Anyone who has ever watched the popular Internet short, Teen Girl Squad, the rather sadistic cartoon about various ways that the teens die (pecked to death by a bird, etc…really, it’s not as morbid as it seems) knows that one of the ways to die is to be MSG’d! I’m moving to Thailand next year and have been warned that one of the most common staples of cuisine is the dreaded MSG. Since I don’t want to die like a cartoon stick figure or fall asleep after like I do when I eat MSG-flavored cheap Chinese food, I thought I would learn about the health risks of this well-known, but little understood, food enhancer.
MSG, or Monosodium glutamate, is a naturally occurring amino acid, more specifically a sodium salt and a glutamic acid. Traditionally made from wheat gluten, MSG is now made by bacterial fermentation. In its pure form, the substance appears as a powder of white crystals and is used in the same way as table salt is used on foods.
Today, MSG is produced by fermenting starch, sugar beets, sugar cane or molasses and is marketed as a flavor enhancer. In the United States, MSG is most commonly associated with Chinese food restaurants, but is also used in commercially processed foods including the foods hocked in most fast food restaurants. Flavored beef jerky, potato chips and condiments like salad dressing also include MSG.
Other fermented products like soy sauce, steak sauce and Worcestershire sauce have levels of glutamate similar to those of foods with added MSG.
MSG wasn’t used in any types of cooking when the amino acid was isolated by scientist Kikunae Ikeda in 1907 and then patented by the Japanese company, Ajinomoto Corporation, in 1909. In East Asian cooking, MSG became an instant and natural substitution because this type of cooking had long used seaweed extract that contained concentrations of glutamic acid similar to those of MSG. MSG was introduced in the United States in 1947.
Originally dubbed the “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome,” the “MSG symptom complex” was introduced to popular vernacular when scientist Robert Ho Man Kwok recorded the symptoms of people who consumed American Chinese food. Symptoms in Kwok’s study, including migraine headaches, food allergies and hyperactivity in children and obesity, have been attributed to MSG in popular culture ever since. Although Kwok suggested other possibilities for the eaters’ symptoms, such as alcohol or sodium used in the food, MSG was pegged as the culprit.
Despite being the blame of many of these problems, most studies have found MSG to be safe for consumption. In 1995, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) concluded that MSG is safe for most people when eaten in reasonable doses. However, based on anecdotal evidence, the Federation also postulated that some people have an MSG intolerance that causes the “MSG symptom complex,” or the symptoms that Kwok described, as well as a worsening of asthmatic symptoms. In addition, author and food writer Harold McGee says that toxicologists say that MSG is harmless for most people even when eaten in large doses.
Based on this evidence, it seems that MSG has a bad rap for no reason and certainly won’t be killing teenagers, Asian food enthusiasts or me anytime soon.
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