MSG Good or Bad ?

[snoop1130]

MSG Good or Bad?

By Hua Hin Today

 

MSG Good or Bad?

 

For nearly 50 years, the “infamous” monosodium glutamate, best known as MSG, has received a bad rap although the scientific evidence concludes that it is “general recognised as safe”. MSG is a variant of glutamate, created when sodium and glutamate combine. It is naturally occurs in foods such as tomatoes, parmesan cheese, meat, walnuts, asparagus, mushrooms, clams and sardines.

 

“Why doesn’t everyone in China have a headache?” Jeffrey Steingarten, a Harvard Law School graduate turned renowned food critic, posed this question in an essay investigating the controversy surrounding monosodium glutamate.

 

Full Story: http://www.huahintoday.com/local-news/msg-good-or-bad/

 

-- © Copyright Hua Hin Today 2018-6-5

[Tounge Thaied]

It appears that a certain percentage of the population may react to MSG and develop the following symptoms: Source: U.S. Department of Health FDA review of Studies. http://www.emagill.com/rants/fda_msg.pdf

[Tracyb]

MSG may also exacerbate BPH. If you have an enlarged prostate msg may create additional difficulties or increase the severity of ones symptoms.  Best to avoid if you have BPH.

Edited June 6, 2018 by Tracyb

[Bundooman]

The UK used MSG in food preparation widely within it's Armed Forces from the late '50s to the late '60s. It was then banned because of links to 'problems'. Having served in the British Navy for 26 years, I never once came across one person who suffered from the effects of MSG.

 

All Asian nations use MSG in cooking. Including some 1.5 billion Chinese. I have never heard of any problems with it.

 

I have lived in Thailand now for 14 years. I have never heard of a problem with it.

 

The only times I have ever heard of problems with MSG were from a number of American travellers my ex-wife and I met during extensive backpacking in Asia between 1994 - 2004.

 

My Thai wife uses it all the time. Not being a medical person, (although I worked for the NHS in UK for 10 years), I would suggest that the above OP's effects are likely the results of other problems unrelated to MSG users.

 

MSG gets the thumbs up from me.

 

Edited June 6, 2018 by Bundooman

[gwynt]

My question is always did your mother/grandmother ever use MSG and did thier food taste great?

So why use it?

[Paulbuick1]

Poison no 1 MSG

Poison no 2 Sugar

Poison no 3 Palm Oil... 

 

 

MSG symptom complex include:

• Headache
• Flushing
• Sweating
• Facial pressure or tightness
• Numbness, tingling or burning in the face, neck and other areas
• Rapid, fluttering heartbeats (heart palpitations)
• Chest pain
• Nausea
• Weakness
• Insomnia 

 

[Brian57]

I have never used MSG . I believe if the food is prepared and cooked properly there is no need to use MSG.

As stated   My question is always did your mother/grandmother ever use MSG and did thier food taste great?

 

My father was achef and never used it.

 

My Thai wife knows when it has been used in cooking and will not eat  food prepared with it. Sometimes makes her sick.

[smccolley]

MSG occurs natiurally in a number of plants, like mushrooms and tomatoes. Why doesn't anyone have a heart attack from pasta sauce? Oh, because MSG is harmless...

[Dap]

Some may be affected by MSG but I've never known any. To those few I can only say you need to do what is best for your health. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy it and will continue to use it. Never had a problem.

 

[korkenzieher]

Tomato's contain significant quantities of glutamic acid, which when salted like in a curry or even raw, goes to make Sodium Glutamate (that is how salt 'cooks out' if you add too much - by combining largely with glutamic acid).  If you think you are allergic to MSG then you probably should be reacting to pretty much anything where tomatoes and salt have been added and cooked together. I'm guessing that very few people are, or have even noticed it.

[oldrunner]

My wife (Thai) will not use MSG and if we go to a Thai Seafood restaurant she will ask that MSG not be used. Other than climbing to 78 years, having used MSG in military, I really can't tell the difference. Me thinks it's mostly certain bodies reacting or mentally reacting.

 

 

[Jeremia Juxtaposed]

If a restaurant advertises "No MSG" I don't go in. Simple

[Jingthing]

It's a myth. It's origin is anti-Chinese racism in the USA. There are no health issues with MSG. It enhances flavor the same as using shiitake mushrooms adds umami flavor. I would never make a special request about MSG because I can tell a myth from reality. 

 

http://www.msginfo.com/about_taste_umami.asp

[tropo]

17 hours ago, Tounge Thaied said:

It appears that a certain percentage of the population may react to MSG and develop the following symptoms: Source: U.S. Department of Health FDA review of Studies. http://www.emagill.com/rants/fda_msg.pdf

It's useless information. Many people are allergic to many foods and most of the symptoms you list can be attributed to allergy symptoms.

 

My wife can't eat black peppers as she gets hives and other symptoms of allergy. That's no reason for the rest of the population to avoid them.

[Jeremia Juxtaposed]

8 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

It's a myth. It's origin is anti-Chinese racism in the USA. There are no health issues with MSG. It enhances flavor the same as using shiitake mushrooms adds umami flavor. I would never make a special request about MSG because I can tell a myth from reality. 

 

http://www.msginfo.com/about_taste_umami.asp

I have always thought that the symptoms described by the original anti MSG movement in the States was caused by Chinese rice wine (think seesip degree + old spice aftershave).....

[impulse]

7 hours ago, gwynt said:

My question is always did your mother/grandmother ever use MSG and did thier food taste great?

So why use it?

 

Back then, the ingredients were of a higher quality and fresher because they couldn't store "fresh veggies" for over a month before they were binned.

 

Today, there are tens (perhaps hundreds) of billions of dollars of processed foods that would be un-marketable if not for adding MSG to fool the taste buds.  (It's not a flavoring, it's a drug that fools your taste buds).  So I don't trust the "studies", mostly funded by Big Ag and the likes of Kraft.  There's too much money floating around it, and I still recall the 7 Dorks.  (or was it the 7 Dwarfs?) who perpetuated the tobacco "science" for decades.

 

I do, however, trust my experience.  If I have a meal heavy with MSG, I'm looking for a place to take a nap within an hour, or some dog to kick because I'm so crabby.

 

Edited June 6, 2018 by impulse

[impulse]

8 hours ago, Bundooman said:

My Thai wife uses it all the time. Not being a medical person, (although I worked for the NHS in UK for 10 years), I would suggest that the above OP's effects are likely the results of other problems unrelated to MSG users.

 

MSG gets the thumbs up from me.

 

I can eat all the peanuts and shellfish I want and I love them both.  My nephews are allergic, and one bite of shellfish will send them to the hospital.  A co-worker in Bangkok spent a collective weeks in Bangkok hospitals because he occasionally bit into a peanut, no matter how careful he was in selecting his eateries.

 

So MSG may be fine for you.  May even be fine for the majority- I don't know.  And while it's a minor nuisance for me, it makes me tired and crabby.  I did some controlled eating- the same thing on 2 separate days.  The first day, no MSG and felt great.  The second day, I added MSG and was looking for a place to crawl into for a nap within 30 minutes.

 

[Kieran00001]

I read that MSG was bad for people who lack a certain enzyme to metabolise it, and that for those people it causes ill effects such as headaches.  It said that Asian people almost always have the enzyme but Caucasians often lack it.

[Jingthing]

25 minutes ago, Kieran00001 said:

I read that MSG was bad for people who lack a certain enzyme to metabolise it, and that for those people it causes ill effects such as headaches.  It said that Asian people almost always have the enzyme but Caucasians often lack it.

Rubbish myth. 

[smccolley]

So if you get a headache after eating, it must have been mushroom pasta sauce:

 

The levels of MSG are particularly high in foods like tomatoes, mushrooms and Parmesan cheese. From a Harvard study:

https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/8846733/sing05.pdf?sequence=1

 

 

[RickFarang]

Stop viewing the world as black and white. There are shades of gray.

 

It is like mild in some ways; some people benefit from it others are not tolerant of it. Simple as that.

[Jingthing]

13 minutes ago, RickFarang said:

Stop viewing the world as black and white. There are shades of gray.

 

It is like mild in some ways; some people benefit from it others are not tolerant of it. Simple as that.

More like out of 100 people that have hysterical psychosomatic reactions, maybe one actually has some kind of minor problem with it that is actually real. 

Don't feed the myth. 

[Robsweblinks]

On 6/6/2018 at 9:35 AM, Bundooman said:

The UK used MSG in food preparation widely within it's Armed Forces from the late '50s to the late '60s. It was then banned because of links to 'problems'. Having served in the British Navy for 26 years, I never once came across one person who suffered from the effects of MSG.

 

All Asian nations use MSG in cooking. Including some 1.5 billion Chinese. I have never heard of any problems with it.

 

I have lived in Thailand now for 14 years. I have never heard of a problem with it.

 

The only times I have ever heard of problems with MSG were from a number of American travellers my ex-wife and I met during extensive backpacking in Asia between 1994 - 2004.

 

My Thai wife uses it all the time. Not being a medical person, (although I worked for the NHS in UK for 10 years), I would suggest that the above OP's effects are likely the results of other problems unrelated to MSG users.

 

MSG gets the thumbs up from me.

<deleted> do you know. Take some msg and hit yourself in the head with a hammer. Then you will what it's like.

 

[Kieran00001]

18 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Rubbish myth. 

 

“the overall impression of the Expert Panel is that causality has been demonstrated.”

http://faseb.org/Portals/2/PDFs/LSRO_Legacy_Reports/1995_Full Report_Analysis of Adverse Reactions to Monosodium Glutamate MSG Report.pdf

 

The FDA recognize that there is a group who suffer adverse reactions to MSG, they have not discovered why, but they recognize that it exists.

[duanebigsby]

19 hours ago, impulse said:

 

I can eat all the peanuts and shellfish I want and I love them both.  My nephews are allergic, and one bite of shellfish will send them to the hospital.  A co-worker in Bangkok spent a collective weeks in Bangkok hospitals because he occasionally bit into a peanut, no matter how careful he was in selecting his eateries.

 

So MSG may be fine for you.  May even be fine for the majority- I don't know.  And while it's a minor nuisance for me, it makes me tired and crabby.  I did some controlled eating- the same thing on 2 separate days.  The first day, no MSG and felt great.  The second day, I added MSG and was looking for a place to crawl into for a nap within 30 minutes.

 

Your "study" heavily suggests placebo effect.

You knew you added the MSG, expected to feel tired, then felt tired.

[duanebigsby]

To me the MSG argument is a lot like the gluten situation. Less than .01% of people are celiac but there is a huge

fad in being gluten-free. When I went home a couple years ago  I  was constantly hearing people talk about giving up gluten. Half of all products in the supermarkets were pushing it. I believe most MSG symptoms are in people's heads, although I do realize a small fraction of the population have  issues.

[Kieran00001]

26 minutes ago, duanebigsby said:

To me the MSG argument is a lot like the gluten situation. Less than .01% of people are celiac but there is a huge

fad in being gluten-free. When I went home a couple years ago  I  was constantly hearing people talk about giving up gluten. Half of all products in the supermarkets were pushing it. I believe most MSG symptoms are in people's heads, although I do realize a small fraction of the population have  issues.

 

It appears to be dose specific with MSG with some groups suffering ill effects at lower doses than normal.

https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4910

[Jeremia Juxtaposed]

On 6/6/2018 at 8:56 AM, gwynt said:

My question is always did your mother/grandmother ever use MSG and did thier food taste great?

So why use it?

May be they did in Oxo, Bisto, Bovril,Worcester sauce, Marmite, Knorr stock cubes ...?????

[gwynt]

3 hours ago, Jeremia Juxtaposed said:

May be they did in Oxo, Bisto, Bovril,Worcester sauce, Marmite, Knorr stock cubes ...?????

My G.Mother would not have known what the were or where to buy them.

My mother made her own stock from bones and herbs from the garden.

But then I'm an old fart so I am going back a bit.

[Jeremia Juxtaposed]

8 minutes ago, gwynt said:

My G.Mother would not have known what the were or where to buy them.

My mother made her own stock from bones and herbs from the garden.

But then I'm an old fart so I am going back a bit.

That is very true ( making stock I mean, not you being an old fart) but how many people nowadays would make time to do it even if they knew how..??