Interesting info about MSG:
It might contradict what Karen at Whole Foods told you.
(the "TrustedSource" references are weird, but the links take you to the source material, if interested)
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/msg-good-or-bad
"Why do people think it’s harmful?
MSG got its bad reputation in the 1960s when Chinese-American doctor Robert Ho Man Kwok wrote a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine explaining that he got sick after consuming Chinese food.
He wrote that he believed his symptoms could have resulted from consuming either alcohol, sodium, or MSG. This sparked a host of misinformation about MSG, which was likely related to then-present biases against Chinese immigrants and their cuisine (9Trusted Source).
The letter led to the designation of Kwok’s symptoms as the “Chinese restaurant syndrome,” which later became the “MSG symptom complex” (MSC) (1Trusted Source).
Later on, numerous studies backed MSG’s bad reputation, stating that the additive was highly toxic (1Trusted Source).
However, current evidence questions the accuracy of previous research for several reasons, including (1Trusted Source😞
a lack of adequate control groups
small sample sizes
methodological flaws
a lack of dosage accuracy
the use of extremely high doses that far exceed those consumed in typical diets
the administration of MSG via routes with little to no relevance to oral dietary intakes, such as injections
Today, health authorities like the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the European Food Safety Association (EFSA) consider MSG to be generally recognized as safe (GRAS) (1Trusted Source, 4Trusted Source)."