Do you use MSG (Mono sodium glutamate in cooking?

[Yarinda]

I I try to tell my wife to avoid adding it to the food. She sometimes add Ros-dee to the food.

The fact is that I am allergic to this white substance. When we eat out, even I insist to the waitor when we passing the order that " no adding MSG" ,

After coming home I usually got allergic symptom (swelling hand, itchy). Or in some good restaurants, I often got itchy and swelling hands. Anyone ever has the same problem as me? Seems like Thai people love this MSG so much.

[iancnx]

No!

[MZurf]

Both my wife and I react to too much MSG in the food. I get a warm, tingly (unpleasant) sensation down my neck and upper spine. The wifey gets the same, and in addition her face gets flushed.

Edited September 24, 2014 by MZurf

[ukrules]

It's funny what passes for an allergic reaction these days. There's a whole industry popping up around this kind of thing.

What you're describing is at best described as mildly irritating, it may or may not be related to the food. You've probably been eating this substance all of your life without realising it, I know for sure it's used in a lot of western foods for a long time.

Someone I know had an allergic reaction, he stopped breathing after being given some penicillin.

See the difference ? Mildly irritating situation vs allergic reaction.

[MZurf]

An allergic reaction does not have to be life threatening. Anyway, you're splitting hairs. Call it an allergy, intolerance or whatever. I've been around a few years and I know I react negatively to large amounts of MSG in the food.

[Soutpeel]

I get a warm feeling in my groin and then an erection for some bizarre reason...

[eeeya]

i like it, the food tastes better with it.

[ukrules]

i like it, the food tastes better with it.

It's very common, I was surprised to learn that I'd been eating it for years when I found it's used in things like the famous brand 'KP Dry roasted peanuts' in the UK.

I wonder if these are available in Thailand anywhere ?

[3NUMBAS]

many thai pastes from 7-11 and micromarts have it as an ingredient ,in small doses occasionally no problem .

you would need to eat tons of it to put your health at risk ,

maggi sauces have it in

Edited September 24, 2014 by 3NUMBAS

[Saastrajaa]

MSG iss in virtually ALL processed savory Western foods, often in excessive amounts: canned nuts, sausage, all manner of "luncheon meat," crackers, salad dressing, potato and corn chips, not to mention all fast food. Funny how the people who claim to have an "allergy" to it only experience flare-ups after eating in Asian restaurants...

No scientific research has ever proven the existence of so-called "MSG headache".

Edited September 24, 2014 by Saastrajaa

[eeeya]

in Australia its labelled as "flavor enhancer 621" and its in quite a lot of packaged foods.

[tartempion]

We often cook at home, we don' t have MSG and don' t use salt, all is fine.

After hitting a restaurant Sometimes

we both can't sleep at night, have a bad and dry taste in my mouth.

Wife says it's from the MSG they add in the food.

When we insist on no MSG we are mostly safe.

MSG harmless? I don't think so.

[T_Dog]

MSG usage always stirs controversy, but its effect on the brain has been scientically documented. I used to suffer from cluster headaches and MSG was a primary trigger.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2802046/

[daveAustin]

Funny how the people who claim to have an "allergy" to it only experience flare-ups after eating in Asian restaurants...

Because they put so much of it in there!!!! Without it, most food here would taste awful. But it's ironic that there's never the same apathy regard peanut sufferers and this stuff is a manufactured chemical! If you're not sensitive then bully for you, I'm sure you can eat and drink everything with ease, wow what it must be like to be perfect, I salute you all.

[ezzra]

Yes I do, almost every day... I must have lost half of my libido urges because of that, but hey,

I take good food on mediocre, mundane sex any time of the day...

[ghworker2010]

We went to the supermarket to get chicken stock cube and of course it contains MSG and palm oil. We ended up making our own chicken stock...

[fantom]

Without getting embroiled in a debate about reactions to MSG, does any one know of a simple test for monosodium glutamate that could be done prior to eating?

[Khunangkaro]

At home we don't use MSG.

Some time ago I realised that headaches happened after eating at certain restaurant. Next times ordered food without adding Msg. NO headaches afterwards anymore, except when I forgot to ask not to add MSG.

[fittobethaied]

Yarinda, you're absolutely correct. MSG is extremely toxic to some people and should be avoided at all costs. My wife and I actually carry a card with us that we can give to the waitress or cook to ask them not to add MSG to our food. It goes on to say that we are extremely allergic to MSG and may die in their restaurant if we consume it. My wife breaks out in hives for days, has trouble breathing, has heart palpitations and arrhythmia and has on occasion gone into anaphylactic shock. We have had to take my adult stepdaughter to the ER at least three times in the past three years. Unfortunately, as much as we insist that the MSG not be added to our food, many times the message never makes its way back to the cook, and other times they refuse to comply because they are afraid their food will not taste good unless they add the MSG. Many will simply lie to us and say that they have not added it when they actually have. Keep in mind that most of the local bottled sauces have MSG added and that is usually enough to trigger a reaction in some people. My wife shops carefully and is able to find these sauces that have no MSG added, so they are definitely out there if you'll just look around. Also, the manufacturers have conveniently come up with alternative names on their labels in an attempt to disguise the existence of MSG, so you must be very careful and learn to identify these counterfeit names.

Don't let the manufacturers fool you with their clever research that insists that MSG is harmless and don't take the advice of other posters who say that it is harmless to them. Listen to your own body and stay away from the stuff. It is a "silent killer"! See the following article for the truth about MSG.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/21/msg-is-this-silent-killer-lurking-in-your-kitchen-cabinets.aspx

[firefox999uk]

Yes I use it, (and with no known side affects)

Not in all food that I cook but sometimes in food that needs that certain lift.

The world biggest producer of msg is Ajinomoto which is a Japanese Company.

Ajinomoto translated means, Essence of Taste,

Have a Nice Day.

[Jimbolai]

Both my wife and I react to too much MSG in the food. I get a warm, tingly (unpleasant) sensation down my neck and upper spine. The wifey gets the same, and in addition her face gets flushed.

Thank you. Tingly. That is the word I was looking for. I sometimes get it on the left side of my face. Unpleasant and it started to get bothersome. I will try to find some correlation between the tingly sensation and where and when and what I eat. It is somewhat disturbing having lived in the Far East for 10 years and lately developing this problem.

[Lobber]

Utter shit, should be banned

IF food id cooked with fresh quality ingredients there's NO need to enhance the flavour,

Its only used to enhance the taste of old rotten food that poorer folk have to eat (and some Hi So's in posh restaurants )

Edited September 25, 2014 by Lobber

[Kasset Tak]

The problem with MSG is that it's added to most prepared foods and snacks that you can buy, you can avoid it only if you buy fresh vegetables and meet (no sausages and things like that). I'm not sure but my Thai friend (she is dietitian at a provincial hospital) told me that it's basically in all sauces from fish sauce to ketchup, all canned products and most snacks that you can buy in Thailand.

But I have to admit that if the food taste awful all you need to do is add some MSG! And I have tried some ordinary Thai food that usually have MSG cooked without MSG and it tasted just awful, example:

Som that Phara

Gang som

Kanom jin sai nam jaa

Personally I try use as little as possible of MSG and I stay away from light products as many of them contains modified fats and sugars like sukralos that is basically a close relative to DDT.

[doublephil]

MSG - mono-sodium glutamate is the sodium salt of Glutamic Acid - and is one of the non-essential amino acids that is very common in both plants and animals - and which we eat every day in lots of different foods and also our bodies manufacture it. It is abundant in our bodies and acts an essential neurotransmitter in our brains and central nervous sysyem. When we digest protein the glutamate is released - often as the sodium salt (msg) because our food is sodium rich. If we never eat protein containing glutamate, our bodies would manufacture it from other proteins and amino acids because it is essential for healthy brain function. It is impossible to be "allergic" to it in the normal sense as it is an essential chemical for life - but in rare cases it can act as a neurotoxin and disrupt normal brain and nervous system functioning.

Adding msg to food is generally irrelevant - as there is probably more of it in the natural food than is added by any food manufacturer or chef in a restaurant. The result of excessive consumption of msg in a short period of time is to excite the brain and nervous system - making one feel restless, agitated, excited, etc. - a bit like taking a big shot of caffeine from tea or coffee. That is why many people can not sleep at night after eating a meal with higher amounts of msg. This is not an allergic reaction - it is a natural reaction to having temporary elevated amounts of a neurotransmitter swishing around your body - and the effect soon passes.

Most scientific experiments that show msg to be highly disruptive or damaging to health have been done with animal studies, not humans, and have been done with hugely excessive amounts of msg that no-one in real life would ever be able to eat - unless you take an entire pack of msg and just gulped it all down in one go.

Except in rare cases - where people have pre-existing neural endocrine disorders that are adversely affected - msg in food is completely natural and harmless

[Keesters]

Tried it. Couldn't tell the difference with or without so threw it away and haven't bothered since.

You guys must have seen a Thai dress up a bowl of noodles. First a huge spoon of sugar. Next a teaspoon or two of chilli power/flakes. Then comes the fish sauce. Then perhaps some vinegar, crushed peanuts. All gets stirred then tasted with a lot of lip smacking. Not satisfied, they hardly ever seem to be, a little bit more of some of the previous condiments, more lip smacking, more condiments etc until they seem satisfied they got it right.

[Bonefish]

Yarinda, you're absolutely correct. MSG is extremely toxic to some people and should be avoided at all costs. My wife and I actually carry a card with us that we can give to the waitress or cook to ask them not to add MSG to our food. It goes on to say that we are extremely allergic to MSG and may die in their restaurant if we consume it. My wife breaks out in hives for days, has trouble breathing, has heart palpitations and arrhythmia and has on occasion gone into anaphylactic shock. We have had to take my adult stepdaughter to the ER at least three times in the past three years. Unfortunately, as much as we insist that the MSG not be added to our food, many times the message never makes its way back to the cook, and other times they refuse to comply because they are afraid their food will not taste good unless they add the MSG. Many will simply lie to us and say that they have not added it when they actually have. Keep in mind that most of the local bottled sauces have MSG added and that is usually enough to trigger a reaction in some people. My wife shops carefully and is able to find these sauces that have no MSG added, so they are definitely out there if you'll just look around. Also, the manufacturers have conveniently come up with alternative names on their labels in an attempt to disguise the existence of MSG, so you must be very careful and learn to identify these counterfeit names.

Don't let the manufacturers fool you with their clever research that insists that MSG is harmless and don't take the advice of other posters who say that it is harmless to them. Listen to your own body and stay away from the stuff. It is a "silent killer"! See the following article for the truth about MSG.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/21/msg-is-this-silent-killer-lurking-in-your-kitchen-cabinets.aspx

I get severe and very scary increases in heartbeat from MSG and avoid all restaurants in Thailand, except the ones where I know the chef personally. MSG is in all their soups and sauces, from the street stalls to the most expensive restaurants. Cooking at home with quality fresh ingredients is the best way to avoid MSG.

[cooked]

Tried it. Couldn't tell the difference with or without so threw it away and haven't bothered since.

You guys must have seen a Thai dress up a bowl of noodles. First a huge spoon of sugar. Next a teaspoon or two of chilli power/flakes. Then comes the fish sauce. Then perhaps some vinegar, crushed peanuts. All gets stirred then tasted with a lot of lip smacking. Not satisfied, they hardly ever seem to be, a little bit more of some of the previous condiments, more lip smacking, more condiments etc until they seem satisfied they got it right.

I have to agree with that, I can't taste vanilla and I can't taste a difference with MSG. I tried sprinkling one side of a home made pizza with the stuff, the committee here agreed that there was no difference.

[Pii Kate]

A friend of mine gets headaches and once fainted. I react with a rise in my blood pressure. Not so good.

[Bonefish]

The MK chain of restaurants has banned MSG and is certified MSG-free. Their food is delicous, which proves the point that MSG is not needed to make food taste good. And most customers in MK restaurants are Thai.

[h90]

Both my wife and I am not allergic, but we never get the idea to put some chemicals into food.

Also we avoid eating outside as the quality is usually not OK.