Great article on MSG

[jpatter666]

Since I've seen several discussions on food and health on iTulip I thought I'd post this one here.

What do members think of MSG? This article purports that it actually isn't anywhere as near the problem that it has been out to be and is actually to be sought out.

Makes for interesting reading....

“The funny thing is that I can make some stupid ******* hipster dish with Dorito powder and serve it on roasted corn with ******* lime juice and people would eat the shit out of it,” Chang says. “If I say, ‘That’s got MSG in it,’ no one’s going to say, ‘Well, that sounds delicious.’ But if I put Doritos on it…for ****’s sake, Taco Bell’s marketing it directly.”

http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnmahoney/...la-for-success

[Chris]

Re: Great article on MSG

My tongue swells when I consume foods containing MSG and I normally can't sleep properly until at least a day after. That's enough for my body to give me the instruction to avoid it like the plague.

[Milton Kuo]

Re: Great article on MSG

Since I've seen several discussions on food and health on iTulip I thought I'd post this one here.

What do members think of MSG? This article purports that it actually isn't anywhere as near the problem that it has been out to be and is actually to be sought out.

This is a very interesting article and particularly relevant to me considering the types of foods I've eaten all my life.

Assuming that this article isn't bunk (nothing about it sets off alarm bells for me), it seems reasonable to believe that the concern over monosodium glutamate is unfounded. That said, before I had ever heard of MSG, I had dined in certain restaurants where I would consistently become unusually thirsty and feel discomfort in my chest shortly after the meal. The cause might have been some other ingredients but MSG was blamed due to knowledge that the restaurants used MSG and that the dishes were quite a bit more savory than homemade attempts at the dishes.

I can't help but wonder if the side effects attributed to MSG aren't analogous to the side effects of eating a dish where far too much salt is added. The difference being that food that is too salty becomes inedible. How does a dish taste if one uses too much MSG? It might actually be quite delicious! The key, perhaps, is to use just enough MSG to make a dish savory: to bring out and enhance its flavors.

Some of the restaurants where I experienced "MSG symptoms" were notorious for being fast and loose with the quantities of certain ingredients they use. I'm quite certain the chefs there thought nothing of throwing in some extra MSG to make certain that the dish was savory.

[tastymannatees]

Re: Great article on MSG

If my father ever caught even a whiff of MSG he would take to his bed with headaches and dizziness for three days - Not for everybody

[DSpencer]

Re: Great article on MSG

Interesting to hear about these anecdotal cases of MSG sensitivity. From the article:

Yet after that initial wave of research, many studies that followed came to sharply differing conclusions. These later studies had an advantage: Once the story was out, people began to self-diagnose as being sensitive to MSG. In several double-blind studies that administered either dosages of MSG or placebo to people who already claimed to experience “Chinese restaurant syndrome,” no statistically relevant increase in symptoms has been identified with those given real MSG over those given a placebo.
...
If anything resembling a consensus emerges from the tangle of research that follows Dr. Kwok’s letter, it’s that perhaps a very small number of humans may experience a mild reaction to eating large amounts of MSG, often on an empty stomach — a statement that could describe nearly everything else we eat. Yet no evidence suggesting anything resembling a proven allergy like gluten sensitivity, a diagnosed autoimmune disorder, has been found. The FDA, while acknowledging “short-term, transient and generally mild symptoms” in “some sensitive individuals who consume 3 grams or more of MSG without food,” has never removed MSG from its “generally recognized as safe” list. So why, after almost five decades of science that is vaguely inconclusive or inaccurate at worst, or definitively affirmative of MSG’s safety at best, does the ingredient remain divisive?

[jpatter666]

Re: Great article on MSG

If my father ever caught even a whiff of MSG he would take to his bed with headaches and dizziness for three days - Not for everybody

Interesting seeing how one of the issues the article points out is that natural MSG is found in many normal foods -- like tomatoes and milk.

[rtchoke]

Re: Great article on MSG

Interesting seeing how one of the issues the article points out is that natural MSG is found in many normal foods -- like tomatoes and milk.

http://www.westonaprice.org/msg-upda...anda-about-msg

Natural versus Manufactured Umami

Ajinomoto Co., Inc., the company that is promoting the idea that “umami” is the fifth taste, has known for years that it is L-glutamic acid that causes a perception of enhanced flavor. Consequently, in developing patents for the production of their product, monosodium glutamate, they have dismissed approaches that contain an excess of contaminants because contaminants would not contribute to flavor enhancement. The monosodium glutamate that they currently produce is advertised as having less than 1 percent contaminants.
In the 18 years during which the Truth in Labeling Campaign has extensively studied the subject of monosodium glutamate and the many hidden forms of the reactive component of monosodium glutamate, we have concluded that there is likely more than one biochemical mechanism that causes adverse reactions in MSG-sensitive people. However, we believe that the most common reason for adverse reactions may be an intolerance for one or more of the contaminants that invariably are produced when glutamic acid is freed from protein through adulteration, processing and/or fermentation.
If a food ingredient is untreated, unprocessed and unfermented, even if it contains free glutamic acid, it will only contain L-glutamic acid because higher organisms contain only L-glutamic acid. There will be no contaminants. Consequently, MSG-sensitive people can typically eat tomatoes off of the vine even though they contain free glutamic acid (umami), providing that they are not overripe, and cheeses such as Reggiano Parmesan that are made from raw milk rather than pasteurized milk or milk that has been cultured, and that are made from rennet rather than enzymes. Give the same person a domestic cheese made from pasteurized milk, cultured milk, and/or enzymes and an adverse reaction will often follow. (Possibly, any processed free glutamic acid (MSG) from fermentation of Reggiano Parmesan cheese is below the tolerance level of most MSG-sensitive people.)

[jpatter666]

Re: Great article on MSG

Interesting -- thanks rtchoke.

[reggie]

Re: Great article on MSG

Oh boy, don't get me started on the coordinated attack on public health. With Chloramine in the water, Bromide in our flour, soy proteins in just about all of our animal feeds, pasteurization of all nutrient-rich foods, and removal of essential animal fats, it's any wonder how the public functions. Raise your hand if you have or had digestive problems, lack energy, or have suffered from memory loss? I'd be surprised if there is anyone here who does not raise their hand.

The first point of attack from the food industry is (1) human digestive systems, which quickly develop leaky gut syndrome, leading to a dizzying array of dysfunction in the body; (2) thyroid function as well as the blocking of thyroid outputs, wreaking havoc on the entire endocrine system, which then impacts just about every other system in the body. Moreover, propaganda is employed to convince the public that low fat diets, vegetable oils, diets void of fatty meats, and low cholesterol are all steps toward better health. Finally, to compound matters, the medical industry is taught to 'treat' these "disorders" with pharmaceutical drugs, as practitioners have little to no understanding of nutrition and its relationship to human health.

It's worth watching this presentation for those interested in unwiring ...

[reggie]

Re: Great article on MSG

I'm going to add this Doctor's video presentation, as it's fairly comprehensive and helps to understand the extraonairily-wide deployment of chlorine, bromine, and flouride in our enviroment - all of which attack thyroid health and therefore attack the health of the entire human body. It's a long and mostly boring presentation by an awkward presenter (who also misspeaks about Galileo), but it's worth viewing in its entirety.

It's been a while since I've seen this presentation so I don't recall if the Doctor explicity mentions soy proteins, which dramatically raise estrogen levels in both men and women, which functions as a thyroid hormone blocker.