Ask for no MSG the next time you go out for dinner...

[dotpoom]

I don't (knowingly) use salt but often thought it might not be such a bad idea considering the amount of salt lost from my body through sweating

[sikishrory]

I do not eat a lot of salt but every time we go to a Chinese restaurant or even Indian

the meat is soft I cook my meat for hours never get it like that so what is wrong whit it ?

Chinese and indians love using that tenderising powder stuff.

[NickJ]

I cant sleep if I get to much of it. Was at a favorite restaurant of mine and after eating the wife and I went hime and were both up all night. I asked the owner abd she laughed said she had spilled the bottle in the sauce.

My maid in Hong Kong did the same once. It also makes me super thirsty and real angry. I avoid it.

[SantiSuk]

According to a gazillion scientific studies, nearly everything that we consume is unhealthy. So I don't worry about it anymore, just eat what I like. And exercise.

Agreed. Over the last half century food science has been completely discredited IMO with it's repeated "X is bad for you"/a few years later "X is not bad for you" or even "X is good for you".

Everything in moderation, including quantities seems to be the best approach. Since Thai cooks seem not to adopt that policy it would be consistent with that policy to ask for no MSG sometimes if most of your food is eat-out.

[AlQaholic]

Monosodium glutamate is found in tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, potatoes, mushrooms, and other vegetables and fruits.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given MSG its generally recognized as safe (GRAS) designation.

[ThaiWai]

[quote

Not wanting it added to your food is fine however there is no scientific evidence that it causes allergic reactions or headaches.

Exactly. Just another bandwagon to jump on. I bet the OP is anti-gluten also (for absolutely no reason at all like most anti-gluten f-tards)

[UPDEHSOI]

So what is wrong with MSG?

Edited June 16, 2016 by UPDEHSOI

[ghworker2010]

I am allergic to MSG but there are many more who have no side effects from MSG. It is a standard ingredient in any Thai food and quite common in real Chinese food. Don't quite see why you think you can change the world. If you have scientific proof of the harm MSG can do people then I might sit up and listen but otherwise you are just wasting your time.

What a dumb comment ''f you have scientific proof of the harm MSG can do people then I might sit up and listen but otherwise you are just wasting your time''. Mallyrd says that she is allergic to MSG. Who needs scientific proof. ha ha

[al007]

Very simple no MSG in Thailand THEN NO FOOD

[kovaltech]

I am allergic to MSG but there are many more who have no side effects from MSG. It is a standard ingredient in any Thai food and quite common in real Chinese food. Don't quite see why you think you can change the world. If you have scientific proof of the harm MSG can do people then I might sit up and listen but otherwise you are just wasting your time.

MSG is not a "standard" Thai ingedrient, but it became a bad habit using it...

Its an taste enhancer.

Not so healthy to use it

You will enjoy your food and your healthy life much more without it...

[Roomuck]

The OP says in his last sentence that "we need to educate the Thais"

I think he would better off educating himself..

He could learn a lot from the clever Thai people if he could get over his superiority complex.

[tomyumchai]

i stopped reading @ "we need to educate the thais"....

[Pinot]

There is actually a lot of scientific evidence that MSG is bad for our health.. just a few references at the end of this article.

http://www.foodrenegade.com/msg-dangerous-science/

I have had one very bad reaction to an overdose of MGS when I lived in the UK and had eaten at a Chinese restaurant. That night I woke with crippling stomach cramps... which continued the next day.. so I had to see a GP. He told me it was MSG poisoning.

I have also had lesser reactions to MSG here in Thailand, after eating 'junk food' from local markets... where only a few minutes after eating it I get tightness across my chest and pain / aching in my shoulders.

I always tell the food vendors and restaurants not to add the MSG. I know they don't add it.. as I can see them making it and they don't scoop loads of the white MSG powder into it. I am sure I still eat the stuff in other foods, but its only the very high doses of it that make me feel ill, so I don't worry about eating it at low levels.

I think I may just have an allergy to it. It may not be 'dangerous' for most people who don't have an allergy to it.

"Human studies have failed to produce significant symptoms, even in those who claim to suffer."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/08/25/no-msg-isnt-bad-for-you/

[jossthaifarang]

According to a gazillion scientific studies, nearly everything that we consume is unhealthy. So I don't worry about it anymore, just eat what I like. And exercise.

I take it you also choose not to eat some things.

Just like I and many others don't want MSG added to the food we eat.

Odd though, whenever the subject of MSG comes up we have posts from people who might otherwise regard themselves defenders of free choice objecting to others making a personal choice not to have MSG added to their food.

MSG is a normal condiment as salt is.

There are taste receptors for MSG in our mouths as there are for salt or sugar.

If you or anyone else don't want MSG, that's fine, just order your food accordingly and select your products accordingly.

But there is something wrong with saying "we need to educate the Thais" and with lobbying others to boycott MSG just because some people are allergic to it.

Too late, many Thai restaurants have already got the message that they have customers who do not want MSG in their food and clearly state that they do not add MSG.

I've never ever had any objection from the staff in Thai restaurants when I ask for my food to be prepared without adding MSG, though I have noticed a hard core blow-hard response here on TVF from people who get really wound up about others not wanting MSG in their food whenever the subject comes up.

As bamukloy has so rightly pointed out, It's already in all the sauces marinades etc.. So asking them not to add any is probably a bit of a joke to them.

[whaleboneman]

I have scientific proof that too much MSG makes people argumentative. Just read this topic.

But I also know that too much MSG causes migraines for two of my friends. Once they started avoiding it, the migraines disappeared.

I also avoid it because it makes my left arm extremely itchy when I eat too much of it.

[DrTuner]

MSG makes everything taste like it was put through a blender. I like my flavors distinct.

[Hammock]

All Japan is eating MSG and have the highest life expectancy in the world

[impulse]

Not wanting it added to your food is fine however there is no scientific evidence that it causes allergic reactions or headaches.

You can publish all the scientific studies you want. I know what it does to me. And I don't like what it does to me.

[masuk]

I am allergic to MSG but there are many more who have no side effects from MSG. It is a standard ingredient in any Thai food and quite common in real Chinese food. Don't quite see why you think you can change the world. If you have scientific proof of the harm MSG can do people then I might sit up and listen but otherwise you are just wasting your time.

I think what you say is correct, as MSG is not entirely synthetic. Tomatoes are high in MSG.

However, in Australia, Asian restaurants usually advertise that they do not add MSG to their food.

From the Mayo Clinic" Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a flavor enhancer commonly added to Chinese food, canned vegetables, soups and processed meats. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has classified MSG as a food ingredient that's "generally recognized as safe," but its use remains controversial. For this reason, when MSG is added to food, the FDA requires that it be listed on the label.

[sir charles IV]

This guy probably is in the wrong part of the world. The chefs put whatever they like in food and the message to the customer is " sure no problem". There is a chance that the food you ordered will be tampered with if you make an ass of yourself by asking this or that. Usually they expect you to order, they'll make it as they see fit, you eat, pay, say thanks and leave. Salt is good for you especially with children. It helps with nerve and muscle development.

Edited June 16, 2016 by sir charles IV

[pattjock]

MSG is considered bad by the "broader public" because there is no name for it in English except menacing initials or "monosodium glutamate".

Salt is sodium chloride - if water was called hydrogen dioxide it would be considered harmful as well.

In Japan it is called umami and in Thailand sometimes "aroy".

As our mouth has special receptors for MSG, it is a fifth taste in addition to sweet, salty, sour and bitter.

MSG occurs naturally in tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, potatoes, mushrooms and other vegetables.

Maybe we should just try to give it a nice name.

Our skin has special receptors for pain, which does not mean that it is good to constantly trigger these.

Arsenic, lead and many other dangerous substances also occurs naturally in tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, mushrooms and other vegetables, this does not mean that it is good to add spoonful’s of these substances on your food.

[alofthailand]

MSG is a natural flavour enhancer. The OP is very patronising regarding educating through Thais. As for salt - we need to have a high intake sometimes in the tropics to avoid heat stroke caused by dehydration and salt loss.

[augustwest]

So what is wrong with MSG?

Nothing wrong with Brussel Sprouts, but I don't eat them.

Brussels sprouts are great just par boil them and cut in halves and fry face down in butter. Anyone one ever seen them here in CM

[claffey]

'We need to educate the Thais'

An imperialistic and arrogant remark. Who are 'we'? Why should 'we' educate another race of people? Don't they have their own cultures and methods of thinking? Should 'we' impose our will on the whole world? Western people can be so arrogant at times. (I assume you mean western people when you used the term 'we'?) If you want everything to be the same as 'home' you are in the wrong place...

[HerbalEd]

Besides any MSG the cook may him/herself add to the food, MSG is ubiquitous in the soy sauce, fish sauce and the many other sauces Thai's love to use in their cooking. MSG is inescapable in Asia.

Indeed some people are allergic to MSG and so-called Chinese Restaurant Syndrome is fairly common in hospital emergency rooms.

[mikiea]

So what is wrong with MSG?

if you have to ask ... the damage may already be done . after consumption a short term ultra high blood pressure will result until food is digested . this leads to soooo many almost countless strokes outs in Asia as they consume over 90% of msg made . if your food tastes a little salty , it is from MSG . so many side effects of MSG beside enhancing food taste . asking not to put any on your food is useless unless you eat stir-fry or broiled foods as it i already added to all sauces and gravy's , curries , etc . . google side effects .

[xylophone]

There is much on the Internet about MSG, and indeed much has been posted on TV about it over the years.

I can, and do eat just about anything, including those foods which include naturally occurring monosodium glutamate and have absolutely no problems with them whatsoever.

However I have experienced a couple of bad episodes of dry throat, headache, tight chest and the feeling that I was coming down with the flu or similar at a particular Thai restaurant here (I will say that they disappeared within a couple of hours).

Twice I was a guest of a Thai lady and her friends and twice I had this experience, so the next time I was asked to go along I purposely sat alongside of the "semi-open" kitchen and what I saw really surprised me, because halfway through the meal preparation, the cook dipped his ladle into a large bowl of MSG and put what looked to be about half a cupful in the pan.

I had the same bad experience and vowed never to eat there again. Have eaten at other Thai restaurants and have not experienced this at all.

I think it's a bit like other naturally occurring substances in food which affect some people and not others and this could include things like caffeine and lactose, for example.

Anyway it seems like even the experts cannot agree, but I do know what affects me and excess doses of it certainly do.

“In 1986, FDA's Advisory Committee on Hypersensitivity to Food Constituents concluded that monosodium glutamate poses no threat to the general public but that reactions of brief duration might occur in some people”

“At a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in 1990, the delegates had a split opinion on the issues related to neurotoxic effects from excitotoxic amino acids found in some additives such as monosodium glutamate….”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7854587

[gandalf12]

Nothing is mentioned in this article:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/monosodium-glutamate/faq-20058196

[mizztraveller]

I am allergic to MSG but there are many more who have no side effects from MSG. It is a standard ingredient in any Thai food and quite common in real Chinese food. Don't quite see why you think you can change the world. If you have scientific proof of the harm MSG can do people then I might sit up and listen but otherwise you are just wasting your time.

If you're allergic to MSG you need to ask for no soy sauce or fish sauce either as MSG is contained in both of these.

[impulse]

Let me tell you a story - my grandfather was a great Chinese food hater.

My mother (not Chinese nor Asian) once cooked a soup, and my grandfather ate it and asked for more, complementing my mother on the great soup. Then he asked about the recipe and as soon as my mother told him the recipe is Chinese, he began to gag and almost puked, it was so bad he had to go to the bathroom. Everybody laughed at him.

Sometimes some nutter propaganda is enough to cause such things.

On the other hand, sometimes it takes a few minutes for food poisoning to kick in...

Even if the food tasted great.

I couldn't eat vanilla ice cream or corn for a year when I was a kid. 'Cause that's what came back up when it hit me. Whatever it was, Today, I love them both.

Edited June 16, 2016 by impulse