag of MSG last year after reading about this and never looked back! I find it particularly helpful to sub for parmesan rinds in soup, of which I never have enough.
Thanks Michelle. Excellent article and knowledge boost. I knew MSG wasn't the villain it was portrayed as, but I had no clue as to it's origin. Guilt by association is correct! I also read recently that human beings are the only mammal that continues eating dairy beyond infancy. Marketing and advertising are the reason; in my opinion, and it is as powerful as any religion. "We can't scrap the dairy industry, think of all the lost jobs." Despite dairy being a culprit in our poor overall health.
Absolutely! Dairy is one of the most common food allergies in the world and yet its push on everyone like it’s water. It’s not a sustainable product but the powers that be don’t care. Our food system is deeply flawed but all of us learning more and demanding better will help fix it!
I have a theory that homogenized milk is a culprit in the increased risk of heart disease and clogged arteries us Americans have. Although I doubt there will ever be a study done about it.
I always think, "would you like a little Parmesan sprinkled on your IBS?"
😂😂😂
Wow it always seems to come down to racism & bigotry. The real original sins. Thanks as always. Liking these info pieces very much (but not as much as your recipes!!!)
Thank you!!